Carole Fox on tue 1 oct 02
Quite some time ago, I got a free motorized Amaco kickwheel. The wheel head
is plaster in a metal casing. I nabbed it because I thought I would like to
eventually give lessons from my studio, but so far, it's just been a big
banding wheel to me. (I also have a brent cxc.)
Some of my students at the center where I teach have inquired about lessons
from my studio and I'd like to give it a try. The thing is...I have never
thrown on a plaster wheel head. It is a small head with no bat pin holes.
Can you use a wooden tool at the base of your pot and wire off as usual? I
am guessing that you
can't use clay to hold a bat on because it wouldn't stay stuck on the
plaster- am I wrong? I suppose I could make some bats with cleats on the
bottom. Any other ideas for me?
Carole Fox - in Elkton, MD - didn't sleep at all last night...today I need
to tell the first of four classes that all of the work in the last kilnload
at the center was overfired into unrecognizable puddles.( I wonder if they
even used the timer.) Bisque, glazed ware...all destroyed. I hope my
students take it well.
cfox@dca.net
kruzewski on tue 1 oct 02
Hi Carole,
I don't have a plaster wheelhead but I do have plaster bats that I put on to
my wheel head (its a Pure and Simple Pottery device - they send you a mold
and a bat holder which fixes to the wheelhead with an A shaped form that
slots into a corresponding depression in the bottom of the bat). I use these
bats for throwing big bowls - no need to cut them off as they lift off in a
day. Also good for plates - no wiring required.
I use all my tools as usual with these bats - just don't dig in with
anything sharp - but then you wouldn't anyway otherwise, on a metal
wheelhead, you'd blunt your sharp instrument. when i've been too lazy to
take the bat holder off the wheelhead I've thrown smaller items on them and
wired them off, so you should have no problems. I also use them to turn big
pots - I even draw circles for centering markers on them with pencils. If
you want clay to stick to the plaster just wet the plaster well before
throwing the clay onto it. AS I say, my big bowls stay on the plaster for
about a day, so your clay for your bats should stay put a while. If you want
to get the clay off the bat turn the wheel head and push the edge of a
credit card under the edge of the clay - the pad of clay will now peel off
cleanly.
Jacqui, North wales
Not expressing myself very clearly as my head feels like it's encased in
perspex with a really terrible cold and my brain's been scrambled by the
first three weeks ceramics degree course. We haven't done any ceramics yet,
in fact i know that even now the ceramics modules have not been worked out,
we have no timetable and we are not sure who our tutors will be. Currently
we are studying with the fine arts and design students. I've made something
interesting using only paper glue and string based on the personality of
another student - the other, very cross, ceramics student (who walked out
that day) and then developed that into a ceramics piece - although I was
discouraged from doing so - someone somewhere seemed to forget what course I
was on. Yesterday and today we've been out and about in the National Slate
Museum and Bodnant gardens collecting visual references for work on Monday.
Susan, the other ceramics student, went off in a huff and hid in some bushes
where she swears she sat and drew a field mouse who came and joined her.
Interesting....
----- Original Message -----
From: Carole Fox
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 1:17 PM
Subject: Plaster head on wheel
The thing is...I have never
> thrown on a plaster wheel head. It is a small head with no bat pin holes.
> Can you use a wooden tool at the base of your pot and wire off as usual? I
> am guessing that you
> can't use clay to hold a bat on because it wouldn't stay stuck on the
> plaster- am I wrong? I suppose I could make some bats with cleats on the
> bottom. Any other ideas for me?
| |
|
