Shaping Large Clay Pottery Bowls

Video Transcript

"We are going to be shaping the bowl right now and if you notice what I did I after I had pulled it I put my sponge on top of here and I around this edge. I'm leaving this edge very thick because the actually shaping of the bowl is going to be stretching the bowl to make it bigger. What I like to say about stretching it if you can imaging a balloon you know you blow you have this thin little balloon and you blow up a little bit and you think you can't blow it any more but you can. You can blow it up and it is just gets thinner and it's a big balloon. What I want you to think of with this is on beginner students especially would say oh it is starting to wobble or is it getting thin. No you still have a little ways to go. The important thing to do when you are making a big bowl or any blow is to make sure you leave a little extra clay up here and that is why I left this so thick. You are going to watch that thin out as I stretch it. So again my fingers are going to push out. Just pulling it out and you can see how the rim would start to get thinner. Set that rim that means get some of the excess slip off of there and make sure it is so round and soft. Okay I'm going to do that again and again just notice my fingers are you they are not digging in they are flat. I really going to stretch this more this time and I'm pulling up just a little bit that means that I'm squeezing a little bit from the outside as I'm stretching it from the inside. I'm going to take that rubber rip tool again, put that on the outside I'm going to push hard with that in and as I mention with the smaller bowls I like to take away the throwing lines cause I like to decorate. With the throwing lines I can't use that brush in the way that I like to. "