Cindy Strnad on sun 17 feb 02
I wrote this letter personally to a friend, and thought someone else in the
group might benefit from reading it, so here are the pertinent parts:
As for the thin/thick walls, I don't remember if I've shared this with you, but
here are some suggestions. First, raise the whole pot a couple of times. Be sure
you've trained your fingers to make a nice, even thickness. Cut the pot down the
middle to check. The walls (especially including the rim) should be of even
thickness. There may be a little slight thickening at the base, but that's all.
Keep doing this until you master the pressure control with your fingers. Do it
with larger and larger lumps of clay, up to around 2 lbs. Then work on getting
it thinner until you have a nice thin wall. When you feel confident in this, go
on to the next step. **Do not go on to the next step until you know you are
ready.**
This is a way to throw taller cylinders: after raising the walls from bottom to
top a couple or three times--whatever feels right, change tack and raise only
the top half of the pot once. Be sure to do this evenly. This allows you to make
the top half thinner without putting torque on the bottom half. Now raise the
whole thing from bottom to top again. You'll really only be thinning the pot at
the bottom. When you get to the top half, concentrate on blending and shaping
only. Keep repeating this sequence until the pot is as thin as you want it to
be. Your goal is a 10" tall cylinder (about 3 1/2" in diameter) from about a
pound of clay. If this is too small for your hands to fit, just use more clay
and make a slightly larger diameter cylinder.
If you don't understand anything I've tried to say here, let me know and I'll do
my best to explain better. I think I'll post this part of the message to
clayart, too. Maybe it will help someone else.
=====================================
Cindy Strnad
Earthen Vessels Pottery
RR 1, Box 51
Custer, SD 57730
USA
cindy@earthen-vessels-pottery.com
http://www.earthen-vessels-pottery.com
CM Critique discussion forum
http://www.earthen-vessels-pottery.com\toforum.html
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