7 steps to throwing a bowl (general purpose - ‘GP’ ) May 9 with Simon Leach

hmm hello folks camera rolling it is the night of May just here and yeah I'm making a batch of GP balls and I thought what I'd do is I'd Emin straight for you throwing a GP Bowl in sort of like seven steps so what we're going to do is we're going to throw each step and then we're going to cut it off and put it on the side there yeah so let's do it let's do it indeed can't have too much light when you're filming so so these are a pound you can make them make them any weight really so let's just make sure that we're nicely in the picture um maybe we should just bring it in a touch don't want you to see this something like that this is just how I go about doing you I'm not saying this is the only way of doing it it's just the way I it's the way I've sort of evolved in sort of teaching myself so basically that's my first move like that just get it just turn it up [Music] so I thought it helps doesn't it to see things kind of broken down a bit in especially when you're learning you know you it's easy to get confused isn't it okay so this number one now what I'm doing is I'm I'm centering the clay down kind of centering it down into itself like that okay see that little move I've done there with my thumb after I've I've scented it I put my thumb in at the base there and that centers it right down at the wheel head it's quite a good idea I think okay cut him off put in there nice weather today hang up step one centering down is step two and breaking in again I'm using my index finger and my thumb kind of together like that okay I push down to the depth that I that I require okay will will swing the camera across when these are done so you can see them okay there it okay now the next move now you could say well basically those moves that we've just done a pretty similar to if I was throwing a cylinder and that's true they are but the next the next step is where it it's sort of it differs a little baby see okay turning up centering down breaking in okay now what I'm gonna do is see if I can move my body around a bit here just sit so what I want to do is I'm gonna keep this hand here going down into the base there and I'm gonna and I'm gonna move that hand up like that against the side of pushing outwards but keeping this hand here and as I as I come up I always just bring this hand up with me okay so and bringing it up like that easy voila okay yeah I hope you I hope you feel you'll find this helpful and you can go away and apply it okay turning up centering down breaking in opening out sort of widening opening out pushing against and my right hand and then just coming up with it like that okay okay that's where we're at now isn't it so then now the next move you think you know pushing underneath like that and then begin to lift up the clay just pulling it up with anything I mean look so I go okay yeah I don't I get too far ahead with each one sort of freeze it at that point okay okay so the next now what I do with my with my GP balls I roll the rims put a rolled rim on now you don't have to do that it's just something I like doing because it sort of finishes off the pot I don't recommend it really when you're learning how to throw a general-purpose bowl or to people that you necessarily do it do it with a rolled rim because what you should do really is practice doing your rolled rims on a straight cylinder until you get the hang of them if you haven't done rolled rims before don't do a rolled rim on a GP ball do it first on so otherwise you come to grief but I'm gonna do one on here anyway just you you if you're not proficient yeah then don't do it do it on the first and then and then do you want to get that movement like that when you open out that's a key movement on energy people anyway is this going down to the bottom and then pushing out towards your hand with you and you see you going you sort of you sort of rotate your hand a bit like this you see and that naturally makes a curve doesn't it when you go like that so because what you want to avoid is what we want to avoid is the you know making the the bowl with a kind of flat bottom and a kind of corner you don't want any corner in it do you want it okay so no pushing in there see push in you see and then lift think that so always remember with anything that you're making like to engage like a chi people and these are made to engage always get your height before you get your width okay as I said in the last video you could mean if you go higher than than the gauge you can then come down as you as you widen the pot it will naturally drop in height and it'll come down to the gauge so we put in we've got to do this role rim so what I'm proposing to do is bring in the camera a little bit and we're gonna focus focus right there possible and then I'll then I'll come out again but I just want you to see the how we go about doing it come on keep still ah sorry about that i tripods a bit wonky alright there it is okay so first of all make sure you've got a bit of water here okay now what you can do is just taper it slightly okay by squeezing but between your your fingers here that last bit just thin it out in other words but doing that okay now we're going to put our finger there like that okay this is the first move the first part now we're going to take this finger we're gonna pull the clay over this finger like this you get it back to about halfway like that alright and then what you're gonna do is I use my thumb on the top here together with these fingers and I push it over [Music] then I use my finger underneath just to just to tuck it in easy well I like what I look for I just bring the camera down a set it's like we've got jets jets okay that was just so I always bring this in here so what I look for is that it it looks round in form okay and I like to see a defining line on the underside there where the rim joins the wall of the pot as it comes over it then joins the wall I like to see a line up underneath there you see I hope I'm explaining that for you all right so just bring that back a touch alright so that is the that is the they don't they have the rolling of the the rolling of the rim okay let's I'll just stick it for now I don't usually stick it at this stage I do that sort of at the end but just to make it look a bit tight yeah cut through okay cut him off and now we've got the last the last one so this one will be the final one okay breaking in now we're gonna go down here we're trying to do that so you can see it a little bit pull the clay out the just just taper it a little bit by tapering it by thinning it a little bit you see you I mean if you don't have to do that but I like to do it because the other ways you end up with a bowl with a rather thick bulbous roll of rim which I don't like okay so now we're going to pull that over like that with my thumb on the top take it down seal it by with my finger underneath like that to get that nice that nice joined line here underneath okay so now what I'm going to do is I'm going to widen it and pull it out like that so since I did this video the last time that several people writing to me saying but Simon you told us how wide it was you didn't tell us how high it was well the reason is because I never measured the height I'll be honest with you because I I just eyeball it cuz I know what the proportions are so I never yes but Simon that doesn't help us you were right so supposed to be six and a half okay now that's exactly six and a half you know I can do these in my sleep pretty much okay I'm going to show you try to show you anyway now the the wet trimming in the use of this the throwing stick in order to be able to finish these off because these are not they're not trimmed at all so we're gonna bring the camera down here now sorry is it we've got a bit jiggery-pokery on going on today and we as my dad would say jeogori poker yeah but what I want to do is get a sideways angle shot here just pull the camera in a touch as well there's two aspects to doing this and one is the stick on the outside the other is the fingers on the on the inside so number one you need a decent throwing stick now most people's throwing sticks are not what I would describe as decent always constantly having to wage war with people throwing sticks not wage war but you know the usually two thing you need one that is is is not thick and you want one one with like a 45 45 degree angle on the end here okay what we want to do we want to put the three thick in sunder Neath like that but if I just push the throwing stick in underneath what is gonna happen that is gonna end up by throwing up a ridge on the inside you see we don't want that because we what we want is that nice nice nice rounded form okay so we're gonna put our fingers right opposite where the stick with right opposite where the stick is you see so that when I push the stick in and do the wet trimming when I push it in it's pushing against something because my fingers are there giving resistance and that's their resistance there is going to cause the clay to come off okay so pushing in there now reducing the width of the base fingers on the inside and there's the clay see just a little bit of a trick that you can but you can learn it it's not that difficult actually all right all right let's talk about the camera yeah actually this just to show you the inside of the form here okay I want you to take note of the fact that it's cleaned all the way down to the wheel head okay there's no spur on the bottom or burl whatever you want to call it you see it so that's can be very nicely thumbed off inside of the bowl a nice a nice continuous curve it might have a few little ridges in it don't worry about that what we're looking for is the general the general shape okay okay so what we not got to do now is lever that and cut him off and that's the last just get this back up again so there are pieces there I'll show you those in a second man this is like your cheapest nastiest rifle but I I treat my tripods as you can imagine they're covered in clay alright so the leather leather ring they lay the leather over use the thumb like that just to okay that's it now we cut them off clean the color fire thumbs slow the wheel down and pull through put him back okay-dokey right so in order to get these off the wheel head okay you're not you're not gonna really lift it like this you're gonna use your two fingers of each hand like that to form underneath a support you see like that you can get them off easy just get this board and put in there like that I wouldn't get the camera off the tripod and so these are the the different stages of course got to remember to get that height haven't I on thee so let's just for those people who wanted to know let's have a look what is that same kind of light is round the other way I should have a camera let's have a look well that is reading yeah it's reading three three and a three and one eighth okay 3 and 1/8 3 and what 1/8 is your height and your your width should be six and a half six and a half yeah okay and there it is that is seven I've made it seven you could make it eight maybe but now seven is good seven stages to how to arrive at throwing G people one last thing we'll do on this G people and that is we will wet our index finger we're gonna make a pouring lip so we're just gonna hold those fingers like that put this finger in between those and just so if you've got some a couple of Friday eggs to not fry you wouldn't be doing that for frying would you making an omelet see it would just stretched out the clay between there and there between those points we've taken that little piece of clay and we've wiggled it like that which is effectively it stretched it you see it's opened out the clay like this clay Clay's the structure of clay is that the it composed of long elongated particles that slide over one another so we've expanded it by doing we're doing that okay okay folks there is thanks for joining us I hope that's been helpful to you have a go at doing have a go doing that give me your feedback in the comments below join us for a workshop but I have a workshop here this weekend and I'm going another one later in May at the end of May I think and then June July August October not in September so if you'd like to come join us for a weekend Saturday Sunday 10:00 until 4:30 each day and we will do some practicing together how about that okay that's it yeah visit my website Simon each pottery calm where you can get some information about that if you want more information about the workshop just write to me Simon later pottery at gmail.com just write to me if you want more information now I'll tell you in more detail it's basically about doing the kind of things that I doing here on my videos you know it'll be centered around learning how to pull clay and work into a gauge that will be basically what it's about really really important stuff to know how to do and that will really help you on your journey in clay hey keep practicing I'll see you around I'll see you around indeed bye bye

Channel: Simon Leach

Views: 49,247

Rating: 4.9451051 out of 5

Keywords: how to throw a bowl, pottery bowls, how throw a pottery bowl, arts and crafts, simon leach pots, simon leach workshops, keep practicing workshops, como tornear un cuenco, wheel thrown bowls, clay bowls, GP gen purpose bowl, horno, torno, vall d'alba, masia, la ceramica artesanal, hand made, la ceramica hecho a mano, pottery tutorials, learning to throw, millheim 16854, don't give up!, practice makes perfect

Id: FKhG6PyIEiU

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Wed May 09 2018