Topic outline

  • Introduction

    • 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 17: Releasing Pressure
►Conclusion: Final Thoughts

  • 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.

◄Step 17: Releasing Pressure
►Conclusion: Final Thoughts