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  • Introduction

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    • After a lump of clay has been centered and the base formed, the next step in the process is pulling up the walls of the pot and doing that is the topic of this tutorial in which I'll discuss how to pull up the walls alongside showing you any tips and tricks I have together with showing you what to avoid to hopefully get your throwing to a point where you can quickly, evenly, and confidently pull the walls up on the pots you're making. It’s worth noting that this tutorial won't go over centering or opening up and forming the base of your lump of clay as I've already covered those topics in great detail in the two previous tutorials. Both centering and opening up the clay correctly are undeniably important parts of this process and if you attempt to pull the walls up on a pot that's centered poorly or opened up incorrectly you'll only make this next step of pulling the walls up all the more difficult. So let's begin.

  • Step 1: Initial Setup

    • 1.1
      The base of the pot has been clearly defined, as has the thicker portion that surrounds it.

    • 1.2
      It's this thicker section that's going to be pinched together and pulled into the walls of the pot.

    • 1.3
      It's quickly worth reiterating how important it is to have a sharp angle on the interior corner of the pot.

    • 1.4
      Before I start pulling the walls up into a cylinder, I just make sure that my walls are angling upwards instead of potentially angling outwards.

    • 1.5
      To do that, I wet my hands and collar the walls in slightly. This way, the wall is facing the direction you intend to pull it.

      image

    • 1.6
      In this cross-section, you can see the area from which I'm going to pinch, which at this point are these two grooves on either side.

      image

    • 1.7
      As for the base, once it's set, I never want to push down any further as it's already quite thin.

    • 1.8
      Ideally, I want the thickness of the base to be matched in the thickness of the walls after they've been pulled.

  • Step 2: Beginning the Pull

    • 2.1
      The aim of the game is to pull these thicker sections up so the clay is distributed evenly throughout the entire piece.

    • 2.2
      To do this, I make a fist and extend a knuckle.

    • 2.3
      My hand is then twisted so it faces downwards, and it's the side of this knuckle which is going to do a majority of the pulling from the outside.

    • 2.4
      My right-hand knuckle is placed into this groove on the outside, and on the inside, the pads of my fingers meet it and then push them together, which creates a smaller region the clay has to pass through as it's squeezed up.


    • 2.5
      On successive pulls, the positioning of my fingers changes slightly, and the pads of my fingers on the inside are a bit higher than those on the outside.

    • 2.6
      The first thing I do is make sure my hands and the pot itself are covered in water.

    • 2.7
      If they aren't hydrated, the clay won't flow smoothly and instead it'll stick to my hands.

    • 2.8
      I tuck the side of this wetted knuckle into this groove, and as it pushes against the pads of my fingers on the inside, I move them both up at a very steady and even rate.


  • Step 3: Maintaining Consistency

    • 3.1
      This is not a process you want to rush, as if you move your hands too quickly or spin the wheel too fast, you may impart various thicknesses into the walls of the vessel, which then makes the walls themselves uneven and more likely to collapse or twist.

    • 3.2
      After each pull, I take a moment just to compress and neaten the rim, which I do by squeezing it from either side and by pushing down with my index finger.

      image

    • 3.3
      For my next pull, this is when I get a lot more height out of the cylinder.

    • 3.4
      Now the walls are a bit thinner, I can begin to      manipulate them in a slightly different way.

    • 3.5
      I always wet the region I'm going to work on.

    • 3.6
      I push my knuckle into the bottom of the pot, and with my fingers on the inside, I push them out slightly above where my knuckle is pushing.


    • 3.7
      The gap you leave between your fingers dictates how thick the wall will be as you pull it up.

      image

    • 3.8
      Often I'll see beginners pinch all the way through the wall, creating a hole in their pot.

    • 3.9
      That happens if your fingers actually ever touch, as it means you'll have pierced a hole in the walls of your pot.

  • Step 4: Intermediate Pulls

    • 4.1
      For my next pull, I make sure the walls are wet and then I dig in with my knuckle to create an indentation at the bottom.

    • 4.2
      This pushes in the excess clay into a portion of the walls you'll then be able to pull up.

    • 4.3
      The bump you see above that groove is where my fingers on the inside are pushing out.

    • 4.4
      Once I've set this up, I can push both fingers into these indentations, pinch, and then move them up at a steady rate, forcing the clay upwards.

    • 4.5
      Once again, I move both my hands at a very even, gradual rate.

    • 4.6
      I'm not pinching progressively more firmly as my hands travel up.

    • 4.7
      Instead, once the initial squeeze is made at the bottom and the gap between my fingers is set, I keep my fingers held at that position throughout the entirety of the pull.

    • 4.8
      I don't suddenly squeeze more firmly or suddenly release pressure as I'm going up.

    • 4.9
      The most vital thing at this stage when you're pulling is to just be as consistent with your movements as you possibly can be.


  • Step 5: Analyzing Results

    • 5.1
      One way to tell if you're being consistent is to look at the throwing rings you leave on the outside surface of the pot.

    • 5.2
      If they're spaced out nice and evenly, then it means your pull was even too.

    • 5.3
      If instead these grooves are sporadic and some are wider, more narrow, or deeper than others, then it means your pulls are inconsistent.

    • 5.4
      You can look at the outside surface of your pot at this stage to really get an understanding of how your hands are moving.

      image

    • 5.5
      The best thing you can do is to cut your pots in half and observe the cross-section.

    • 5.6
      Ideally, you're looking for a pot with walls that are the same thickness throughout.

    • 5.7
      They shouldn't be too thick in one section or thin in another.

      image

    • 5.8
      It is normal perhaps to have a slight extra bit of thickness in the bottom corner.

    • 5.9
      Generally, what we're aiming for, for a cylinder at least, is to have walls and a base that are more or less the same thickness throughout.

    • 5.10
      You don't want the bottom of your pot to be excessively heavy, but naturally, at the beginning when you're learning to throw, they will be.

  • Step 6: Handling Thickness and Weight

    • 6.1
      With enough dedicated practice, it doesn't take long to get pots to a point where they'd look balanced and uniform.

    • 6.2
      The key is just not to be too precious at the start and to throw cylinders until they break so you really gain a thorough understanding of the limits of your material.

    • 6.3
      While that might have gone over the process in some detail, I'll spend the rest of this tutorial going over each step in more detail.

    • 6.4
      I'll also discuss how to fix certain things, why some errors arise, and show you many more cross-sections like this to hopefully illustrate what is sometimes quite a difficult process to grasp.

    • 6.5
      Let's discuss the pressure needed to pull up the walls and the theory behind it.

    • 6.6
      If you only apply pressure from the outside, you can see that the form just bows inward.

    • 6.7
      The same is true if you only push from the inside.

    • 6.8
      Instead, what we need is some counter pressure to oppose the force being applied from one side.

    • 6.9
      I pinch with two fingers, and they move up together with a relative amount of pressure.


  • Step 7: Dealing with Centrifugal Force

    • 7.1
      As you throw pots, centrifugal force will naturally want to pull the walls of the vessel outward.


    • 7.2
      You may find as you're pulling up cylinders that the top section begins to splay outwards as you're making them, which will cause it to thin out as it stretches.

    • 7.3
      That part can be quite difficult to control.

    • 7.4
      If I find this is happening to my pots, I wet the vessel and then clasp both hands around the piece and gently collar the top inward.

    • 7.5
      I run my hands from below up to the top and make as much contact with the rim as possible with my hands so that it's being squeezed in from all the way around as opposed to just one or two points.


    • 7.6
      Then, just to correct the rim, I pinch it between two fingers and compress it down from on top.

  • Step 8: Shaping the Pot

    • 8.1
      The reason I'm showing you this is to explain why I throw pots in this inward tapering shape.

    • 8.2
      As I'm pulling up the walls of my cylinders, I aim to keep the opening more narrow than the base of the pot.

    • 8.3
      After every pull, I collar in the upper sections of the walls just to keep them tapered in.

      image

    • 8.4
      With each pull, the walls become straighter, and if I didn't account for this and didn't correct them by tapering them in slightly, there's a chance the cylinder will gradually begin to flare out more and more.

    • 8.5
      As it does so, it becomes more difficult to control.

    • 8.6
      As I pull the walls up, I do so in such a way that they slope inward.

      image

    • 8.7
      In this way, I end up with a cylinder that's more stable and controlled.

  • Step 9: Exploring Techniques

    • 9.1
      I use a knuckle on the outside to pull up the walls. I find this really works well for me for the first couple of pulls at least.

      image

    • 9.2
      You'll find other potters who use just their fingertips on the outside.

      image

    • 9.3
      You'll find other potters who, instead of using their fingers directly, push them through a wetted sponge on the outside.

      image

    • 9.4
      There isn't just one correct way of doing it, but the fundamental technique remains the same regardless of whether you're using your fingers or a sponge.

    • 9.5
      While the sponge does come with the added bonus of keeping the pot well saturated as you're throwing, you're also disconnecting yourself slightly from the clay as you aren't pushing on it directly.

    • 9.6
      For me, personally, I tend to use my knuckle for the first couple of pulls, and then I might switch to using my fingertips towards the end to really pinch out the very last of the excess clay in the base.

    • 9.7
      Typically, I'll only use a sponge when I'm throwing larger pots.

    • 9.8
      There are constants in this process, though, such as dousing the piece with water before you begin each pull, along with the constant pressure and speed at which the wall is pulled up.

  • Step 10: Arm Positioning and Stability

    • 10.1
      Another very important factor to consider is the positioning of your arms.

    • 10.2
      I tuck my elbows into my torso, and actually, that's where most of the movement comes from.

    • 10.3
      I'm moving my whole forearm up from the elbow as opposed to just moving my hand or rotating it at the wrist.

      image

    • 10.4
      Moving my hand from the elbow means that the position of my knuckle remains the same on the outside of the pot, and the angle that I push in initially is maintained as it travels up the wall.

    • 10.5
      My whole forearm is moving, not just my hands, and the result of this is that my hands are just far more stable as I move them up.

    • 10.6
      In this clip, I'm doing what you shouldn't do: I'm moving my hand upwards just by rotating my wrist, and you can see just how drastically the angle at which I'm pulling up changes.


    • 10.7
      I've gone from using the side of my knuckle to the tip of it, and the focused pressure I began with when I first tucked my knuckle in becomes very difficult to sustain as the point of focus changes halfway up the pot.

    • 10.8
      I found myself losing control when trying it this way.

  • Step 11: Avoiding Thin Walls

    • 11.1
      If as you're pulling up you linger in one spot for too long, you may create a weak point as the clay thins beneath your fingers and collapses down slightly.

    • 11.2
      Although in a different spot, this is what a thin region can look like in comparison to the rest of the wall, and if this occurs lower down, the weight of the walls above it can be enough to cause the lower section to crumple and collapse.

      image

    • 11.3
      This is also something that's more likely to happen if you've spent a very long time throwing the same cylinder, because as you progressively add more and more water, the clay slowly becomes saturated, it degrades, and becomes weak.

    • 11.4
      A cylinder like this really shouldn't take more than two or three minutes to make.

    • 11.5
      If they are taking you 10 or 15 minutes per piece, then there's a chance the clay you're working with is already too saturated and therefore structurally the clay will be weaker, and you'll have a more difficult time making the pot.

  • Step 12: Consistency in Motion

    • 12.1
      If you pull the walls up too quickly, you'll end up creating very dramatic throwing rings, which, if this was your end product and the look you wanted, then fine, but as the cylinder still needs to be thrown a lot more, exaggerated rings like this can impede your making.

      image

    • 12.2
      There are now very thin and very thick sections that you have to contend with as you pull the walls up, and you'll have a much more difficult time evenly distributing the clay.

    • 12.3
      Let's go back to the beginning. I pinch the clay firmly at the bottom between my knuckle on the outside and the pads of my fingers on the inside.

    • 12.4
      They squeeze and move up the walls together, and then as I'm fetching more water, I keep one hand on the pot to help keep it sturdy.

    • 12.5
      I then plunge my fingers back down, and with my knuckle on the outside, I gouge in and undercut, and just above that, on the inside, I'm pushing out with the pads of my fingers to create a bump.


    • 12.6
      I then lift this bulge up the walls of the pot.

    • 12.7
      You'll notice that my hands don't change their position whatsoever; rather, they're just pivoting from my elbows.

    • 12.8
      I then gently release my fingers from the top and compress the rim again just to ensure that it's running smooth and is perfectly centered.

      image

  • Step 13: Finishing the Pot

    • 13.1
      I fetch some more water once again and douse both my hand on the inside and the walls on the outside.

      image

    • 13.2
      Imagine I'm using a knuckle on the outside; I push in at the very bottom and just above that I push out slightly, and then I move the two up together very gradually, and you can see as the clay is forced through that thinner gap between my fingers, the wall itself becomes thinner.

    • 13.3
      I'll show you that again from the outside, and one thing you might notice is how I'm bracing the thumb of my left hand against the knuckles of my right hand.

    • 13.4
      This is done once again to add stability to my movement, and it means my left hand isn't floating in space quite so much.


  • Step 14: Weight and Balance

    • 14.1
      Creating pots that have even cross sections is one of the first things you should work towards when learning how to throw pots on the wheel, as you don't want your pots to feel bottom heavy when they're lifted up.

      image

    • 14.2
      Pots can still be thickly walled, as long as the weight is distributed evenly throughout the entire pot, and what I aim for is to have a base which is the same thickness as the walls next to it.

    • 14.3
      The next pot I'll show you is what we don't want. This is an example of a pot that's bottom heavy, thrown in such a way that the clay has been left down in the bottom.

      image

    • 14.4
      Not only will this piece defy your expectations when you go to pick it up, especially when it's filled up with liquid, but if you don't trim lots of it away, you're essentially wasting raw material.

    • 14.5
      Not only that, but a bottom-heavy piece like this is a sure sign the creator isn't throwing their pots properly. They aren't squeezing the clay in enough at the base, and the lower balls still hold much of the reserves which should be distributed more evenly throughout the pot above it.

    • 14.6
      It's also worth mentioning here that my pots were heavy like this once.

    • 14.7
      Any potter learning how to throw will have pots at the beginning that are bottom heavy, as learning how to distribute it evenly is one of the trickiest things about learning how to throw pots.

  • Step 15: Improvement and Practice

    • 15.1
      Learning to do it efficiently is something that just takes time, but for those who are starting out, I'd recommend just going for it.

    • 15.2
      Use a bit more gusto and pinch more firmly at the base.

    • 15.3
      Try to move as much clay upwards in the first three pulls as you possibly can, and if that means your pot breaks, then so be it. Slice it off and start again.

    • 15.4
      The fastest way you will improve is by throwing hundreds and hundreds of pots.

    • 15.5
      Another important thing to consider when you're throwing is how you release your fingers when you get to the top of your pot.

    • 15.6
      Ideally, when you get to the top, you want to release pressure very gently from either side.

    • 15.7
      As I'm pulling up, my knuckle on the outside and the pads of my fingers on the inside never go beyond the rim of the pot.

    • 15.8
      Instead, they arrive just underneath it, and then I very gently detach them.

    • 15.9
      Often beginners, instead of stopping at this point, simply continue pulling all the way through the rim and pinch it, which often causes one side of the rim to be thinner than the other, and if you do this numerous times, you can end up with a rim that's very uneven and off-center.

  • Step 16: Final Adjustments

    • 16.1
      If I am making a drinking vessel, I don't want the top of my pot to be squared and blocky.

    • 16.2
      Instead, I bevel this edge so it comes to a point where it meets the outside wall.

    • 16.3
      This way, the sharper edge will fit comfortably into the corners of your mouth, and it also makes the pot feel less enclosed, as if it's offering out its contents as opposed to holding them in.

      image

    • 16.4
      It's also through this edge that we perceive the thickness of the pot, and by throwing it to be just a bit more delicate, it makes the entire vessel seem as if it's being more carefully thrown.

    • 16.5
      You may also sometimes find that you have a wobble in your rim. This can be due to many factors, such as poorly wedged clay or inconsistent pressure when you're pulling up the walls.


    • 16.6
      To rectify this, I wet the top slightly and then take a sharp potter's needle.

    • 16.7
      I'll push this through the wall below the lowest point of the undulation, and when I feel the tip of the needle on my finger on the other side, I'll lift away all the excess clay above it, which in practice looks a bit like this.

    • 16.8
      I'll then wet this rim again and just carefully work it back to my desired shape.

  • Step 17: Releasing Pressure

    • 17.1
      One thing I really want to reiterate is just how important it is for your pulls to be slow and consistent.

    • 17.2
      The speed you start with at the beginning of your pull should remain the same from bottom to top.

    • 17.3
      The more practice you get, the faster you can begin to throw, but initially, you should just be focusing on the quality of each pull.

    • 17.4
      Make sure the rim is set, the form is tapering in, wet the outsides, form the groove in the base, and then gently pull the walls up.

    • 17.5
      If you find your hands are getting dry as you're doing this, you could try throwing with water that contains a bit more slip in it, as it tends to cling to the form of the pot as opposed to water, which can just run off in some cases.

    • 17.6
      I usually fetch a bit more water in between each pull, squeezing it on both my hand on the inside so the interior walls are covered, and on the outside.

    • 17.7
      If the component does dry out too much and you start to feel the clay sticking to your hands, then that's a sure sign that you need to add some more water.

    • 17.8
      The position on the wheel that I'm pulling from is also really important.

    • 17.9
      If the wheel head is a clock, my hands are pulling on the walls at about four o'clock.


  • Step 18: Tool Usage

    • 18.1
      Next, I'll discuss how I finish a pot so that it can be removed from the wheel.

    • 18.2
      I begin by sponging out the excess water inside the pot, and then I carefully trim away this skirt of clay around the base, which is done with a blunt old turning tool.


    • 18.3
      There's then a selection of tools you can use to clean up the walls. These are three throwing kidneys: one's rubber, one's wooden, and one's metal.

      image

    • 18.4
      They’ll more or less do the same thing, and they all have the same feature, which is a nice long sharp side.

    • 18.5
      It's this edge which I'll be offering up to the clay in order to scrape away the excess slip on the walls.

    • 18.6
      Whilst they may all be similar, the different materials really do make a big difference.

    • 18.7
      I primarily use metal ones these days.

    • 18.8
      They tend to be the sharpest and are probably the most difficult to control, but I'll discuss each of them in turn.

    • 18.9
      The plastic ones tend to be the most beginner-friendly.

    • 18.10
      They're smoother and they don't bite the clay as much as the wood or the metal, but they are more malleable, which can be very useful in some situations.

    • 18.11
      Then there's the wood, which isn't flexible whatsoever but has a smooth edge relatively compared to the metal.

    • 18.12
      Then there's my favorite, which is the sharp brass tool which bites and really rips away the outer layer of slip, and it is slightly flexible.

    • 18.13
      When I remove this slip, I place one hand inside the pot and then I firmly grasp the metal tool and I hold it, hovering it just where I want the wall to be.


    • 18.14
      I'm not digging it into the clay. Rather, from the inside, I'm pushing the clay out against the metal edge, and I'm not digging the metal into the clay, as doing so usually causes the pot to twist and deform.

    • 18.15
      I even use a sharper metal edge sometimes, which leaves me with a very crisp and dry surface, although there's little room for error when using tools like this.

  • Conclusion: Final Thoughts

    • I hope all this has proved to be useful. Out of all of the processes I've shown so far in this series, I think this is the most difficult part. I know I've said it a lot, but the best thing is just not to be too precious when you're first learning how to throw tall thin cylinders. Just spending an afternoon with 10 lumps of clay and throwing each of them as thinly as you possibly can is absolutely fantastic practice, even if they break, as you'll still learn so much. Sometimes you need to exert too much pressure and pull the walls up too thinly to really gain a thorough understanding of the material. Throwing pots really evenly and thinly is something that takes time, so you shouldn't let this hinder your progress, and you should try throwing all kinds of pots, even if they are a little bit heavy initially. You'll learn more doing that than feverishly trying to throw perfect even cylinders. There are still some shapes these days that I find much harder to distribute the clay nice and evenly. But maybe in 10 years' time, with another decade of practice, I'll be able to throw them as easily as I can cylinders. We should think of ourselves as lucky as potters, as all the clay from pots cut in half or ruined can simply be wedged back up into perfectly usable material and ultimately thrown with again into ever more successful pots.

  • Source

    • The lesson is based on material from the YouTube video by Gadsby, F. For more information and analysis, the book by Gadsby, F. (2023), By My Hands, Penguin Books, is recommended.