Picking the right corporate gift that reflects the image of your organization can be an enormous task. Rather than buying some standard item, today’s companies are opting for more individualized and arty clay pottery creations. Tangible personal gifts give a company character and make recipients, such as employees or clients, happy. But how the process comes through to create such nice ideas and bring them to life through clay piece? Here’s an inside look.
Brainstorming Ideas
The first stage is a creative consultation of the client with the potter in order to come up with ideas for the gifts that can be produced within the set budget, for specific type of audience and company. Aspects include whether they should be practical or aesthetic, base upon the colour preferences, shape preference and whether to add names, dates or inspirational sayings on the pieces. It was suggested that numerous ideas can be used to adapt clay gifts to programmed guidelines and necessities of a corporation.
Making Custom Molds
If the potter wants to use the clay pieces that have no resemblance to other pieces that were previously made, the potter will specially order personalized molds for the particular work. This in turn makes it possible to have full control over the finished product’s appearance. The potter chooses the appropriate mould material – whether plaster or clay – to get the necessary shape and ledge for the corporate item. If the interior mold surface is intricately carved, say, into thin parallel lines or zigzag grooves then the impressions are imparted to the result clay gift.
Preparing the Clay
Our medium is the modeling clay which comes to the studio in big solid blocks that require conditioning in order to be sculpted. The clay is then passed through the pug mill machine which adds air and moisture needed to adjust the clay to the almost ideal, flexible state without losing its shape. If color is wanted, it can be incorporated directly into the clay or applied after the object has been bisque fired. The professional potter may choose and how several clay bodies and firing ranges, depending on its function, such as the shinny surface, which is necessary to the corporate vases.
Crafting the Initial Form
The process of modeling the raw clay starts with packing the clay into the specialised mould to acquire all the mould designs. For mass products such as vases, the potter works with the coiling methods combining and interlocking rope like slabs of clay. Other less complex designs such as those with intricate edges, for example, the decorative wall plaques can be molded using slab construction from rolled out clay sheets. The first and most rudimentary form that the clay model assumes needs some finishing to eliminate rough interfaces, trapped voids, to join component parts, and to achieve optimal ratio before going to the next stages of manufacturing.
Adding Personal Touches
Extra touches on the mud figure may be made after it has reached the basic form of the intended figure but before the drying and firing processes that ‘lock’ that shape, names, message, symbol or logo can be carved on the leather-hard clay using sharp spoons or carved stamps. Attached clay handles or feet or any other decorative elements in clay can be also modelled and fixed in this stage also.
Drying and Bisque Firing
It should be noted that before firing the potter lays the finished form on a kiln shelves to slow dry for up to two weeks until it is completely dry. Quicker drying risks cracks. Next up is the first firing in high temperature bisque kiln in which the clay particles are bonded partially to set the piece everlastingly to a ceramic at over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. This firing schedule includes a gradual increase and a gradual decrease of temperature to avoid further thermal stresses in the ware.
Glazing and Final Firing
After the bisque firing stage is done the potter can make use of glazes of many colours to give shiny surface to the piece. Glaze suspensions involve glassy feldspar, aluminium, and or silica particles, each ground to mesh with the bisque’s surface pores, and which melt and flow during firing. Glazes themselves are available in a wide variety of colors and finishes, including shiny metallic ones. It comes in easily applied as smooth finish or painted on for a thick covering as well as simple or elaborate hand painting or special effects. These are then subjected to a final firing of over 2000 °F in the glaze kiln for the glass glazes to melt to a vitreous, non porous surface.
Delivery to Delighted Clients
When all the products reach to room temperature, the custom corporate clay gifts are fit for quality check, proper packing and forwarding. The clients will be happy receiving these branded objects that for them have been created out of very creative processes. Porcelain crafted in your hands does include so much more than any weekender trinket. For many years the receivers will be using the clay gifts that are uniquely designed depicting the company treasures.
From conception to completion, passionate experienced artisan potters help businesses choose meaningful designs and create clay products that celebrates the uniqueness of the business. This approach really makes the employees and customers feel special and distinct from every other customer. The next time you are placing an order for your company logo merchandise or thank you gifts, think twice before opting for promotional items, think about Handmade pottery.