How to throw PLATES out of clay!

who those plate matches my shirt didn't even plan that [Music] what's up guys welcome back to another pottery video today we are gonna talk about throwing plates plates are so useful everybody uses plates but they are annoying and I don't make a ton of plates anymore I can as you can see I'm making a few I've made some custom dinner sets of large dinner plates small plates we use all my plates that I made I tend to have to charge a lot for plates because for every 10 plates you throw you probably get eight out where I probably get nine point nine mugs out of ten they're a little finicky you kind of got a baby um they take up a lot of room in the kiln but when you get a nice set of like eight plates that are all perfect and they stack so good okay so some things you're gonna need to do plates first and foremost a bat so if that does a few things you know you're throwing a really flat surface so you can't just cut it off and move it you actually need to have it on a bat so you can move it and let it dry slowly after that you can also use the bat for a measuring purpose so like when I throw 12-inch plates I throw it pretty much right out to the edge and so then I just throw them all the same way on the bat and that makes it really easy to make them all really consistent other things you need you need some sort of rib to compress the bottom so you compress the middle of the plate and that really helps to remove any cracks that would happen you can use a caliper if you want to measure like if you're not throwing a plate exact sides of the bat you can just use that to throw the plates all the same size needle tool to measure the bottom in the middle because you want to make sure you're not throwing too thick or too thin you want that middle to be just the right size and then a sponge some keys two plates basically drying slowly compressing that Center that's about it let's get on the wheel first thing you need is clay so for a larger dinner style plate we're gonna start with between three and four pounds probably closer to three to three and a half pounds just depending on how thick you want the plate how thick you want the RAM how like why do you want the RAM to go outside of the plate we're just gonna go with a basic plate so we're gonna measure so we're gonna do one that's like a big 12-inch style plate so that is about four and a half pounds right now so I'm gonna take about a pound off of that all right so that's about three and a half pounds right there so this will be our larger like twelve dinner plate and then we'll go with about two and a half pounds for a smaller always start with a nice round piece of clay make it easier on yourself all right let's throw all right we're gonna start with a smaller plate so get that play into a nice round ball the rounder the better and then the next thing you want to do throw that down as close to the center if you need to know how to Center I have a great video about that which you can find in this clip up here all right so now you will Center it and I always like to Center bike owning up a little bit first and then for a plate will come all the way back down and then we'll just keep centering it really really flat so I'm using this part of my hand to push down on top okay next thing we want to do is want to pull the clay out so I just need a indent in the middle and I'm gonna use the needle tool to judge how deep that is so I can see that we're about half an inch thickness so I don't definitely want to go any thinner than that and then we'll just pull it out until we get to about the size we want and then I'll just spend a few maybe a minute just making sure the bottom is really flat so our two keys for throwing plates is first compress the bottom compress the middle and the second is dry slowly so we'll take a rib either it looks like this or like this and then we'll compress the bottom so I'm just using this rib to push down in the center so that's compressing the clay against the back and that just really helps reduce any cracks it also does a really good job of making the level of clay really consistent all on there and I think that any warping or cracks or anything is just due to in consistence one of the most important things in anything is just having a really consistent amount of clay so I'll do one more compression of the middle all the way out compressing the middle out so I like to focus on that first just to make sure that it gets done because that's a really important thing and then the last thing I'll do is I'll create the rim so this I'm just pushing with this finger underneath pushing right here and then making however whatever kind of lift we want to make then take your sponge or piece paper or whatever you want and then smooth out that lip and then the last thing that I always do is I always like to put a little spiral in my plates pots bowls whatever so then we'll do that and then I take my sponge and I kind of knocked down the ridges you don't want very sharp ridges otherwise like when you're eating on it you hit your fork or spoon or knife or whatever on it or you get stuff that was pooling in there but I like just provides a aesthetic for the glaze to pool all right and then I'm gonna dry as much as I can with my sponge and there we go and then I would take my caliper and I would measure so that I know for the next 25 plates if I want them all to be the same size I mean just use that throw right out to there there's that'll turn out to be about a 8-inch nice little side plate all right switch dangles now we're gonna throw a dinner plate that's like a more like a 12-inch dinner plate that'll be as big as this so we got three and a half pounds of play clay right here once again throw that down as close to center as you can and then we'll Center it [Music] so I'm coning that up first and then we compress down [Music] and then I'm gonna take this this edge of my hand [Music] I really use my body as weight and leverage on top [Music] and then you can even use your second hand so I'm taking my left hand and I'm pushing down in the middle and then I'm just spreading that out a little bit [Music] so with mugs and other things that are taller there's like a clear cut moving your hands down and then a clear cut up but with plates that can kind of be all one motion you're going down and out at the same time so now I pretty much throw it out right to the edge there so I know I'm getting close and this is a really easy way to make all your plates the same exact size [Music] I'll take that needle tool check thickness that's perfect you can check it all the way out too that'll take my plastic rib and just start compressing so that's the most important part is just compressing that middle and then I like to bring it out and back so that this is all even in here all right so I've done that and now I'm just gonna make my rim so I'm just pinching that clay between my thumb my forefinger to get it started and then I'll take my right hand and my left hand and make that lip a little bigger so I probably want to go any bigger than this this is like almost getting to a size of a platter but it will shrink a little bit about 15% based on the play that I'm using so I got a flat bottom that I'm just gonna put the rim or the via swirl in there I'm gonna knock down the ridges a little bit [Music] there we go we got our Pig 12-inch dinner plate well there's a plate demo for you so since I really have no use for like a single dinner plate or a single small plate I turned it into more of like a bowl and a bigger platter with some fluted edges so I'll do a future video about fun things to do with the edges so you'd let them dry make sure that they're drying really consistently like one sides not drying faster than the other side so make sure they're dry consistently they dry slowly and then you would come off there when you can handle them when they're leather hard you flip them over and then you would trim the bottom so I'll do a future video about trimming just so many videos to be done that pottery you can just keep on going forever and ever and ever but yeah comment below tell me what your keys to plates are if you're a potter and you love doing plates like how do you make them so they don't warp so you don't get cracks because I know I've had stretches of time where I just seem so frustrated with plates so if you're frustrated plates watch this video make sure you're compressing the bottom drying consistently firing slowly those things can really help a lot and just more time on the wheel the better you are at throwing them easier the pots come and the better the pots come out the less warping I know I've seen some Potter's that will wait like when they're drying they'll put weights like on the bottom so that you like don't do that I've never had to do that yeah thanks for watching this video hit that subscribe button if you haven't already like this video comment below share these videos with your friends if you know people that would like these videos please let them know thank you so much to all those subscribers we are almost at 2,000 by the time I post this video we might have already been a two thousand so it's amazing appreciate all the support I love hearing from you guys sorry if I don't respond to a question right away I know this someone asked about throwing plates so I said hey I'll just make a video about it so don't feel bad if I don't respond or I've gotten a little bit more inundated with emails and calls than I can with so I'm doing my best but we got lots going on and I'm still trying to enjoy the summer so thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Jonthepotter

Views: 83,828

Rating: 4.9459457 out of 5

Keywords: Pottery, Ceramics, Clay, Studio, How to throw pots, how to be a potter, Ceramic Arts, Pottery Studio, How to center clay, handmade, Jonthepotter, making things out of clay, pottery making, How to make plates, How to throw plates, throwing plates, throw plates on a wheel, wheel throwing, making things on a wheel, make plates, plate making, dinner plates, plates warping, plates 101, pottery plates, plate, make a plate, throw plate

Id: WAOUhr6R7rM

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 12 2018