Pottery Logs

WEEK 1

I spent some time getting to know the studio with our teacher Ben -- a wonderful space. I'm definitely the least experienced person here, which I enjoy because I get a lot of attention and many people to learn from :)

We then got into wedging clay, preparing to throw cylinders. I feel like the wheel controls me more than I control it at this stage - I need getting used to the varying levels of force required and the types of movements. This is in contrast with other art forms I've tried: usually much effort is spent trying to let go of my need for control and let the medium guide me. I threw three small cylinders, and I'm pretty pleased with the angle of the walls and the consistency.

There was a lot of talk of 'platelets' in clay which I am now very curious about! Wedging, centering, throwing, all are optimised to compress and align 'platelets' in the clay: small flat particles that make up the body of the clay. I'm fascinated by how simple movements affect the material on such a tiny scale.

WEEK 2

Today, we learned to throw bowls. I took more detailed notes:

• basic setup and centering
  • throw clay ball into middle of wheel, pat centering
  • cone up and down 3 times with diagonal pressure (in and down)
  • leave puck slightly taller than for cylinders
• opening process differs from cylinders
  • push down only 1cm initially, then sweep outwards immediately
  • create bowl shape from start rather than flat base
  • go deeper each time (about 1cm increments) while sweeping outward
  • should look like a cylinder with hemisphere-shaped hole
• wall pulling technique
  • pull up like cylinders but keep more vertical initially
  • let bowl flare outward only on the last pull, when ready to form the final shape
  • drop water down thumb parallel to bowl wall (not from top)
  • leave ~2cm thick bottom for trimming foot later

I learned a few tricks that changed the game for me:

• Most centering problems during shaping stem from uneven pressure application
• Reduce wheel speed to ~50% after initial prep
• Too much centrifugal force causes collapse

I find it hard to get good size out of the same ball of clay that my teacher uses: losing loads to my hands or washing it away when I add water. These bowls will shrink by 10-12% by the time they're done being fired, which is kind of sad.

Several of my bowls collapsed, but I made 4 successfully: