mel jacobson on wed 10 apr 96
teaching tapping was as much fun as anything i did as a high school art
teacher. it was one of the few skills that would cause a big, 18 year old
boy to cry...
we used an aluminum pop can (dr.pepper) , spin slow, tap with the ends of
the fingers on your left hand, easy, soft, light touch, and bingo, it goes
in center.
it develops that sense of touch and feel rather than visual center.
the other great project was having students make tiny pots. using a pencil
for a throwing stick, making bottles, mugs w/handles, and a t-pot that would
pour. we tried to get them as small as a thumb. this idea caused a lot of
laughter, but oh did they learn control....but it is important that the
teacher can make the smallest t-pot.
mel, in minnesota were it is 60 today.
Bonnie Staffel on tue 13 jul 99
Dear Mel,
Well, there is always more than one way to accomplish something. No
wonder your pots fly off the wheel if you use an empty soda can which
has no weight. I teach my students to use a bisqued pot which
approximates the weight of a small pot to begin with. I use the left
hand/forefinger held near the pot and when the out-of-round arrives
close to my finger, by the time I am ready to tap it, it is on the RIGHT
side and instead of tapping, I flick it with my middle finger which in a
sense pushes it in the direction of the wheel rotation. This gives the
pot a little lift and with the wheel revolving it settles down right on
center. I have yet to have a pot fly off the wheel. A soda can has no
relationship to a pot.
You don't look like an old fuddy duddy, mel, in fact you look very nice,
but lets not stop the creativity of potters in defining only one way to
do something when there may be many other ways. Back when I started
clay in the dark ages, I learned so much from Norm Schulman, then an
instructor at the Toledo Museum of Art. I also studied with Harvey
Littleton when he was a potter at the same Museum school. There were no
books for the studio potter except Leach, Binns and Jenkins. Later I
also had the good fortune to receive a scholarship to study with Maija
Grotell at Cranbrook. Leach talked about the rotation of the wheel
being clockwise in Japan and I believe he threw that way. He also
kneaded his clay to be concurrent with the same rotation of the wheel.
I taught myself how to knead the opposite direction so it would work on
western wheels.
Long live inventiveness!!!!
Bonnie Staffel, Charlevoix, MI where during these long dark cold
winters, we have a lot of time to experiment.
k.m.whipple@ATT.NET on tue 23 oct 01
Thanks to all of you for the discussion about tapping on
center. I had never managed it, but with the help of
this thread the proverbial lightbulb came on over my
head, and by the end of yesterday's trimming i pretty
much had it down. It was the person who talked about
counting, 1,2 1,2 that clinched it. Thanks! I'm all on
my lonesome out here--foolishly sold off all my clay
books a few years ago in a fit of resignation--and
detailed discussions of techniques like this are so
incredibly helpful.
Kathy Whipple
Moth Wings Pottery
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