(light guitar music) Welcome to the Innovation Hub.

I'm Hannah.

I'll be your pottery instructor today.

(light guitar music) (whistling with music) Here we are in the clay studio.

Now let's get started.

Today, we're going to make a pottery vase.

So I'm going to show you what materials you'll need.

First, you'll need a rolling pin.

Then you'll need some slab sticks.

A ruler will work, but you'll need two of them.

Then you'll need a couple of wooden spoons, and you will need a scoring tool.

This is a specific ceramics tool, and I have a needle tool.

Then you'll also need a rib of some sort.

It can be wooden or plastic.

Any material is fine.

A cup of water, a wire tool or a string.

And a piece of paper, marker and some scissors.

You'll also need your clay.

Anything you can find at Hobby Lobby or any craft store.

Then you'll also need some kind of plate and your acrylic paint, as well as some paintbrushes.

(light music) First, I'm cutting the clay with my string so you can just cut straight from a block of clay.

You're going to cut evenly across it, though, maybe an inch and a half thick.

Then you're going to lay your clay in between your two slab sticks.

Start in the center and roll out towards the edges.

And try not to get too fast towards the edges because it likes to wrap around.

Now that the clay is rolled out, we're going to use our rib tool to smooth out the clay.

(light music) So the next step is going to be drawing a vase shape and then you will need a template for the sidewall.

So just cut a strip of paper and now we can line this up along the edge to get an idea of how tall the side needs to be.

These will be your two templates.

So you have your clay ready and you're going to cut out these shapes.

So I'm going to do that with my needle tool, and you're just going to trace around it.

And now that you have your clay pieces cut out, we're going to start putting everything together.

First, you'll need your scoring tool and your water and one of your paint brushes.

So to score the edges, we're just going to go along the side here and we're going to score, which is just making grooves in the clay.

And do this to each side.

Now for your side pieces, you're actually going to score on top.

Now, attaching clay pieces is a two step process.

So we always do scoring and slipping.

So you're going to paint water on to the two side pieces and all the scoring marks that you just made.

Try not to smooth out the grooves when you're doing this, though.

And now that your pieces are scored and flipped, you can start attaching.

So I'm going to leave it laying down and I'm just going to press this against the scoring marks that are on the side of the base.

And you really want to press it against there the whole way, pinching it against the clay.

(light music with whistling) And you can leave your base as a flat piece like this, or you can actually shape it by pushing that belly out just a little bit more.

And finally, you'll use your rib tool to smooth everything out.

So now that you've smoothed out your base shape, we need to attach a bottom.

Make sure that you have used the rib tool on it before you cut out, though.

And then you're just going to use your base as a template by setting it on top and tracing around it.

You might think that your bottom is already stuck, but you'll have to peel it off because it's really important that we score and slip every piece that we're attaching.

And if pottery is not your thing, you can come to the Innovation Hub, where we have classes in 3D printing, laser cutting, tie dye, screen printing and much more.

After you've scored everything, we're going to add our water to one of these pieces, and then we're going to attach the bottom.

Line your bottom up, and press so you can smooth that out completely or you can leave some of your marks behind.

Now we're going to paint and I recommend a light color of paint.

So I'm going to paint mine white.

It's going to become really fragile as it dries out.

So the paint will help secure some of that.

So with this, you can paint as many colors as you want.

Just remember each color you add needs to dry completely before you add the second.

Now I'm painting a design inspired by plants.

It's kind of this green color and some swirls, but you can paint anything you'd like.

And remember, if you have any problems with this project, you can always come see us at the Innovation Hub.

I hope that you'll try this project at home.

And I hope you had fun today.

Goodbye.