Potter with me in autumn🍁 THE BEST tap centering hack, following my viewer's tips, throwing bowls

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@mattl3729 Ай бұрын

Hi Tessa- I've been a potter for more than 5 years now and I never really bothered to learn tap centering so it was really rather nice to see an easy way to do it that I'll have to try, so thanks! And although I think you're doing amazingly well for someone who is new to throwing pottery, I can offer a few pieces of advice for your own issues: 1) You really don't have to cone up small quantities of clay so much- in fact, there are many potters who don't bother at all since centering does quite a lot to move the clay particles around, etc. And I see you do get a bit of a concavity at the top of your cones (like a volcano), and that can easily trap air inside when you collapse it pushing back down. Ideally you want the clay to always have a sort of pointed top to avoid this. So I'd recommend very minimal coning unless you're working with several kilograms of clay. 2) Thin walls- since you like to trim your pieces, I suggest you start with much more clay- it's a very common early pottery journey mistake to try to use too little clay. If you start with more than you think you'll need, you avoid thinning your walls too much to get the height you want, and you can always cut off excess while throwing, or trim walls thinner later. It makes things much easier. 3) Use as little water as you can while throwing- leaving a big puddle in the base of your pot can result in the clay absorbing too much and splitting- it also makes getting the height you want harder, etc. Using the slip from your hands is a great way to maintain the lubrication you need without adding much extra water. Instead of scraping your hands on the edge of your water bowl, scrape slip off with your fingers and put it back on the pot and re-use it. 4) compress the top edge of your cylinder each time you pull- lifting forces the water in your clay up, and makes the top edge more fluid and thus weaker; if you compress it at the end of a pull, you stiffen up the clay and strengthen the edge. 5) Everyone says slam the clay down on your wheel head, but this is actually not necessary- place it on the centre, and pat it down a few times, then slap the side as you spin the wheel slowly and it'll stick just fine and will be more centered. This helps avoid accidentally trapping air underneath, and you don't have to worry about aiming or fixing it when your ball of clay ends up off to the side some. Lastly, I strongly recommend you try spiral wedging- I find it far, far superior to ram's head wedging for being sure you get air out, and not trapping more on the sides. It takes a little more practice to get right but it's worth it- especially for larger amounts of clay; ram's head wedging can be tough with several kg of clay, but spiral wedging only works on a small section at a time, so is really easy. I've done 10kg at a time without completely exhausting myself before I even start throwing (ha). I hope some of this helps!