The Brief - To say that Longton is the Neck End of Stoke on Trent
Stoke on Trent is famous for the pottery industry. Across the 6 towns of Stoke on Trent, pottery Kilns lined the skyline. Black dust from the kilns can still been seen across many buildings in Stoke.
The main road that was used to transfer pottery (which connected all the 6 towns of stoke and still used to this day) ended in Longton. Many locals called this the end road from stoke as it had pottery kilns lined up across each side of the road.
The road is more famously known as neck end,, making Longton....
"The Neck End of Stoke-on-Trent"
Below is my final piece which has been hand made every step of the way. There was no easy short cut, and it took much longer than expected, but as a first attempt at any kind of ceramic work, im proud of what i have achieved.
Below are the steps that have been used to create this pot.
First things first, because my pot was such a huge heavy project, a mould had to be created. This mould would basically be what my pot would look life after its been casted.
Due to never having experience in Ceramics, i had a lot of useful guidence from the technician.
Below is the first stage of pouring the plaster.
After the plaster had set (took roughly half an hour) it was hard enough to begin to mould.
Below is moulding the shape of the model
The image below is what my pot looked like without its top half decorated. Decoration was a very time consuming process as every single brick had to be worked into.
After the decoration had been completed, the cast for my mould had to be made. In the end, i had 5 parts to my cast due to the detail. This again was a very time consuming process as the pot was a very difficult shape to work around.
The image below is what my cast looked like inside. You can see the attention to detail and how the detail had been worked in.
Finally when all the cast was completed it needed to be made. Due to the size of my pot, it had to be strapped together so it wouldnt burst under its weight.
The first attempt of my pot was unsuccesful, due to the fact that it had indeed buckled under its weight. A very furstrating situation, as it resulted in having to be recast again.
When it buckled it actually burst open the space which should of been a door, this had to be cut out to take pressure of the pot.
The image below is what the pot looked like after the door was taken off. You can see that its slightly sunken.
A recast was made.
Thanks for looking
