About Transferer
to design and deliver a two-year programme with early secondary students to develop greater oracy and critical thinking skills. Through explorations of clay and ceramics students built new relationships, learnt how to structure and communicate their ideas, increased their vocabularies and learnt about arts careers.
Learn more about our Transferer programme.
Transferer Toolkit techniques: Coiling
Coiling is a basic technique of hand-building, using long ropes of clay to build up the walls of a pot.
You will need:
- Clay
- Cutting wire
- Board
- Cut a piece of clay from the bag, no bigger than your fist.
- Squeeze the clay into a sausage shape. Try to keep the thickness as even as possible.
- Roll the clay on the board using the palms of your hands. Focus on gently pulling the clay outward rather than pressing down into the board.
- Press the first coil into a spiral to form the base of your piece. Once the base is the size you want, start working the coils on top of one another. Press down firmly so the clay sticks, but avoid pinching so you don’t make your walls too thin. Continue this until you are happy with the height of your piece.
Note: This technique works best with softer clay. If you are rolling out a lot of coils at once, we recommend covering them to keep them from drying out.
Watch the other videos in the series on our resources page.
Support
Transferer is funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of their Arts-based Learning Fund. This fund supports work which enables pupils in formal education settings, particularly those experiencing systemic inequality or disadvantage, to thrive through engagement with high quality, arts-based learning.
Learn more about Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Arts-based Learning Fund.