|
|
L 208 : "This
shows both the shape I am going to make and the chuck used in
trimming it. Throw a chuck on a batt before starting your bowls,
and bring it to leather hard before the bowls reach that stage.
You can keep your chuck wrapped in two nesting plastic clay bags
for weeks at a time."
|
S(159) A two-and-a-quarter pound ball of
clay is centered and opened in a bowl shape, leaving about half-an-inch
of clay in the bottom. |
|
S (161) The first pull brings it
up into a thick cylinder.
|
S(187) A wooden rib helps thin the foot area,
leaving the wall above roughly finger thickness. |
S(189) A further pull with the rib
achieves final thinness in the lower part. |
|
L(Profile190) The rib is used to clean
the thick upper wall of finger marks, while not thinning it. This
is the portion that will be faceted. The brown line shows the
approximate inner profile.
|
S(192) The rim is given a beveled-in
shape with a chamois.
|
 S(166) The rib cleans up the finger marks
on the inside. Be sure to erase especially the marks near the
bottom third of the shape, as they are impossible to remove once
the faceting has begun. |
S(167) Chamois the lip as shown.
|
 S(168) Hold the WireTool as shown, and
cut down the side of the pot about one third to halfway through,
while making wavy back-and-forth movements. You will really have
fun experimenting with these movements, and try to make the
facets as even in thickness as you can, and the same width also.
Eveness here will help in opening the form later. |
S(171) The pot is rotated 180 degrees to
make the second facet on the opposite side in the same manner as
the first.
|
S(172) The wheel is rotated 90 degrees to
make the third facet.
|
S(173) Then 180 degrees to make the
fourth facet.
|
|
L(174) Now you can make
the remaining four facets between the ones you
have already made.
|
|
L(175) Once all eight
facets have been made, smooth the vertical edges
with a damp finger to remove the sharpness there.
This creates a hand-friendly surface.
|
S(176) True up the rim
with the chamois, without touching the faceted
area.
|
|
L(177) Use a large dull wooden rib to
stretch the wall out and widen the shape. I use the fingers of my
left hand inside and behind the rib to steady each other and
create even more drag on the wall. This helps to create a
twisting movement between wheel head and rim. you can see this
twist clearly in the last picture of this sequence.
|
S(179) Open again, even wider. You will
begin to see the rim begin to "drop" between the thick parts,
creating a lovely undulation.
|
S(181) Open to the final, widest shape.
|
 S(198) Use the chamois to cleanup the
rim, without touching the faceted area, and do this slowly and
carefully so as not to flatten the undulations. Then cut the bowl
free of the wheel head and set on board to dry. I generally make
twelve at a time in two rows. Once the rims have set up firmly,
turn upside down onto a board covered with one inch foam rubber.
I like to shuffle them at this point. That is, the corner pots
are moved to the middle, the middle pots are moved to the
outside, and the parts facing the inside are turned to face the
outside. This keeps them drying equally, so all arrive at the
proper trimming consistency at the same time.The foam rubber
prevents flattening of the lovely rim you made earlier, and the
shuffled pots are allowed to dry until ready for trimming. |
|
L(200) I center a leather hard chuck on
the wheel and place the bowl upside down on this while tapping
into center. Then tap down lightly to æfixÆ it to the chuck. I
use a small disc of plastic for a frictionless rest for my
steadying, left fingers.
|
S(206) Trim the outside bottom of the bowl
to correct thinness, removing the bowl if needed to check this.
You can always tap it back on.
|
|
L(207) Remove plastic disc and trim out
the foot. I use a Bison Tool because of its superb wear quality.
Have done around 5000 pots with this tool and it is still sharp!
Contact "Philip Poburka" < pdp1@earthlink.net> to
get one.
|
S(202) Chamois the foot to soften its
profile, so it will feel hand-friendly after the fire.
|
S(203) Stamp your maker's mark.
|
|
L(204) My mark.
|
|
L(208) The finished bowl
and the chuck it was trimmed on. You can see how
the wire cuts stretched out during the opening
phase to create wonderful surfaces for the glaze
to reveal in the fire. The undulations of the rim
are pretty wonderful also! The magic in this
process is due to the faceting of the clay while
soft, and later stretching of those facets.
|
|
|
