Wedging Clay for Large Pottery Bowls

Video Transcript

"I'm going to be making a big bowl now. Big bowls are a lot different then just making a small bowl. It is the same shape, it is the same process in a sense but you are just going to use your hands a little bit more differently. You are going to use more of the palms in your hands. When I wedge the clay it is also going to be different. I'm making a bowl that is going to be somewhere around eight pounds. Okay now when you make a bowl that is going to be eight pounds or ten pounds you have to make sure you don't just use the brand new clay. The brand new clay porcelains is just a little bit floppier I'm going to say then if you use some recycle clay. So you are going to take some of the brand new clay and some of the recycle clay. Recycle clay is just recleaned clay, it has just been mixed with water, it is the trimmings and it's the slop from the buckets. I'm going to put the harder recycle clay. Now I can also have softer recycle clay and I do that sometimes I'm when I'm making really small things I use softer recycle clay. I'm going to make this little sandwich thing of new clay and old clay. Then I'm going to put it on my pound scale and see how much I have. Okay I have eight in a half pounds that would make a good size bowl. I'm just going to wipe the wire off again to keep your studio clean even the little tiny bits of clay that dry up creates dust in the studio. You really don't want dust in your studio. Cover this up a little bit here and I'm going to wedge this. Now when you are wedging a big piece of clay it is going to take a lot more effort."