We are off to a great start this week with some Adult Ed classes. Nice to see some new faces trying out the pottery wheel. It's always a surprise to the new students, just how much harder it is to control that wet messy lump of clay. Each teacher has a bag of techniques and tactics to get people started on the wheel, but most of them achieve the same result - getting that clay centered and controlled.
Here are the basic steps and a checklist for our first timers. Very SIMPLE.
At the wheel you need
- Black Bat
- Bucket of Water
- small sponge
- Pin Tool
- Wooden Rib (triangular)
Steps (start med/fast and slow down with each step)
- Center - cone up compress down into ball
- Make a target / Drop the hole
- Open the hole/enlarge
- Pull up the walls
- Compress the inside base
- Shape
- Clean Lip and Bottom
- Wire
For our new students there is a plethora of youtube videos that can offer up some after hours and out of studio instruction. Sometimes in our busy lives, it's that hour or so in the evening when things get quiet that we get 'me' time. I know that's true for me. So next time you are on the web- try youtube and type in 'throwing on the pottery wheel' and see what interests you. I will start posting some videos I like.
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