Philip Poburka on sat 19 jan 02
Dear Marianne,
Much better replies than this shall certainly come, but...
How 'thick' depends on the use you forsee or intend it to have.
My inclination would be that it end up about 3/8ths at the bottom and lower
portions, tapering to about 1/4 inch as it reach the 'top' edge.
It can happily be, say, 7/16th or a 1/2 inch down low, to 3/8ths or so at
the
rim, if you expect it to have a long, useful and maybe vigorous life.
That is if the Bowl is as large as you say here, which would tend to be a
serving Bowl, and a mixing Bowl.
I would have it so, anyway.
At least "12 inches Wide, bye 6 inches deep" is a fair sized Bowl...it will
be an inch or inch-and-a-half larger than that when you throw it, to shrink
down to that size when fired.
A wide, fairly 'deep' (as say 1/2 to 3/4 or even 7/8ths inch, bye 5 to 6
inch) Foot says "I
am a Sturdy 'Table' Bowl"...and "I will not likely 'tip' in any
situation..."
There is something comforting about that.
People will bang big silver Spoons on Bowl edges when mixing 'batter' and so
on, and thinner Bowls become shards from this tendency.
The 'sink' also is known to kill them through otherwise 'small' mishaps of a
glass or cup or other being dropped ON them, as they are all getting
washed...so some respectful 'heft' lessens this danger of fatality.
When you feel satisfied that in throwing these for practice and not keeping
them to fire...when throwing one after another to get the hang of it, and
doing some few or several hundred OF them like that...do 'wire' through them
now and then to see if the feeling or sence of 'taper' and thickness you are
getting looks good in cross-section.
You will have nice muscle-tone in your arms in no time too, from the
wedgeing activities.
Not quite as 'Pop-Eye', maybe, but enough so no one will want to fight you,
if you have your sleeves rolled up.
Many 'Bowls' thown for practice will pay off nicely when you decide to keep,
say "one" out of the next ten or fifteen, and make yourself do that for a
while...if you approach this right, it WILL be fun, and you will feel it
build and grow in you, and you will like it.
You can make all you'll ever want after that...and forthrightly.
So far as 'how' to throw them...
My recollections, since I haven't thrown a damn thing in some sorry 'buisy'
years now, is
that it pays off to knead or wedge your intended 'grapefruit' sized (maybe a
BIG 'Grapefruit' ) ball of clay, or maybe more like a 'Cantelope' sized
one...so that the densities in it are 'friendly', nice and homogeneous.
If not, that will mess with you in a big, bad, unhappy kind of way, and make
it impossible to get matters under controll or 'even', as you make your
pulls.
Center it as you may...not getting it too spread out in a 'patty', but as a
stubby 'solid' cylinder about maybe five inches across, and three or four or
five high, or
whatever it may be there.
Open as will get you about an inch and a quarter from the bottom, and pull a
stout stubby thick-tapered-wall cylinder about six inches high, and not let
the base
spread out.
Compress bottom to a about an inch, or a inch-and-a-quater and have your
pulls slight
and several and comeing 'out' low, as well as up...if you come too much
'out' (or 'out' high) it will tend to fold down on you.
So you have a 'cup' shape now..as a Tea-Cup shape would be...swooping out
low and then up.
A few sensitive pulls and low squeezes from there, compressing the bottom
nicely, from above and from the sides, from there to attain about
the general shape and foot-area you will want, and let the sides or the
overall
diameter be less now than final, while getting the height a to be a little
more than you'll
need.
Finish shapeing with a Rib...I used to use a very thin, flexable one shaped
like a
half a 'Heart' with the 'corners' rounded off on the 'flat' side.
One hand outside the bowl, and the rib working inside, get your final finish
inside and also your about-final curve to the ouutside of it, and you final
size.
This all goes pretty fast, and takes longer to tell than to do.
The Inside will be 'done' now, and the outside will be very close to it's
finall shape as
well, save for the foot and a light trimming of the general outside.
Wire off, let 'dry' to Leather-Hard, and then trim the Foot, and lightly
Trim the outside to the fair sweet curve that you know will also finalize
the
finess of the
'taper' you had intended.
The inside of the foot, or the 'bottom' of the Bowl, may also be trimmed to
continue the 'roundness' if you like, as though the 'foot' were a 'ring'
that was added to the 'round' shape of the Bowl, even though it was thrown
there and trimmed out.
I allways thought of my Bowls as sections, as lower halves of a 'Ball' that
is either spherical, or stretched up a mite, or usually 'squashed' some...as
if one squash say a Basket-Ball that is low on air, and look at the lower
half of it...put a 'ring' for it to sit on, and that is what I tended to
think as similar for 'shape'.
Good luck!
I hope this may help some little bit.
As someone just had mentioned about something else...the right Music helps,
or can...can make a nice difference...right now, "Gladys Knight" come to
mind, as I imagine throwing a whopping bunch of Bowls...
Philip
Las Vegas...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marianne Lombardo"
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 4:53 PM
Subject: Please Describe Throwing Bowl Shape
Hi Everyone;
This question is asking a lot, but I'm hoping for maybe at least a couple of
replies. The shape of a bowl fasinates me. I love bowls. And I only have
success with about 1 out of 6 tries.
I am hoping that someone who throws a low of bowls could describe exactly
how they do it, right from the beginning. Let's say, to get a finished bowl
6" high and 12" wide.
Right from how wide and high (in inches) the centered clay is started,
opening up, etc.
Please?
And how thick/thin should I expect the finished walls to be? 1/4"? less?
more?
Marianne Lombardo
Omemee, Ontario, Canada
____________________________________________________________________________
__
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Marianne Lombardo on sat 19 jan 02
Hi Everyone;
This question is asking a lot, but I'm hoping for maybe at least a =
couple of replies. The shape of a bowl fasinates me. I love bowls. =
And I only have success with about 1 out of 6 tries.
I am hoping that someone who throws a low of bowls could describe =
exactly how they do it, right from the beginning. Let's say, to get a =
finished bowl 6" high and 12" wide.
Right from how wide and high (in inches) the centered clay is started, =
opening up, etc.
Please?
And how thick/thin should I expect the finished walls to be? 1/4"? =
less? more?
Marianne Lombardo
Omemee, Ontario, Canada =20
Terrance Lazaroff on sun 20 jan 02
Marianne;
You would do better to find a workshop that will answer your questions. I
believe that there are a few planned in your area this spring.
Terrance
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marianne Lombardo"
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 7:53 PM
Subject: Please Describe Throwing Bowl Shape
Hi Everyone;
This question is asking a lot, but I'm hoping for maybe at least a couple of
replies. The shape of a bowl fasinates me. I love bowls. And I only have
success with about 1 out of 6 tries.
I am hoping that someone who throws a low of bowls could describe exactly
how they do it, right from the beginning. Let's say, to get a finished bowl
6" high and 12" wide.
Right from how wide and high (in inches) the centered clay is started,
opening up, etc.
Please?
And how thick/thin should I expect the finished walls to be? 1/4"? less?
more?
Marianne Lombardo
Omemee, Ontario, Canada
____________________________________________________________________________
__
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
John Weber on sun 20 jan 02
I'm no expert, but having thrown bowls that size in multiples yesterday I
will try to give you some help. First for a bowl this size you will need
about 10lbs of clay, the more clay you use the easier it will be to get to
the finished shape (within reason). Start with fairly soft clay and wedge it
well. Put the mound on the bat and pat it into position, centering as well
as possible. Then center it starting from the base and coning up the mass of
clay, then pushing it back down until centered. If it isn't centered, don't
continue, center it. Push the mass down so it has a base slightly larger
than what you want to end up with(6" base +/- ). Open the mass to a point
where you are leaving the base thicker than you want by at least a 1/2"
(3/4" for no foot, more for a foot). Open the mass by moving across the mass
in a gradual upward motion so you are creating a curve up but this is a
gentle curve until you get to a point where you want to start up the wall.
You stop your opening movement when you get just up the wall, making a turn
that leaves a nice curve from the line across the base and just starting up
the wall. You should now reposition your inside hand slightly up the wall
above the top of the curve you just made, and your outside hand just below
your finger on the inside. Start your first pull up the wall making the wall
as evenly thick as possible, with a slightly thicker lip. The wall should be
fairly thick at this point (1" or more). Recompress the lip. Then throw
down, starting at just below the lip, and throw down to the base with your
inside hand leading (outside finger above inside finger), stop at the curve
but let your outside hand continue to finish to the base and cut in. Then
move your inside hand (or switch hands, as I do) and move across to the
center. Then reverse the process keeping a nice curve at the point where the
base and wall meet, switching hands when you go up the wall. Once you have
a bit more than the height you are looking for start to lay the wall out in
long smooth shaping pulls. Actually, the downward throw is usually more
effective to shaping the vertical wall. Finally, you could use a nice kidney
rib to set the form of the inside curve gently, and remember to recompress
the lip every time you finish an upward pull. The wall should be thick
enough to hold its shape (1/4" is OK), don't worry about how thin it is now.
Don't cut it off the bat. Now, quit. Come back later. After it has set up
and beginning to approach leather hard, but a soft leather hard, trim it
while still attached to the bat from the outside, right side up. Do it this
way so you can constantly check the thickness of the wall as you trim. Once
you are satisfied that you have trimmed the wall the way you want, 1/4" or
less, cut the piece off the bat with a wire. Flip it, if it is too wet let
it dry out more. Once ready you can trim in your foot, if you left clay for
a foot, or just finish trimming the bottom to your liking. Good Luck. John
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
> Behalf Of Marianne Lombardo
> Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 7:54 PM
> To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
> Subject: Please Describe Throwing Bowl Shape
>
>
> Hi Everyone;
>
> This question is asking a lot, but I'm hoping for maybe at least
> a couple of replies. The shape of a bowl fasinates me. I love
> bowls. And I only have success with about 1 out of 6 tries.
>
> I am hoping that someone who throws a low of bowls could describe
> exactly how they do it, right from the beginning. Let's say, to
> get a finished bowl 6" high and 12" wide.
>
> Right from how wide and high (in inches) the centered clay is
> started, opening up, etc.
>
> Please?
>
> And how thick/thin should I expect the finished walls to be?
> 1/4"? less? more?
>
> Marianne Lombardo
> Omemee, Ontario, Canada
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> ____________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
Brenda Z on mon 21 jan 02
Marianne,
I find that written descriptions of how to throw are very difficult to follow.
The book, Thrown Pottery Techniques Revealed by Mary Chappelhow, has been
mentioned on the list before. I would recommend it as a good reference book for
learning how to throw basic shapes. There is a description and photograph of
each step in the throwing process, and cut away photographs. The photos that
show a cross section of the pot give you an idea of how thick each section of
the pot should be, and where and how to place your fingers.
Brenda.
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