How to Trim a Bowl on a Potter's Wheel

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Pottery Bowls that have been trimmed and carved.

You have already thrown the bowl on the potters wheel. The bowl is dried to a leather hard stage. How do you trim a nice foot for it?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Thrown Pottery Bowl that has been dried to a leather hard stage still on the bat.
Trimming wire
Trimming Tool
Water

Step 1

Dont force the bowl off the bat as you may warp the bowl.

WIRE OFF THE BOWL.
Make sure your bat is clean before wiring off the bowl. With your wire held tight at both ends, run it tightly against the surface of the bat under the bowl. You may have to do this several times if the bowl resticks to the bat.
Step 2

Centered bowl secured in place.

TURN THE BOWL OVER, CENTER AND SECURE.
Carefully turn the bowl over without pushing in on the sides thus risking warpage. Try and place the bowl as close to center as possible.
The bowl must be completely centered when trimming or you risk trimming through the clay. To do this, take your needle tool and hold it so that the point is close to a point on the side of the bowl. Slowly turn the wheel all the way around. Check where the needle has grazed the surface fo the bowl. At the center of this mark, scoot the bowl just a hair away from you. With a wet finger, touch up the graze mark. Repeat this process until the bowl is centered.
Place firm small mounds of clay around the base to keep the bowl from moving during the trim.
Step 3

This bowl will follow the line in the diagram.

DECIDE ON A PROFILE.
Before you begin to trim, decide what sort of profile you want the bowl to have. If you dont do that now, you may trim too much away and it will be too late.
Step 4

Notice the profile looks like the diagram.

REMOVE EXCESS CLAY.
With your trimming tool, begin to remove extra clay around the side. If the clay is too dry, you may have to use a bit of water around the area to be trimmed before proceeding. Then hold the trimming tool vertically to the bottom of the bowl and begin shaping the flat edge of the foot. Again see diagram for what this should look like.
Step 5

Carve out outline of foot ring.

HOLLOW THE INSIDE OF THE FOOT.
Begin to hollow out your foot. Remember, the inside of the bowl is round, so the outside of the bottom of the bowl should be round to match it.
Begin by using the narrow part of the trimming tool to remove a strip of clay to carve out how far the foot ring will extend. When you are trimming you dont want to cut beyond this line or your footring will be too narrow.
Step 6

Trim the inside of the foot ring.

AVOID GOUGING.
Slowly carve away the inside debris constantly stopping to check and make sure you havent carved too deeply. I am constantly feeling the bottom with my finger to make sure the clay is still firm. The trick is to stop before you feel any give or weakness in the clay. If you do, you are about to trim through. This takes practice.
Step 7

Use your fingers to soften and bevel the sides of the ring.

POLISH THE PIECE.
With a wet finger, run it around the edges of the foot ring to soften the edges so they arent sharp when fired.
Step 8

MAKE SURE IT IS NOT TOO HEAVY.
Without taking the bowl off the bat, lift the entire bat from the wheel and check the weight. If it is not light enough, continue trimming. If it is the desired weight, then smooth all edges with a rubber rib, put your mark on bottom and decorate as desired.

Comments

tinairene said

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on 8/30/2009 Thorough, clear step-by-step. Beautiful product! 5*s!

ampersand said

on 8/25/2009 Great information on trimming the bottom of the bowl; thanks!

mattsaboy said

on 8/22/2009 5 stars taking pottery class soon.

Flybyknight said

on 8/19/2009 I find pottery very challenging. I have yet to have any good results with the pottery wheel. My hat is of to your great skill. Keep up the good work. Looks like an excellent bowl. 5*