How To Use Clay Tools

Homemade clay tools can be as simple as a using a credit card for a throwing rib or as complex as constructing your own homemade extruder.

How to use clay tools. It is an essential tool and used very often. Optional clay Tools you may want to add. Draw the shape you want onto a piece of plastic like a gift card or packaging from takeout and cut it out with scissors.

I used traditional shapes but you could cut the plastic to make whatever texture you want. Just make sure you dont push the clay out of the cutters too fast or hard and your clay is not too soft or the plunger will go right through the clay. Although not strictly necessary this is the one investment that I would recommend.

You can also get five different shapes individually each with five different sizes to choose from. Because the clay is marked evenly youve just created your own unit of measure. Rib tools are traditionally made of wood and are used for cutting and scraping clay but theyre easily made out of old gift cards.

Just roll out a snake of clay taking care to make it an even diameter. Pick about 5 to 10 toothpicks and tight them together. In our Making Clay Tools archive youll also find out how to make your own extrusion dies from old credit cards and how to make some cool pots using the extruder.

Ensure you have a section of table thats big enough to work on remember you dont need a whole table depending on the size of your work. Its cheap and easy isnt it. Now use your razor blade to cut the snake so many teeth apart.

Tampers are ideal for leveling dirt and mulch after planting shrubs and small trees leveling and packing paver base before installing a paver walkway or patio or even smoothing out gravel after heavy rainfall. There are instructions on the package. Its very important when working with clay to use your hands and fingers as much as possible only switching to a tool when your hands cannot achieve something specific.