I think you're really going to enjoy the first project of this year I call these things wham plates because we're going to take this wood block and wham it into the clay on top of a piece of foam and you're going to end up with these really beautiful plates that have a really nice indent on the inside we're going to use these plates as a vehicle for surface decoration if you're in my pottery one class we're going to learn inlay and my pottery two classes we're going to learn mocha diffusion and shellac resist can't wait to get started to begin your plate the first thing you're going to need to do is decide what size you want to make we have two basic sides we have a rectangle in a larger square and you want to pick before you start so go ahead and choose either rectangular square and then find a paper that matches then I want you also notice that they have two different sides to the blocks one side of the block is textured or burnt the burnt adds a texture to the block and the other side is smooth and they can be used in multiple ways you can use them flat or on their edges you also notice that they have a number one or number two on them I would start with the number one the number ones are easier to use and after you've used the number one then you can move on and try the number two when making your paper template I like to fold it in half one way and then fold it again and a half the other direction this is going to help you make it symmetrical and it's going to help you make a really nice looking plate ready to cut it you want to find the open edge that's the side you want to cut if you cut the folded edge you'll get multiple pieces which is what we don't want so go ahead and find that open edge and then keep your design simple if you get too many tight creases in it it can fold and do weird things when you're pushing the plate into the phone so keep it simple simple is good in this case when you're making your paper template you want it to be about one and a half to three inches bigger than the block are using now this first draw here I noticed it was a little bit on the big side which isn't such a big deal but it can make your plate flop sort of when you're building it so I'm just cutting it down here a little bit so it's a little more manageable after you try this a few times you really get the idea of what is going to be work and what won't work now that you've got your paper template cut out go ahead and roll out a slab on the slide roller then use your knife to cut around the template when doing this you want to keep the knife in a vertical up and down position and avoid cutting at an angle cutting in an angle make sharp edges that you'll need to clean up later now that you've got it all cut out use your sponge or your finger and it's a little bit of water and really get that slab smooth and you see here I'm holding my finger at an angle our goal is to get the edge round if we have sharp 90-degree cuts on our slab it will chip when it's in the bone-dry stage so we want to get those edges around spending a little extra time on it right now is going to save you 20-30 minutes later on in the bone-dry stage so get this thing smooth now and it's going to save you tons of time now we're at the fun part we get to take that wood block and we're going to Center it up on our slab and now you can see the slab is sitting on a piece of foam you get that's a must it has to be on the piece of foam and I'm going to try to Center this up now I found that my eye and most students I are perfect and you will need to measure very little but it doesn't hurt to go ahead and use your finger as a measurement tool you can see how I'm using my thumb and my finger to figure out how wide it is and then I'm checking in the other side yeah my thumb doesn't quite there's a little space right there so I need to push the block ever so slightly but nine times out of ten your eye is going to be perfect and right on you won't need to move it at all but it doesn't like I said doesn't hurt to measure twice now I call them land plates because you're going to use the wood block and you're going to push down on it but you're not actually going to push down with a lot of fast force it's a slow force so you can see how I'm pushing it down and it's super important not to let go the block the block will fling up off the foam and hit you right in the face so you want to avoid that push down and let go slow put your hand underneath the foam block flip the whole thing over and take the foam off now because I use the textured block you're going to see me use my finger to push the clay into the texture I you only do this if you're using a textured block if you're using this new side of the of the block you do not want to do this so I'm using my finger to push it into the texture here and you do want to avoid the edges because you can share the clay off on the edge of the block again you only do this if you're using the textured side of the block if you're using the smooth side you would not do this and now once I've done this I can use my stamp to stamp my name on it and then I'm going to go put my um in front of the fan for about five to ten minutes it needs to go in front of the fan so it can dry and not flop when you flip it over after about five minutes you're about ready to take that block out so when you flip it over go ahead make sure you support it you still want to be very careful with it so it doesn't flop so flip it over set it down on a hard surface and then gently remove that block and you're going to find out how awesome that plate is look at how good it looks the texture came through perfect from the wood block and I very little cleanup to do then we're going to put it in our tubs and put it on our shelf so it can dry to the leather hard stage for next class and I'll show you how to clean them up that make as many as you want and have fun forgot one thing if you're making a large plate you're going to want to learn something called the pottery flip I'm going to put a board on the bottom of the pot and the board is on the top of the bodice well I'm supporting it with both sides and I'm going to flip it over this makes it very easy to flip over large forms without distorting them and it's a must learn if you're going to make any larger size plates there's the pottery flip and we have this beautiful lamb plate that we're going to decorate I can't wait