Lots of people ask how things are made so I thought I'd put together a little photo series on how I make a bowl. Everybody makes things a little different, but the general steps are similar. Notice through all the steps my hands are always touching each other, this helps provides added stability to fight the action of the moving clay. I also make every attempt to have my elbows close to my body and often on my legs to provide stability and to use my body as leverage when using large balls of clay.
I start with 1.5 pounds of clay which is kind of thrown onto the center of the wheel. Because the clay ball is oddly shaped and uneven, it must be centered which involves pushing down on the ball with my right hand and pushing in with my left hand on the side to smooth out the bumps and lop-sidedness of the clay ball. When you've centered the clay, it looks like the photo below.
Clay ball is centered when my hands don't wobble as the clay spins
Next I press my fingers down at the center of the clay ball to a point about 1/4" from the bat (wood piece added on the metal wheel head allows me to remove the bowl on the bat while it is still wet without distorting the bowl) I test the thickness by stopping the wheel and poking a needle tool through the bottom of the depression I've made until it touches the bat.
Once I have the appropriate thickness at the bottom, I pull out the sides by pressing my fingers outward and steadying the clay with the outside hand
I make the sides of the bowl taller and thinner by pressing the clay upward between my fingers on the outside and inside of the clay. Starting at the bottom and moving my hands upward while putting pressure on the clay moves clay upward and outward.
A second pull is done just like the first one
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