Creating a Space for a Pottery Lid

Video Transcript

"When you are making a rim that is actually going to except your lid to sit in it you have to leave that rim thick. You have to make it smooth on the edges and rounded the way that you would eventually like to see it. My favorite tool to use is just one of these cut off knife tools where I cut the edge with it; with you know some kind of saw. Then I sanded it, so I have a flat tool. I'm going to push half way down and as I push that down, my left hand right here is kind of pushing or guiding it. It is not really pushing, just guiding it so it does not collapse. So I have pushed that down like that and now that is ready for me to measure it. I'm going to measure it with these calipers. The calipers open up like this and you just want to make sure that the calipers are clean. You would stop the wheel and put the calipers there; right up to the edge. Okay that is the measurement of my opening. Now a couple of different ways that I will do this. If I know that I'm going to make it right away, the next step the lid, I would just put my calipers off to the side and make my lid. If I don't know if I'm going to make it right away, I would just leave this on my bat and I will make a little mark with a pencil. I will make a line there and a line there and just save it for later. Because I have to have the lid the same exact size. If I went to measure the later on when the clay shrinks, it would just give me the wrong size for my lid and that will not work. "