Making Ceramic Yarn Bowls

My husband and I recently celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary. I’m a sucker for traditions and according to the internet, 8 years is both Bronze and Pottery. Each year, we switch out our wedding bands for that year’s material, so we went from copper to bronze. During our Staycation (thank you COVID for not letting us travel), we did a crafting activity at a local ceramic store to highlight the Pottery portion of the 8-year…and let’s just say… I got bit by the ceramics bug.

While searching the shelves for what we would decorate, I spotted a yarn bowl. “You have yarn bowls??” – I asked the owner. He replied that was a custom carving from an existing vase mold so I’d have to wait a few days if that’s what I wanted to glaze. Well, I’ve never been known to be a patient person, so my husband and I both picked a mug and had fun during our anniversary painting session.

I couldn’t get the yarn bowl out of my head. And thank you internet because I started researching slip molds and stumbled upon Glaser Ceramics that offered a yarn bowl mold! When we went to pick up our glazed mugs, I asked the owner if that would be something I could do myself. They confirmed that the mold producer was a reputable one (the ceramics industry has gone from 100’s of cast makers to single digits) and that I could always cast my own mold and bring it in for them to fire.

Yes. DIY has been my mantra and they literally said I could do-it-myself. I bought the mold that day and CraftilyKori Yarn bowls was now a thing. I had done pottery in high school (hand-built and the wheel) so how hard could it be?

Okay, I jumped in with both feet and had no idea what I was doing. I got the mold in the mail (paying 30% shipping cause the thing was almost 30lbs) and when I opened the box, I thought there was a section missing. You see, I was imagining two pieces – inside and outside – where you poured the clay inbetween.

I actually looked at my husband and thought, “what the heck did I just buy??” So, then I hit the internet…”How to pour slip molds” I found this article and this video and noticed they didn’t have the interior piece like I had expected. Alright, alright, alright…I think I may have all the parts….

Pour the slip in, wait a while, pour the slip out, wait even longer…and wha-la! Yarn bowl. Well, sort of. Again, this is where my husband and I were both scratching our heads because it was just a big tube of clay and it literally said “cut out” in the J-hook and the hole. My husband is an engineer and he was going into design-efficiency mode – where’s the insert?

Exact-o knife and turn-table to the rescue! After about a half-hour of cutting and smoothing we had what actually resembled a yarn bowl. At this stage, we had what is known as “Greenware” which is pottery that is unfired and very fragile. Out to the garage it went! Making sure no cats could knock it over while it continued to dry.

Each day, we’d pour a mold, cut a mold…pour a mold…cut a mold. We kept experimenting with what would help the J-hook stay structurally sound and not shrink away from the edge as it dried. I was pretty surprised to learn that as the greenware dries it shrinks about 7%. For this yarn bowl from first out of the mold to greenware – it decreased 15mm in diameter!

During this first week of my new yarn bowl adventure, my husband went on a trip and I was left to fend for myself. The slip of 3 gallons was HEAVY! Probably about 50lbs so it took some creativity of moving it to smaller buckets so I could even lift it by myself. Also, I could not figure out the ratchet strap that holds the two pieces of the mold together for the life of me (even the Amazon reviews confirmed this was a pain-point) so I switched to bungee cords instead. I pulled off a few more yarn bowls and by the time the weekend came, it was back to the ceramics store to get them fired. As I was showing the owner my very own greenware, I mistakenly pulled one up by the weak spot (the J-hook) and it broke. So sad! He told me he could fix it and when I got them back, I was so happy because he was able to piece it back together! This will be the one I keep for myself! My very first yarn bowl 🙂

When I got the fired pieces back, I had four bisque pieces that were ready to be glazed. I picked up some glaze and more slip when I picked up the fired pieces. This way, I could paint them at home and bring them back with the next set of greenware. Each night, I’d pour a mold and paint a bisque. My own little ceramics factory!

Well, then things got interesting. I was trying to figure out how I could add my logo to the greenware piece so people would know it was a product I had made from start to finish. The ceramic owner mentioned a stamp…. Yes! I have a 3d printer, I can make a stamp!

This was not as easy as I had hoped. I’m still learning my 3d printer, and let’s just say I had some failed attempts. First, I didn’t include a brim so when I went to check on my print, it was dancing in a weirdly shaped ball around the print-bed. Second, my logo was too complicated and it ate the bottom of the bowl right out. Third, the stamp was too high. By the fourth (or fifth, I lost count) I finally got it to work!

Now, I had some practice and a bit of a rhythm. I categorized the bowls by greenware and cone firing with labels for the ceramics store owners. We took our second round this weekend and added a few finishing touches to the first round. I got a little creative with my Cricut and some paint markers to add my logo on the non-stamped ones.

My vision is to have a different “series” and each series will have at least 4 pieces. There will be horse-hair, crystal-glaze, chalk-painted, and sager over the next few weeks.