Shaping Clay in Pottery

Video Transcript

"In this clip I'm going to show you how to shape our clay. I'm going to try to make a cylinder here with the pot I have on the wheel. And we're going to look at how to pull our clay up from the bottom. Gravity is a bit factor in ceramics. We don't want to pull too much of our clay up off the bottom and undercut. We want to keep a nice even pot from top to bottom, but we don't want to get it too thin towards the bottom. So I'm going to add a little water right in the middle of my fingers here, running water on the inside and outside of my pot, and I'm going to line my fingers up evenly and push up not too much at first and pull up the clay towards the top into a cylinder. Again I want to compress and compress, keeping my rim tight. If it gets a little dry, add a bit more water, and again, like the rings of a tree, going up the side of the pot, getting it taller and taller."