How Does a Potter's Wheel Work?
Other People Are Reading
-
Seems Like Magic
-
When you watch a potter shaping clay on a wheel it seems like magic. Her hands move, the clay rises, spreads, flows into rich curving shapes. But the potter's wheel works for scientific reasons, not magical ones. Two elements go into the function of a potter's wheel: the gyroscopic, top-like movement of a balanced spinning mass, and the ability of a spinning mass to be evenly shaped along the circular path of movement...the principle of the lathe.
A Big, Soft Spinning Top
-
When a potter begins a new project on a wheel, the first thing she will do is "center" the clay. She drops it heavily down as close the the exact center as she can. Then, pushing evenly inward with both hands, she presses the clay together while setting the wheel in motion. Her efforts force the clay into a balanced shape centered on the axis of rotation. In essence, she turns her clay into a big, soft spinning top. Like a top so long as the clay remains evenly distributed around the axis and the wheel remains in motion, the clay will rotate evenly and smoothly.
-
First a Top, Then A Lathe
-
Once she has her clay spinning along like a top, the potter can begin shaping the clay. Because of the fast spin, her fingers shape not just one portion of clay but the entire band all the way around the lump. A finger pressed in at one point will press in evenly all the way around the spinning clay. Because of this, round shapes--mugs, bowls, urns, pitchers--can be shaped on a potter's wheel.
For the same reason, a potter's wheel, like a lathe, can't be used to make shapes that aren't round in cross section. Materials shaped on a wheel ("thrown," to use the common potter's term) can be cut apart and used as portions of noncircular or cylindrical forms, but the wheel itself is useful only for round, turned shapes. Fortunately round, turned shapes are very useful in very many ways.
-
