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two tips for footing large pots

updated wed 31 jan 07

 

Brad Sondahl on thu 25 jan 07








I glazed a couple kiln loads today, including 6 large bowls that
put me
in mind of a pottery tip I'm now going to convey.  Larger pots
like platters and large bowls are heavy, and thus when you invert them
you risk stressing the lip, which may crack it, especially if it's not
perfectly flat to begin with.  The drier the lip is when you are
footing the pots, the likelier this is to occur.  So, when I
footed the large bowls, I started by centering a 5 quart plastic ice
cream bucket, turned upside down, on the wheel head, and secured it
with wads of clay.  Then I added 3 wads of clay near the edge at
the  top of the bucket, and and patted them down so they were
roughly the same thickness.  The bowl can then be inverted and
placed on the bucket, such that it is suspended roughly over the center
of the wheel.   The wheel is spun, and the bowl is adjusted till
it's centered.  After that it's trimmed normally, although perhaps
with less pressure and speed than if it were secured to the bat...

   
This is also useful for intentionally  altered bowls that are
paddled, deformed, have cutout areas, etc.  It also makes it so
you can foot a bowl or platter larger than your largest bat.

   
That brings me to tip number two.  My wheel has a plastic scrap
catcher which is higher than than the wheelhead, and thus it limits the
size of bats to those that will fit in  that space.  To
circumvent that, I added a wood layer onto a regular bat to raise it
about an inch, and added screws onto it in the place where the bat pins
would be, right above the bat holes on the bat, so that another bat
could be added on top.  A sort of bat sandwich, one might say..
 The reason you put the screws right above the bat holes, is to
make it easy to slip on and off the wheelhead.  If you can
visualize where the holes are, it's much easier to attach.



Brad Sondahl (from today's blog entry)


--

visit Sondahl.com for original art, music, pottery, photography, literature, and more.




Ron Roy on tue 30 jan 07


Hi Brad,

I left this as it came in - you need to turn on plain text - or turn off
HTML - or something.

I used this technique when trimming large branch bottles - but with a
difference. First I got the pot bottom level in the holder - then centered
both - then fixed them to the wheel head.

I used a set (small to large) terracotta flower pots - wet em first so they
did not dry out my pots where they touched (I deformed them after I trimmed
them.) The tapered flower pots were the perfect answer - good trimming
chucks.

RR

I glazed a couple kiln loads today, including 6 large bowls that
>put me
>in mind of a pottery tip I'm now going to convey.  Larger pots
>like platters and large bowls are heavy, and thus when you invert them
>you risk stressing the lip, which may crack it, especially if it's not
>perfectly flat to begin with.  The drier the lip is when you are
>footing the pots, the likelier this is to occur.  So, when I
>footed the large bowls, I started by centering a 5 quart plastic ice
>cream bucket, turned upside down, on the wheel head, and secured it
>with wads of clay.  Then I added 3 wads of clay near the edge at
>the  top of the bucket, and and patted them down so they were
>roughly the same thickness.  The bowl can then be inverted and
>placed on the bucket, such that it is suspended roughly over the center
>of the wheel.   The wheel is spun, and the bowl is adjusted till
>it's centered.  After that it's trimmed normally, although perhaps
>with less pressure and speed than if it were secured to the bat...

>   
>This is also useful for intentionally  altered bowls that are
>paddled, deformed, have cutout areas, etc.  It also makes it so
>you can foot a bowl or platter larger than your largest bat.

>   
>That brings me to tip number two.  My wheel has a plastic scrap
>catcher which is higher than than the wheelhead, and thus it limits the
>size of bats to those that will fit in  that space.  To
>circumvent that, I added a wood layer onto a regular bat to raise it
>about an inch, and added screws onto it in the place where the bat pins
>would be, right above the bat holes on the bat, so that another bat
>could be added on top.  A sort of bat sandwich, one might say..
> The reason you put the screws right above the bat holes, is to
>make it easy to slip on and off the wheelhead.  If you can
>visualize where the holes are, it's much easier to attach.

>

>Brad Sondahl (from today's blog entry)


Ron Roy
RR#4
15084 Little Lake Road
Brighton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 1H0

Lee Love on wed 31 jan 07


On 1/26/07, Brad Sondahl wrote:
>
> I glazed a couple kiln loads today, including 6 large bowls that put me in
> mind of a pottery tip I'm now going to convey. Larger pots like platters
> and large bowls are heavy, and thus when you invert them you risk stressing
> the lip, which may crack it, especially if it's not perfectly flat to begin
> with. The drier the lip is when you are footing the pots, the likelier this
> is to occur.

If the lip is so hard that it cracks when you trim, your
work is probably going to be more prone to cracking inside the
footring. Protect the rim from drying out by flipping the bowl
before it dries out.

--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
http://potters.blogspot.com/
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
"When we all do better. We ALL do better." -Paul Wellstone