Clay Torching Tips

Video Transcript

"Now sometimes in order to do what you want to do right at the wheel the clay is going to be too soft. So my solution is, I take a torch to it. I use a tool to turn it on and off because my hands are always dirty and it's really hard to turn and my sparker is broken so I need to have a lighter nearby, but you take the torch and you turn the wheel and you just hold the flame against the turning pot. It's not going to cause the clay to crack because it's not staying in one spot for too long. Now the reason why I'm doing this is the shoulder here, the more firm it is the further I can bring this neck and then the neck needs to be a little bit firm for the cutting itself. So I'll just take this torch and hold it against the clay while it's spinning until this is as firm as I feel like it needs to be in order to move on to the next step. Generally you don't want to see a lot of sheen on the pot and you know that you've gotten dry enough."