Deborah Thuman on mon 2 jul 07
Lee said that beginners usually trim when the piece is too hard. Sounds
an awful lot like me. Some of that had to do with the clay drying in
the class studio, my work schedule, the class schedule and such.
However, my husband found me a discarded kick wheel and he's
refurbishing it. It will arrive on my back patio sometime today.
Part of the reason I wait too long to trim is because I know I have to
stick that piece to the wheel. I know how to stick a hard piece to the
wheel - three lumps of soft clay, get the piece as centered as
possible, then press down on the lumps of clay.
How do you stick a soft piece to the wheel without messing up the soft
piece?
BTW, I love the idea of not letting the pieces get too precious.
Deb
http://debthumansblog.blogspot.com/
Taylor Hendrix on mon 2 jul 07
Deb,
I realize more and more that timing is EVERYTHING.
You must work out a system that will get you and your pots together at
just the right time for trimming. Spritzing hardened pots is not the
preferred method. Trimming gooey pots with always-clogging tools isn't
any better. Learn to catch them when it is easiest for you to trim
them with the tools you have chosen.
You can play a dance especially with bowls where you don't turn your
pots over until the rim has hardened just enough to be placed on the
wheel head but the bottom is almost poo poo soft. I've tried trimming
just after turning bowls over but I use metal loop tools and ... yuck,
didn't work. The rims were quite stiff enough to hold things up with
clay slugs in place, but I made a mess of the trimming.
A soft interior chuck can support a soft pot for trimming. The trick
is to support as much of the interior surface with the chuck as
possible, especially the surface under which you are trimming.
Had to recycle two nice closed forms the other day. I turned one over
too soon and the short neck deformed under the weight of the upside
down pot. I was hoping to speed up the drying so I could trim earlier.
Can't rush things either. The other pot I had turned over in a bisqued
pot so the neck survived but I didn't have my timing down and my guess
is it was ready for trimming just about the time I was at work helping
a patron find books on Herbie the Love Bug and Buddy Hackett. Oh joy.
I considered it an opportunity to do some dissection and check my
throwing consistency. Still leaving quite a bit for the trimming tools
I'm afraid.
Taylor, in Rockport TX
On 7/2/07, Deborah Thuman wrote:
...
> Part of the reason I wait too long to trim is because I know I have to
> stick that piece to the wheel. I know how to stick a hard piece to the
> wheel - three lumps of soft clay, get the piece as centered as
> possible, then press down on the lumps of clay.
>
> How do you stick a soft piece to the wheel without messing up the soft
> piece?
...
Mike on tue 3 jul 07
Hi Deborah,
I've never been able to stick soft work to a wheel with the clay blob
method. I always ended up with a deformed rim. So I opted for chucks,
which work MUCH better to prevent deformation and much faster when
trimming lots of stuff. I do a lot of soft trimming, and had fits trying
to deal with 'chuck rash', as Craig Edwards so eloquently puts it. You
will be doing yourself a big favor if you make a set of chucks of
various diameters for your different sized pots. Flare the tops out a
bit so you'll be able to use the insides as well, for trimming closed
forms like bottles. If you are very careful you can keep chucks soft
fairly indefinitely if you use plastic bags and an occasional wet towel.
A raw chuck sticks to the wheel with just a bit of water, very handy.
They may seem like a pain in the ass to make intitially, but trust me,
they save all kinds of time. If you throw off the hump, just use that
last bit of clay from the hump to throw your chuck on the spot, let it
sit (I'll often torch mine to give them a head start drying), then trim
your pots. Don't even have to attach it to the wheel. Then when you're
finished, use your wire to remove it from the wheel and throw it in a
bag for later use.
I've opted to fire my chucks so I don't have to fiddle with the bags and
towels. Just use a rope of clay to adhere the chuck to the wheel, and
another coil at the lip to give some stickiness to the chuck. Sometimes
though, this doesn't work too well. With very soft pieces the chuck with
stick to the piece and you'll get chuck rash. I have a couple of
alternatives for this:
2- Stretch some high stitch count fabric over the top and tie it on with
a string or rubber band. This usually sticks well enough for me, if not
I wet the cloth a bit. If it still doesn't catch well, the pot slips and
I get chuck rash, and so I'll opt for the method below. Also, if the
pots are really soft I get a slight indented ring on the inside which is
usually invisible after glaze firing. If I'm worried about the
indentations being too deep though, I try this:
3- cut a piece of foam to stretch over the chuck and rubber band it on.
It should be SLIGHTLY larger than the interior of your pot. This makes a
round, soft, rough, spongy surface which expands enough to touch much of
the interior surface area of the pot you are trimming, making it quite
stable and prevents slipping. No chuck rash with this method, if your
chunk of foam is the right size, it might take some experimentation.
Another added perk to this method is that the foam supports the bottom
of the pot, so if you get a bit thin trimming the inside of the
footring, the bottom doesn't cave in on you.
Using a disk of metal or wood to reduce friction allows you to exert
much more pressure downward while you trim. Sometimes I'll even use a
drop of olive oil on the disk (mine is metal) if my finger is sticking.
The problem with the disk on soft clay is it will leave an impression on
the untrimmed pot butt, wiping out your nice twisted cord cutoff design,
or whatever. In this case, use a thin disk of foam between the pot and
the metal/wood disk. No more impressions.
Hope this gives you some ideas,
Happy potting,
Mike
Mike
in Taku, Japan
karatsupots.blogspot.com
potteryofjapan.com
Deborah Thuman wrote:
> Lee said that beginners usually trim when the piece is too hard. Sounds
> an awful lot like me. Some of that had to do with the clay drying in
> the class studio, my work schedule, the class schedule and such.
> However, my husband found me a discarded kick wheel and he's
> refurbishing it. It will arrive on my back patio sometime today.
>
> Part of the reason I wait too long to trim is because I know I have to
> stick that piece to the wheel. I know how to stick a hard piece to the
> wheel - three lumps of soft clay, get the piece as centered as
> possible, then press down on the lumps of clay.
>
> How do you stick a soft piece to the wheel without messing up the soft
> piece?
>
> BTW, I love the idea of not letting the pieces get too precious.
>
> Deb
> http://debthumansblog.blogspot.com/
>
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>
Lee Love on thu 5 jul 07
I like torches and heat guns. Just be mindful and don't over do it.
Mostly it is good for firming up the rims. If done too much on a
bottom, you can make a crack
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." -
Henry David Thoreau
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
Lezlie Finet on thu 5 jul 07
<
piece?>>
<>
Hey -
Don=92t forget about using a torch. I keep my 'flame thrower" handy near my=
wheel for those too soft rims or other parts that need immediate handling
or alteration. I=92m impatient, so when I=92m ready to trim and the pot
isn=92t, I toast it up a bit with the torch and soon it=92s ready to dance.
I also have a hair-dryer on a stand that I set on the bench with the warm
air gently blowing on my spinning pot. I can go to lunch or whatever and
when I get back the piece is uniformly firmer.
It=92s easier to firm up a too-soft pot than try to re-soften a dry one, and=
less stress on the pot, thus less potential for cracking.
I don=92t use chucks very often but when I do I can usually find an
adaptable shape, pot, bowl or cylinder in my studio (or kitchen).
Hope this helps,
Lezlie in Spokane on the hottest day of the year. I think I=92ll go fire a
kiln.
http://www.LezlieFinetPottery.com
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