How to Tap Centre Pots on the Potter's Wheel

in this long awaited video i'm going to show you how i tap center pots there's a whole range of reasons why you might need to center the pot again after it's been thrown for trimming the wax to decorate the band on glaze to sponge off glaze the list goes on and on and while centering with other methods works absolutely fine nothing beats the speed of tap centering and there's a production potter where many hundreds of pieces need to come on and off the wheel quickly the more wasted time i can eliminate the better it only takes a few seconds to get the piece into the middle of the wheel a few seconds just to tap center it right into place whereas other methods that require stopping and starting the wheel can really eat into your time and it really isn't a difficult skill to learn you just need a bit of patience and a few hours to spare and once the technique finally clicks it'll be there forever like learning to ride a bike and you might not realize just how much time it can save you all these little moments centering it to wax or centering it to trim in the long term it'll really save you a huge amount of time and it isn't just for small pots you could do it on taller vessels larger bowls taller vases when i actually think about it i'm surprised by just how often i find myself tapping the pots into center and it's such an intuitive skill that i don't even think about it anymore i just position the pieces roughly where they need to be and then tap them into the middle but before we get into things properly i think it's important just to reiterate to the fact that this is my own approach to tap centering there'll be potters all around the world who do it slightly differently they might use their left hand or their right hand they'll do it differently depending on the direction their wheel is spinning or they might tap the pots at a different position on the wheel this is just my approach this is how i do it let's get started one thing that's always helpful to remember are the lines and the rings on the wheel if you don't have these for the sake of learning you could draw some on these are incredibly good indicators of how scented your pot is on the wheel even before you get into any of the centering techniques i just positioned the pot by eye so that the gap in between the first line and the room of the pot is as even as possible the whole way around and as i'm tap centering it's this gap that often i'll watch with my eye not so much the area where i'm tapping but let's try it a bit more exaggerated if the wheel were a clock i'm tapping the pots at about 4 30. you need to be quite strict with yourself by keeping the area in which you tap defined if you're switching between 430 to then 3 to then 2 it's going to be different in all of those positions and the ball will react differently to how you tap it the rhythm at which you tap constantly changes too because as the ball rotates and gets closer and closer into the middle the pointer which is off center comes around more and more often so i find myself tapping more slowly at the beginning before tapping more frequently as it approaches the middle in many ways though you can pretty much get the pot centered just by using the lines on the wheel thereafter it might just need a few tiny taps to get it into place but more than anything it's more about finding the rhythm it is sort of like learning to ride a bike you just need to sit there and tap and tap and tap until something clicks and it just makes sense it's about experimenting too at the beginning you might exert too much pressure when you tap sending the ball flying off the wheel or you could be hitting too gently and barely moving it at all either way i've always found the lines on the wheel head to be a very good guide of course the amount of force you use when you're tapping depends on the shape and size of the vessel you're using you might have seen this method where you use a needle or your finger and you allow the pot to go around hit the pointer and then move it a little bit closer to the middle each time but with all the stopping and starting and then moving it ever closer you can see just how much longer it takes in comparison to tap centering the bowl into the middle which when multiplied by several hundred pots you can see just how much added time it creates and it shows just how efficient tap centering is it really is just a matter of teaching yourself to hit the pot in just the same spot every single time and as your bowl approaches the center you have to start tapping with more gentle movements as you want to move it less obviously it could be worth when you're learning to try tapping at different points too you could try tapping at about seven or eight o'clock or you could even try tapping at about two o'clock depending on what feels comfortable i've seen potters tapping at both those points before also instead of your fingertips you might just use the pads of some of your fingers you know two or three fingers versus one finger i find i often change how i position my hands depending on what kind of vessel it is so say i'm tap centering a chuck it's thick and heavy i might slap it with the hole of my hand whereas if i'm centering a much more delicate thinly thrown piece i'll tap more gently with just a few fingers but the principle of hitting in the exact same spot in a rhythmic fashion remains the same no matter what in the video right now i'm choosing to tap center from the foot ring itself say that's the portion i want to get totally center i might choose to tap there rather than down by the rim and although i'm not doing it here i would recommend having your left hand up by the bowl ready to catch in case anything to go wrong or like you can see here i keep one finger pushing down from the top just as i tap center it which helps keep the piece from chipping over or flying too far as i tap center really it's going to change so much depending on what it is you're taps entering so i recommend trying it out on as many different shapes as possible if you are tapping taller cylindrical pots where you tap on the form is important too if you were to try tap centering by striking the top of the room these could easily topple over so generally whenever i'm tap centering it's towards the bottom and again as i'm tap centering you can see that it's a good idea to introduce your left hand even if it's just one finger to apply a tiny bit of pressure downward which helps stabilize the entire form perhaps bisque ware isn't the best way to show a demonstration of tap centering as it does feel a lot different when you're tap centering a heavier leather hard piece you'll find no better practice really than making 20 to 40 bowls and just sitting and tap centering all of them as you trim them by the end of the day you'll have definitely mastered the skill leather hard play additionally has the advantage of being slightly sticky so as you tap to enter it it kind of holds itself in place whereas bisque kind of skid around on the wheel head of course it isn't perhaps the best idea to be using finished pots to learn how to tap center so if it's your first time just pick up anything that's round anything can be tab centered as long as it meets that criteria sieves work plastic bowls wooden bats old throne pots chucks it all works you just have to allocate some dedicated time to sitting there and tapping it definitely isn't fun but it's a skill i so recommend to learn i taught myself how to tap center when i had a few hours to kill when i was studying on the coi ceramic skills and design training course i used an old upturned enamel bowl and just sat there tapping away until something clicked and i could do it of course good tuition helps but you've just got to give it a go and you have to be patient too which seems to be a running theme in this craft i've included many clips in this video that simply show the same motions over and over again i think i'm a visual learner and i found that it's always so helpful to just watch the same processes repeated time and time again to really gain an understanding of how a craftsperson does something tap centering itself is so inherently simple it's gravity more than anything for simply tapping the parts into the middle with a few simple movements there's no long explanation of why i do a specific thing or tap in a certain way it's just a skill you've got to jump into until it clicks towards the end of this video i've included a number of clips that show tap centering in more normal situations you'll notice how i'm always using my left hand to apply some pressure downward from the top to help keep the pot stable and help prevent it from spinning out of control it's also there to help catch the vessel in case it flies off when i'm tap centering bowls to wax their foot rings i'll make sure the foot ring is perfectly in center whereas you can see the rim here is actually just wavering a tiny amount and this is normal these are handmade pots as they dry and as they're bisquefied the clay unwinds and twists ever so slightly so tiny irregularities like that are all too common and even if the pot does have a more dramatic wobble it will still have a true center a central axis where it will spin comfortably even if it looks wobbly these are all aspects you learn to deal with with experience and like i said before different parts require different approaches that's something you just get used to over time at the beginning it's just important to remember that you need to tap regularly in the same spot and with enough pressure to get it moving into the middle like anything it can be a little bit disheartening when you don't get it straight away but it's very rare for that to happen anyway personally i can't recommend learning the skill enough it's so helpful and it speeds up so many different processes thanks for watching and i hope you found this video useful you

Channel: Florian Gadsby

Views: 29,744

Rating: 4.9666109 out of 5

Keywords: pottery, ceramics, how to turn pottery, Florian Gadsby, floriangadsby, how to make pottery, Asmr pottery, handmade pottery, pottery for beginners, handmade ceramics, bud vase, clay, how to tap centre, how to tap center, tap centring, tap centering, how to tap centre pottery, how to tap center pottery, how to centre pottery, how to center pottery, tap centre, tap center, making pottery, wheel thrown pottery, tapping pottery, tap pottery, tap ceramics

Id: Xb2d-XQZ0IQ

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020