Pottery Making: Learn Throwing

Pottery Making: Learn Throwing - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Throwing pots refers to using a potter’s wheel to form pots. So I am going to take you through those steps. First take your well-wedged piece of clay and and thump it down onto the wheel head. Once the wheel is turning, you will want your hands to be very wet and slippery. First we will need to center the clay, so we will get rid of all the bumps by applying pressure with both hands against the clay. And sometimes you will also do what is called coning where you squeeze the clay up into a cone shape, and then back down into a dome. Once all the bumps and wobbles are gone, the clay is centered and ready to make a pot. I will drop the hole, and because I am going to make a bowl, I want to leave enough thickness in the bottom of this to trim a footring later. So, a nice thick floor, and then open the inside space with a little bit of a curve in the floor since I am making a bowl. Now it is time to thin the walls, and we will thin the walls by applying pressure with both hands against the clay. The whole thing about throwing pots using a potter’s wheel is understanding the relationship between the speed that the wheel turns, the speed that your hands move up the walls, and the amount of pressure that you apply. Once you understand and coordinate those three things, you will be making pots that are even and centered and beautiful. I will take my rib and finish shaping the bowl so it has a nice curve to it. And then I will take my shammy, which is in here on a fishing float so I do not lose it in the water, and create a nice, rounded edge to the bowl. And that is how you throw a bowl.