Centering Clay on a Spin Wheel

Video Transcript

"Okay, we have our ball of clay. We've got a bat on our wheel head, and we're ready to start our casserole. You want to take your ball of clay and throw it on the middle of the wheel. You want to throw it pretty hard so that it's stuck, so that you don't go throwing it off with your hands when you get to centering. Now, to center, you take your left hand. I stand when I throw, some people sit, but either way, you need to use your body weight. So, I lean onto this arm, get the piece of clay pretty wet, and I'm pushing with my right hand towards my left hand. My left hand is not supposed to move. And pull up, make a fist. Your sponge, you want it wet enough that you could squeeze out water, but not wet enough that it's dripping. So there's just water held in there. And then you want to push down. Again, the left hand isn't doing much except for supporting and keeping the clay from going anywhere. That's the point. So now we have our centered piece of clay, and we will finish opening and pull it up into form."