How to Make a Large Pot? - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats.
We are going to talk about larger forms on the wheel. And if you are not comfortable wedging up 10 or 15 pounds of clay at once, you can wedge up 2 smaller balls of clay. And what we will do is smack one on really well, get it pretty centered and you want this a nice round top. Make sure this one is nice and round and we will smack right on top of it. What I am doing is just kind of patting it, to work it in. Careful not to trap any air in there. And now we have twice as much clay to work with.
So we will cone our clay a little bit, center it. And when you are working with a large amount of clay you are going to be using a lot more force so you want to make sure that your arms are braced in. So get it nice and centered. And opening, normally I will open with 2 fingers, because this is alot of clay. I will use my thumb and my fingers like this. I am going to go in. Make sure you get some water in there. And then instead of just 2 fingers I am actually going to use my whole hand and curl. And open. And I actually kind of squeeze the wheel with my legs, so I am really holding onto it. Now I will squeeze and pull the clay up. Like that, all the way to the top, making sure I condense the rim.
So I am going to collar this in, because remember I want to keep my rim smaller diameter. And periodically, between pulls I like to take a metal rib and run it along the surface of the pot. And this is going to do two things for me. It is going to take off a lot of the slip, which is going to help the piece not get over saturated, because I do not want it too wet otherwise it will start slumping on me. And it is also compacting the clay particles together. So it is going to hold the form a little bit, a little bit easier. I am going to stand up for this one, make sure I get my hand in there. And on this one I am going to start to shape it a little bit. So I am going to start in this thick area, I am going to push out.
Stretch the clay out. And then I am going to bring the clay in for the neck of the piece. And bring it all the way up, to the top. And condense the rim. Grab my metal rib and condense the clay. I am going to flip it and use the curved edge on this inside curve. And as I am doing this I am also shaping it a little bit as well. Starting to refine my shape. And I can use this edge of my metal rib, make a nice little break in the pot. Break up the form a little bit. Utilize some of the natural curves of the rib. Open up the clay.
Now I will start shaping it where I want it. It is always good, especially for the bigger ones, kind of take a larger step back and see where your shape is and where you want it to go. We will bring the shoulder up on this one a little bit. You want to keep in mind, when you are pushing out from the inside you are stretching that clay. So you do not want to stretch it too much. Otherwise you are going to get very thin, uneasy walls. Cut away any excess clay. This can also be done trimming later on. But I like to get that done a little bit more at this point. I will do one last final shaping. And a little bit extra.
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Pottery: How to Make a Bottle Formby geobeats271 views
@RobGrom thanks for posting your comment! It really is great to see the beginning to end pottery process.
geobeats 5 months ago
This is unreal... I can't believe where you started with a blob of clay and how you got to the end result. Nicely done, sir!
RobGrom 5 months ago