vince pitelka on wed 18 sep 02
> So, Vince, care to share any tips on
> "making a wide low bowl that is not going to be wheel trimmed"
There are a lot of vessel forms that can be made to be very graceful and
beautiful without wheel trimming. You can make very wide low bowls with a
narrow foot with no wheel trimming. Penetrate the centered lump of clay to
the desired bottom thickness (leave a little extra thickness to allow for
what will be left on the bat by the cutoff wire), widen the bottom a little,
and then lift the walls as a wide bowl with convex walls - like the flaring
mouth of a French horn. When you have achieved approximately the diameter
you desire, use a metal rib to remove all the slurry from the inside and
outside surfaces of the bowl. This is amazingly effective for restoring
structural integrity.
If there is excess clay around the base of the bowl, trim off most but not
all of it with a curved wooden knife, and then insert the tip of the wooden
knife blade under the lower edge, so that it raises the edge upwards,
forming a raised ridge. At the same time, press a damp spong against this
clay ridge, rounding it off. The finished effect lookes very mich like a
rounded trimmed foot.
Next, dip a sponge in a little slurry and give the inside surface of the
bowl a quick once-over. Take an appropriately-curved wood rib, and work the
inside surface outwards to achieve the curvature you want, applying gentle
pressure from the outside with your fingertips, corresponding to the
location of the rib on the inside. Forming the inside shape will require
considerable pressure across the outer edge of the bottom and the lower edge
of the walls, where they are supported by the foot, but be sure to ease up
the pressure as soon as you get to a point which is unsupported by the foot,
because otherwise you will end up with that "groove" that exists on almost
all amateur bowls just above the foot.
If you are using a very plastic claybody, you can stretch the rim in the
process of curving the walls, and make the bowl even wider and lower. Using
this method, it is possible to make a bowl 15" in diameter and 4" high with
a 6" foot with no wheel trimming, and from the side it will look like a
wheel-trimmed bowl.
If you don't want a flat bottom on the outside, when you are doing the
initial forming of the inside bottom of the bowl directly above the foot,
leave it dished a little more than you want. As soon as the bowl has
stiffened to soft leather hard on a bat, very gently set a large bat on the
rim, turn both bats over, remove the bat over the bottom, and carefully
thump the center of the outside bottom to create a slightly concave surface.
With a little practice this will bring the inside bottom right up to
curvature you want.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Home - vpitelka@dtccom.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
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