Trimming

On Monday I trimmed my three pots. I made two bowls and a cup. Interestingly enough I learned how to trim using the fast Brent wheel. For a long time I've only trimmed on a kickwheel, but Tom had convinced me to do otherwise. "if you want to waste all your time trimming, go right ahead."

I also learned a technique of determining the midpoint of where one should push to center a piece of leather-hard clay. Very neat. I'll have to post pictures soon.

I also learned how to use the back of a wood trimming tool to burnish the piece as the wheel is spinning so we can achieve a nicer finish on the clay before glazing. Very very nice.

Lastly I learned to reshape a deformed bowl by inserting a bisque fired bowl into the deformed bowl and tapping until the shape comes back about. Of course, I made the mistake of also indenting my bowl so that it was severely deformed, but oh well.. lessons learned.

Some more things I learned.
1. Ash causes glazes to run.
2. With teapots, the opening of the spout should be in line with the top of the teapot (duh).
3. Always push DOWN with your rib of clay when trimming, not IN bc you'll deform your piece (which happened to me)
4. When making a lid for a pot, make sure you insert the xacto at 45 degrees so that the lid can easily come out.
5. Fire the lid separate from the body so that you can glaze both sides of the lid.

Pictures to come.

I'm thinking of making a teapot and some vases and plates. We have enough mugs. Also a large casserole for the oven. I'm excited!!!