Throwing Pots. Term 2 – Week 4

Turning Tantrums

I think I find turning the most difficult and frustrating of all the processes in pottery and at the same time the most satisfying if I manage to do it well.

This week it is turning time and thankfully we are given a full comprehensive demo before we are let loose on the pots we have thrown. I decide to turn what was a heavy large cylinder into a mug for my mate John, who has been promised a mug since I began classes. I want a sturdy mug with visible turning lines in the middle section. I am very careful not to go through the bottom and to try and pick the mug up a lot and feel for where the lumps, bumps and heavy bits are. This technique takes more time than I am used to spending on the turning process but I am proud of the result! The picture shows it upside down drying on the shelf.

Following this one success I am a bit short of time and as a result things start to go rapidly downhill! My usual heavy handed turning technique returns and I get so stuck into one pot that I am left with a tube! Thankfully it doesn’t go to waste and is used to prop up another pot to help it dry. I don’t have time to try anything else so I attempt to throw something from the chuck (which I made to turn the pots on) but even this ends up in disaster. As I leave the class I think, well at least I have finally managed to make a mug for John (let’s hope it survives the kiln)!

How to make a ceramic tube