CUNJURING A CYCLINDER

From a lump of clay to a functional pot.

Now, if like me, you spend your days scrolling through reels on social media and find yourself facinated by how easy professional potters make wheel throwing look, and become frustrated when you just can't do the same.

Then this is the blog for you.

Full disclosure, I probably can't teach you to be a master potter through a blog as I myself do not claim to be a master potter, but hopefully this points you in the right direction.

I should also mention that there are multiple ways to throw a pot on the wheel and this is just the way I've learnt and now teach.

To start, before we even think about clay, you need your tools:

1. A pottery wheel

2. A sponge

3. A wooden rib

4. A rubber rib

5. A needle tool

6. A sharp edged wooden tool

7. A cheese wire

8. A shammy cloth

9. Some warm water

10. A bucket for discard

Once you have assembled the tools it's time to get the clay. For my pottery, I use either white or buff stoneware clay (I'll go into more details about the different clay bodies at a later date).

To start, for a small cylinder weigh out 400grams and wedge the clay. For small amounts of clay I would wedge using the rams head method. Again, wedging is something I will go over at a later date.

Clay wedged?

Perfect, let's continue.

Before we start there are a few things to keep in mind:

The direction of the wheel and the placements of the hands may change based on which hand you are most dominant with. I have my left hand around the clay and my right on top when centering, and my left hand inside the clay and my right outside when pulling up the walls. All with the wheel spinning anti-clockwise.

Less water is better. When the clay starts to become sticky, dip your hands in the water bowl. I wet my hands at the start of every stage.

Using a bat system on the wheel will make moving your pieces a lot easier.

Always keep your elbows tucked into your hips for better control, and only touch the clay when the wheel is moving.

Oh and if you have long hair, put it up.

Slam the ball of wedged clay down, in the center of the wheel, or as center as you can, and wet your hands.

Start the wheel, full speed a head.

Cup your hands around the clay, bottom palms touching, and thumbs over the top, push the clay forward and down.

This helps to seal the clay to the wheel.

To follow we need to cone the clay up, this helps to align the clay.

As you can see from the photo I've shifted my hand so my palms are now pushed into the clay to bring it up, following all the way until my hands are off the clay.

Once you've brought the clay up, go back to stage one and push down into a dome.

Centering:

A simple word for a simple act, or so the influencers make it look.

Centering the clay is very important as it gives your pot the best chance of being even.

to do this have one hand round the side of the dome with your palm pushing the clay away from you, make sure to anchor your elbow into your hip, place your other hand on top with limited pressure to help keep the clay in place.

have your hands connected for support and keep applying pressure into the clay until it runs smooth under your hands. No wobbles, no lumps, or bumps. Just the smooth clay surface beneath your finger tips.

Now we have a dome and it's perfectly centered it's time to open the pot.

And for this it's pretty simple, I know easy for me to say, right? But trust me you just need to be confident with what you do.

Find the center and push down with your finger to create a hole, hook your finger and pull the walls towards you just a little to open the hole wide enought to see how far down you've gone.

Now stop the wheel.

Grab your needle tool and push it into the hole, follow it down with your finger and check the base.

You don't want the base too thick or too thin, but when you're starting out it is better to have a thicker base incase of any accidents.

Now we have the base it's time to fully open our pot, now for this you need to be confident, in fact thats good advice for all the steps and life in general. You're welcome.

Restart the wheel at about half the speed.

With one hand loosly around the pot and the other hovering over (similar to the last step) hook your finger and pull the walls towards you.

Once open, compress the base by using your thumb, starting in the center and smoothing outwards. This motion helps the base to dry evenly and stops any cracks from forming.

Now, let's bring up the walls

making sure to slow the wheel down further.

There are a few ways to do so lets run through the 3 I technique.

1. Fingers: with two on the inside and two on the outside, stop it, and your hands connected, push in with your outside fingers and move your hands up in unison until they are off the top of the pot.

2. Sponge: wrap the sponge around your index finger holding it in place with your middle finger and your thumb. the sponge goes on the outside of the pot, keeping two fingers inside and your hands connects push in with the sponge and move up.

3. Knuckle,: using the knuckle of your index finger on the outside of the pot, two fingers on the inside and hands connected, moving up.

When moving your hands up it's important to work with the wheel, every turn of the wheel is one movement of the hands, making sure not to move too fast or too slow as this can cause your pot to become wonky.

Once you've pulled your walls up as far as they'll go and, if of course you've made it this far, it's time to grab your wooden rib.

With the rib in your outside hand, lightly hold it towards the walls of your pot, and with your inside hand push the clay towards the rib the, bringing your hand upward.

Staying with the movement of the wheel.

Then, use the rubber rib to helf smooth the walls down.

Now with the sharp edged wooden tool let's clean up the base and get rid of any extra clay, this helps with the turning process but isn't 'strictly important'.

With the anged edge against the wheel and holding onto the tool with both hands, move the tool towards the base of the pot to get rid of any unwanted clay.

And there you have it your finished pot, the perfect, or maybe not so perfect, cylinder.

A creation by your own hands none-the-less.

Finally, with your cheese wire, wrap each end around two fingers on either hand and pull tight, place the wire against the wheel and drag it throught the base of your pot, pulling the wire towards you.

If you aren't using a bat system then A. Why? and B. squeeze water onto your wheel, wire the pot off a second time and gently push the pot towards you.

Place the pot of a shelf and let it dry fully before placing it in the kiln and praying to the kiln gods that you'll see it again.

I wish you all the best with your practice and hope to see you again on your journey.