Opening Clay on the Potter's Wheel

Video Transcript

"Now that we have the clay centered we are going to want to open it up and create a hole in the center and that is how you get the form that you are looking for. To start the opening I like to take my hand into a fist just like when I was centering but dive into the clay just a little bit and I am using my body weight. Everything I am throwing is about using your body weight, keeping yourself stable and it is not about strength it is about technique. Then you want to take our left hand and put your forefinger in the middle and push down and bring that out. Your right hand now is what is staying stable. You see my weight is on my wrist here. I am pulling towards that and so I am not letting the clay push me around. Now here is where it is very important if you have never thrown before, you want to take your needle tool and you want to check the thickness. You will be able to see, I don't know if you can see it on the camera, but you will be able to see a little smear on your needle that tells you how thick that is. You want it to be at least 1/4 of an inch and if it is any thinner than that you are going to cut right through it when you take it off the wheel. And now we are ready to pull."