Creating Your Own Bowl Tutorial

I started making my own pipes out of clay. I have had a few requests on information through private message so instead of constantly private messaging people this im just going to make a public post on it..

Tools Needed -
Liquid Soap
Wooden or Metal Shiskabob Scewers
Clay (I use Sculpey Brand)
Rolling Pin
Mini Oven


First start out with what colors of clay you want. I prefer using clay which has already been colored. Sculpey clay runs 1.69 for 2 ounces of clay. That is a bit more expensive than some of the other clay but its quality surpass's any of the other brands. The colored clay also has sparkles in it which looks pretty interesting. I prefer the pre colored clay because if it does get chipped it is less noticeable than if if a painted peice was chipped.

The part I usually started with first was the shaft. Everyone should know what the shaft of a pipe is. If you dont, you myswell just leave this thread now because you arent going to understand any more of it. Here are the three different types of shafts I have created.

Spiral -
This one is very interesting. First take your clay, be sure to get it soft first by moving it around a lot in your hands. Roll it out into a long solid tube like structure. Length depends on how long you want the shaft to be. Dont make it as long as you want it to exactly though because its going to have to be longer durring this process. Next take your scewer and put a small amount of soap on it, just to make it so its capable of sliding the clay off and on without it getting stuck. This is a must or you will ruin it. Next begin wrapping the clay around the scewer. It will spiral down the shaft of the scewer. This is a very interesting shaft effect.

The Squeeze -
The squeeze is an awesome looking shaft which will be unique every time you do it. Roll your clay out the same way you did for the spiral but keep it thicker and a little shorter than you are wanting the shaft of the pipe. Take the scewer and stick it through the peice of clay, the long way. It will be creating the actual hole youll be breathing for. Remeber to have the screwer covered lightly in soap, you may want to use a bit more for this than you would hte others. Now take your hand, space your fingers out some, and just grasp the clay. It will bulge up around the spaces by your fingers. Do not grab too hard Or youre going to fuck it up. YOu may have to toy with it a little. Then take your fingers and smooth it out. Getting it off the shaft can be complicated.

Normal -
This is the easiest but probably most unattractive shaft. Just flatten it out with the rolling pin and roll it around the scewer. Rather simple. You should get the idea. Remember to have the scewer soaped.

Now to continue to the bowl itself.
I have found numerous ways to create the bowl itself. The most effective way is the most attractive way. This is the only way im going to show you how to do it, other ways you can figure out yourself. Im just posting the most effective.

Roll the clay out again much like you did for doing the spiral shaft. Now spiral it up into a bowl though. This is hard to put into words. Just start small and get larger as you spiral it up make the bowl the size you wish to.

You should still have or you should put the shaft back on the scewer, now take the bowl and stick it on the scewer to so that the pipe seems complete. You can attach it any way you like. You may have to toy with this a little. AGain its hard to put in words but its pretty easy to figure out. Be creative with it. There are many many ways to do this


Decorations -

Spiral Shaft Over Shaft -
This is an awesome decoration I found that is easy to do. If you have done the spiral shaft, create a another peice of clay "rope". Make it thinner, Much thinner, Wrap it around the cracks between the spirals you already have. It add's some color.

Bubble Carb -
This not only helps with gribbing, it doubles as a carb. Put a bubble on the side of the shaft, just roll clay into the desired size circle. Keep the scewer on the shaft. Get another screwer and press it through the "bubble" until it hits the other scewer. You now have an effective carb.

Twisty Rope -
Make another "rope" of clay. You can choose the side. Just begin to twist it. It will create a spiral, you can attach it anywhere on the pipe youd like, it looks very cool around the top of the bowl. It may give it that perfect amount for gripping.

Baking
I prefer to use a mini oven, heats up faster. Stick them in it at around 200 degrees for 15 minutes. You do not want to burn the clay. You wont be able to detach the burnt peice, it will smell horrible, if its around the bowl it will taste so bad you wont be able to stand it. When i taste bad I mean bad too. If you think that resin tastes bad you have no idea. Be sure to watch it the entire time its baking to make sure it doesnt burn. Also be careful whent aking it out, it will be too hot to touch for probably another 15-20 minutes. Clay is an awesome heat conductor.

If you think of some new techniques which are proven I will add them on here so people dont haveto search the entire post, I will give you credit for it. Also if you could, try to keep this thread bumped up so new comers can see it also. I think it will help a lot of people who are too young to buy pipes, dont have a credit card, etc. It isnt as good as a hand blown spoon but its better than smoking out of a soda can or bottle. Much healthier than tin foil too. Youll probably want a screen though.

My camera sucks or I would post pictures. If you create any of your own peices using this technique give me the pictures and I will post them on this right here and give you credit also. Thank you.

Feel free to make any suggestions or ask any questions. Im trying to make this as easy as possible.

 

kick fucking ass dude!!! im definetley doin this shit!!! i love to draw/color/etc. and am very artistic if i do say so myself so im definetley gonna make soem of these!

where can you get sculpy clay?

 

Basicly any craft store will have clay. They should have that brand too. I suggest sculpy because it seems to be the "premier" brand and it has sparkles in it. I paid around 6 dollars for four packages I realized I put the wrong price, it was 1.29 not 1.69. It may not seem like a lot of clay when you look at it but trust me it is, ive created 5 decent sized pipes so far and still have atleast half of it left.

 

Have any pictures you could post of stuff you've done? They sound cool, I'd like to see them.

 

How does sculpey do with heat applied though?

 

If tried getting pictures but my camera sucks and they come out way too dark. Im still trying though.

Incredibly awesome. Its actually made to be oven baked. AS I said though, watch when baking it because clay does burn and when it burns it sucks. The pipe will be basicly incapable of being used. It hardens very very well. The actual peices stuck togethor do not stay togethor well when dropped. The bowl will fall off of the shaft usually. I dropped two of my not so good pipes just not to test that out.

 

I know it's oven baked, I mean when your using it... It can burn, I'm not sure how the fumes would taste...

 

Ahh Now I get what you are saying. Hold on one second.. *tests*.. Umm barely any tests, the weed itself would override it very easily. The taste is probably 1/100 as bad as resin. Barely tasteable at all.

 

I might just do that then... I have a pack of fimo laying around here somewhere...

 

Go for it!

 

uh wouldnt it be bad to have soap baked into your pipe?

 

You can also get self hardening clay if you don't want to deal with cooking it or worry about bad taste of the weed. It's not colored though, so you'll want to paint it...and it will take a couple of days to totally dry.

Mabus: when you spiral the coil around the skewer, do they bond together? What I'm asking is whether it is an air tight tube? And with the bowl...did you just kinda push it against the stem or did you actually rub the clay together? There are bonding techniques for normal clay that I'd assume would work with polymer clay like sculpey.

What you do on normal clay is with a pointed tool (like a pin or knifepoint) scratch little lines on the parts to be joined. Make sure the lines go every which way, and put a lot of them so the surface is pretty rough. This is called "crosshatching." Then, you put some water on the scratches and push them together. then you smoothe out the joint, pushing the clay together so it looks like on piece. I've never used polymer clay though, so I don't even know if you use water with it.

 

Here's my two pipes. I had more, but they sucked so I threw them out.

This one still needs to be painted. Any suggestions?


And then there's this one:

 

Probably, there isnt enough soap for it to actually cause problems. Its a very small small amount. Probably 1/1000th that you would wash your hands with.

Yeah, just wrap it sort of tight and it will bond togethor fairly well. I havnt had any air holes as of yet. What I did was just stick it through the end of the skewer and it usually bonded quite well, you need to keep it ont he skewer or it will fall off because the clay is flimsy when its not baked. Ive only smoked tobacco out of mine so far and the hits are awesome, I havnt notice any leakage. When I reverse blow into the pipe the only area I can feel air coming out is at the top of the bowl. :sunglasse

 

Those look really good. I like the fat one on top. I'd be cool to have a giant peace pipe.

 

You can all call me crazy.... but I WOULD NOT smoke out of a piece made of sculpey or fimo.... if you want to make a homemade piece... use regular clay fired in a kiln, preferably with a dishware safe claze coating.... I talked to the guy at the local pottery shop about this shit and he right away knew i wanted to make a bowl and told me what I need... just as we can use aluminum foil and pop cans, sculpey will work... but the fact that it gives off fumes should be an indication to smoke out of something else.... maybe fashion some kind of metal bowl into a sculpey pipe... even then though Id worry about heat transfer releasing fumes....

 

yeah, I believe there's a warning on the sculpey (at least the stuff I have) about heating it. Go with something more natural. Though sculpey's great for making beads.

 

It would take a little more work, but you can also fashon pipes out of soapstone.

 

damn it to hell

my mom wont let me go get clay cuz i havent finished my "color your own fort" yet. its so cool though im doing it in like trippy color designs itll be my stoner palace.

 

Sculpey is made for baking. It even says on the front. Fuck Im sorry, im stoned.