Topic outline

  • Introduction

    • After a lump of clay has been centered on the potter's wheel, it must be opened up and the base formed. This tutorial will discuss this opening up procedure as well as showing you what to do when things go wrong. Much like this video, it goes over lots of little details about how and why certain things are done. In this detailed guide, we're going over one thing, and that's how to open up the lump of clay and form the base. A centered lump is our starting point.

◄Step 09: Opening Up for Bowls
►Conclusion

  • Step 10: Opening Up for Plates

    • 10.1
      As for a plate, the initial shape we begin with is much lower and wider, and the pushed-down lump sort of becomes the internal base itself.

    • 10.2
      For plates, I always use really soft clay, as it's much easier to squash down.

    • 10.3
      So with plates, once the clay is really centered well, I just keep pushing down.

    • 10.4
      For this, I use the side of my hand, the flat portion which is pushed firmly down right over the middle of the lump.

    • 10.5
      As I squash down, I'm applying most of the pressure from on top, but my left hand stays in place, the fingers controlling the outside, compressing inwards slightly to keep the edge nice and neat.

    • 10.6
      Once I'm content with the shape, I can begin to hollow out the lump, and I gradually ease it out from the middle with two hands working as one to thin it out a little bit and create just a small wall on the outer edge.

    • 10.7
      Although my hands are in very different positions from how I was opening up the clay earlier on, all of the principles remain the same.

    • 10.8
      My movements are consistent, the clay is well hydrated, and I'm trying to add as much stability to my hands as possible by bracing them on the wheel tray and on each other, and by tensing them too.

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      • 10.9
        At this point, my fingers aren't just loosely gliding over the clay; instead, they're kept very rigid and they force the clay to abide by the shape I exert onto it.

      • 10.10
        Finally, I have my two different sections: there's the internal base and the slightly raised section, the wall around it.

      • 10.11
        As the walls of plates don't get particularly high, the majority of the weight of them is in the expanse at the bottom, and much of it will be trimmed away later.

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      ◄Step 09: Opening Up for Bowls
      ►Conclusion