Shaping a Pottery Cup Form

Video Transcript

"We are going to shape this cup using this rubber rib tool. I'm pushing my fingers out, pushing the tool in and I'm getting rid of those throwing lines which are nice but they don't work for me with my decorations. Now the bottom is very very thick so I can carve into it later. I'm working this so I get a little curve in there so if it is nicely in your hand and I'm carving this edge so it just kind of flows into the pot. The inside of your pot is as important as the outside of your pot and you want your eye to lead you into it. Now this has a very very smooth surface right now. I'm going to finish it off by taking this rib tool; notice how the wheel has gone much slower and I'm going to raise this up and dig in just a little. I'm going to open up my two fingers and soften that edge. Now to give this pot a little more life than that I'm going to not touch the outside of it again but I'm going to push out a little bit from the inside and you see that it is going to look a little bit puffier or even softer. I just want to check the inside part to make sure all the water is out, wipe off my hands and take this wire tool and wrap it around and pull that through. I'm going to dry off my hands and because I use that rib tool to take off all the wet clay I can just pick it up and put it over here. That should dry about a day and then I can trim the foot and I did a few of these yesterday which we would do some trimming next. "