Brad Sondahl on tue 4 jan 11
I had to trim some globe shaped vases today, and while one can secure
them with pads of clay, a chuck works better to hold them in place.
If I have a lot of bowls or narrow things to trim, I'll make a thrown
chuck--a thick walled flaring cylinder of freshly thrown clay. Thrown
chucks hold the pot very securely, since the clay is still sticky
(downside--may stick to the pot you're trimming, and have to be thick
to not collapse). Today I used a 5 quart ice cream bucket, which I
got recently after having lost one I'd used for many years (I can't
stand that cheap ice cream that comes in the buckets, or I would have
bought one just for the bucket.) To use it to hold the globe vase in
place, I centered the bucket on a batt on the wheel head, and secured
it with pats of clay. Some of the vases fit snugly in the bucket,
which just meant they needed to be leveled to be centered... Others
were too narrow, so I added two pats of clay at once, one on each
side, which would push between the vase and the bucket wall, making a
springy connection, then adding two more at right angles to secure it.
Obviously if the vases are too narrow the bucket won't work--in that
case it's back to the thrown chuck.
The same bucket can be used as a chuck for footing bowls, by
turning it upside down on the wheel and securing it with pats of clay,
then setting the bowl upside down on top of the bucket, where friction
will generally hold it in place while trimming, or a coil or pats of
clay set on the bottom (now the top) of the bucket...
Brad Sondahl
http://www.sondahl.com
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