Ceramics & Pottery: Centering the Clay

Series Summary

Ceramics, the craft of forming pottery, is over twelve thousand years old, pottery appearing in the tenth millennium before the Birth of Christ. The potter's wheel was invented between the 6th and 2nd millenniums B.C. in Mesopotamia and completely changed pottery production, allowing pottery to be created much faster and more uniform in shape. Today, in the twenty-first century, pottery is produced on a large scale; consequently, individual potters focus more on the art and beauty aspects of creating ceramic pottery. From ornate porcelain china to simple terracotta pieces, a potter can make bowls, mugs, cups, pots, plates, and almost any shape that comes to mind.

Learn the art of ceramics from Vincent Sansone, Director of the Ceramics Department at Crealde School of Art, as he demonstrates how to center and open the clay; form a bowl; create a slab pot, coil pot, pinch pot; attach a handle to a coffee mug; wax and glaze a pot; and remove a pot from the wheel.

Video Transcript

" Hi! I am Vincent Sansone, Director of the Ceramics Department at Crealde School of Art here in Winter Park. Today I am going to tell you a little bit about making a pot on a potter’s wheel. One of the things you will have to have if you want to make pottery by hand is to have a potter’s wheel and this is a fairly expensive piece of equipment, so usually when people are learning about the process, they come to a school first. I am going to put a piece of clay on the wheel and show you how this is used. First of all, I have to center the clay, now I get my hands wet and I get the clay wet and then I brace myself, hold my hand steady and center the clay."