First day of class Pottery Wheel throwing

this is first day of class stuff um everybody start off with four ball to play their cups from that you know wedge we don't fiddle around with it I've cut about two and a half inches down stand it up and then cut that into four and I want you to I want them to make all the balls right now so that later on when they've got slimy hands they don't make the balls then because then you have a slimy balls and slimy balls don't stick to the wheel head so we make the four balls just by padding in the corners so I'm taking it I'm hitting it on each corner carrying it and hitting in those four corners and you pretty much have a ball yeah the four balls and you close it up in your bag because if you leave these out and they start to dry you're going to have dry spots and that will have hard spots and soft spots and then as you're trying to throw in issues that with spirals and stuff on the coming off center so magically the clay changes color first step is to get it on the wheel so you've made a ball you hit it twice I'd already done that and you want to kind of get it as close to middle as you can we're going to wet it and next thing I want to do is stick it to the wheels to make sure it doesn't come out I'm not trying to center it now if you push laterally on it at all it's going to slide off or it's not going to stay centered so what I'm doing is I'm going to wet my hands I'm going to press with the meaty part of my hand here down against the wheel head it's important that you don't push laterally I'm just trying to get it stucks on just pressing down and I want a skirt to form so this part right here so there's no see or there's is kind of like blend it into the wheel head there's no place where water can go underneath now it's now it's attached now we can up and down so I'm starting the center the clay the middle of my wrist to my elbow my other hand is on the other side I want to keep them apart that they're next to each other they're pushing in one direction I want them pushing opposite each other to keep the pressures even keeping my hands against the wheel head and I'm pushing towards the center of the clay clay goes up I let go slowly I wet it again top to bottom I put the meaty part of my thumb on top overlap my hands and I press down into my right hand now my right hand again the center the clay the middle my wrist and the elbow are lined up and pressing from my hip towards the center of the clay clay moves because you're pushing on it it's going to go wherever you allow it to go so right now when I squeeze together the clay can't go down because there's a wheel head there and it can't go anywhere else because my hands are wrapped around now what you don't want to do is pull the clay up you just want to squeeze and the clay will move up for you when it goes up that's the same thing when you come down you want to make sure that you're giving it room to go where you want it to go and stopping it from going everywhere else so I want the clay to end up here so I'm going to push down and I'm going to push against the clay but as I press down I'm going to give it room to move out at the bottom that's what centers it and I'll do it again making sure and again making sure you're against the wheel hey because if you're not it'll squirt out the bottom cone up I'm going to do this open so that you can see it I got my hand here I'm pressing down into it and letting go now there are other ways to Center there's the one where they're pushing on this side and Crotty chopping it down on what are the other ways there's a lot of ways reason this works is because you're on the side and the area from let's make a little picture here from 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock this is the smiley face zone over here from 3 o'clock all the way to 6 o'clock on the other side this is the frowny face zone this is the sad area see there you can see it up sad smiley when you're working if you're applying pressure on this side in this direction if it gets stuck or anything the clay is going to move off or your hands gonna move off the clay and I will do an example here we got our wooden knife if I press like this I just make a dent the clay it doesn't get stuck so that's where I'm applying most of my force I wanted to always glance off I don't want it to get caught into the clay now for the people that Center on this side if you think about it if the if the clay gets pushed into your hand like that and it gets caught it's going to suck into it until it makes a gouge now this is dramatic dramatis eyes I think that would be the word for um that's not what's really going to happen when you press like this you don't have the same kind of control or the same forgiveness that's pushing on this side it'll get the job done but it may not be as efficient so again cone up come down let go slowly then opening it up again pushing where you want the clay not to be letting it go where you want it to be keeping pressure everyplace else so I've got my hand wrapped around so it's touching all the surfaces here I'm pressing down and I'm letting the clay move out I'm not trying to hold it and I want to open up in a V so opens up and we're not putting that much pressure on the outside I'm just making sure that it stays in the middle and then I'm going to move across now when I move across I know there's enough clay here and everything that I don't need to support it I'm going to support my right hand with my left move over and it opens up the bottom I don't want to open up larger than sponge I want to keep it small or else you make a dognition we don't want dog dishes right now so it's opened up next step is really wetting the clay and understanding how to wet it now all the stuff that I have in my hands is really what you want on the clay you don't want to be adding more water if you don't have to so you start with adding slip and you want to make sure all the surfaces lubricated to do that we actually need to touch all the surfaces you can't let a pop-by rating on it from above or grabbing a handful or dumping on it or just squeezing it up from a sponge you actually need to touch the clay to make sure all the surfaces are down if not and you have a dry spot it'll stick every time it comes around and twist it or pull it off more in that direction or in a tent to that direction where it's touching so what we want is to keep it wet on the inside hand I'm going to be touching with the two pads of my fingers in this little dent that I've made here or where it's going to touch on the outside I'm going to push with the side of my finger here see us our cookie crampy finger and keeping my thumb touching my hand to squeeze and move up as I squeeze the move up again this is the whole principle with the clay it's going to move every place that it can when I squeeze here the clay can't go down against the wall or against the wheel head and it can't move around because the clay spinning enough that I'm preventing it from going anywhere else but up and as I squeeze I'm going to move up now there's going to be a wall of clay underneath what you know has started moving up which means it still can't go down as easy can go up and I want to keep that pressure moving up and as I move up I'm going to release that pressure slowly and let go I don't want to pull all the way through the top because it'll make a spiral that goes all the way through and then later on as you're working you're going to have a dent or one side that's thicker than the other so you want to pull up slowly I mean as you get to the top release and it'll look like this squeeze move up as you get to the top slowly release and let go I'm going to pinch you squish at the top so I'm just pinching gently pressing it down evening up the top I'm going to wet it again inside and out top to bottom so making sure all the surfaces are wet and then I'll pull again again starting all the way against the wheel head pushing that clay from the inside and the outside into the wall and lifting it up as I get to the top slow then reach the pressure and let go now for the first day of class I have my students throw it till they break it it's an important you know step in all throwing and growth if you're doting over something for the whole time like say you make a dent in it and you just keep working and well it's kind of like making cookies and adding too much salt you know you've added too much salt but you're not going to bake the cookie don't dodo over it if you've wrecked it you've messed it up quit take the next ball clay and use that one the more you play with stuff that you know is wrecked the less chance you have of successfully learning and in the beginning you don't want to just you're not trying to make anything you're just trying to learn if you're trying to make something if you're trying to sell the first few pieces that you make you know because you got to pay for the class that you're in or the bill that you've bought you're not going to learn anything you've got to be willing to break stuff so for this one I'm again I'm going to do the same thing I'm going to wet it I'm going to pull until I break it now there we go and that was the goal don't be afraid to break stuff you really got to do it to get better and that's the first class

Channel: Timsee clay

Views: 516,226

Rating: 4.8289251 out of 5

Keywords: pottery, 陶器, 도자기, κεραμική, ceramics, lesson, throwing, centering

Id: UNR7dDJs6K4

Length: 9min 38sec (578 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 21 2009