Wedging Clay in Pottery

Video Transcript

"In this clip we're going to talk about wedging, or preparing the clay to work on the wheel. I've got some brown throwing clay here available, and let's get wedging. I'm going to take the clay and knead it like dough for baking. I want to roll it up on itself. It's important to get all of the air bubbles out of the clay before you get onto the wheel, because of problems later. So I want to push down, and roll it up on its nose. Push down; roll it up on its nose. Push down; you see it makes a little face. Push down; roll it up on its nose. Again the air bubbles can be problematic and can cause your pottery to be off center when you're throwing it on the wheel. So we really need to wedge for quite a few minutes to get all the air bubbles out. Again, just like kneading dough. This is a very important step in preparing the clay to work on the wheel. So, again trying to get all the air bubbles out and aligning all of the clay to work on the wheel."