How to Wedge Clay for a Teapot

Video Transcript

"Wedging the clay for a teapot is again just like wedging it for any other piece. The only thing I'd say about it is that you do want the clay to be a little bit firmer because you're going to maybe make that belly out. Whenever it's going to belly out like that you want to make sure that the clay is stiff enough. Now when I want to make my clay firmer, a lot of times I'll just take recycled clay which is a little bit harder and again sometimes as I've said in the other series, that recycled clay could be a lot softer and it just depends on what you're making. If you want to make something very large you're going to opt for the harder recycled clay. So I'm going to sandwich the hard with the soft like that and I'm going to probably want this somewhere around two and a half pounds. Three the most for a teapot. After three pounds it's getting a little bit big. OK so I've sandwiched that clay now I'm ready to wedge it. Very important to wedge it well when you're mixing a hard clay and a soft clay. If you don't do that you're going to end up with a very uneven pot with some very hard chunks in it. As you wedge clay you want to make sure that your fingers are tucked underneath and that you're not squishing the clay totally down. You want it to end up looking a little bit like that right there. I think I have a little bit of a hard piece. Sp I'm taking that out. I can tell it was just sticking up a little bit. And that again is from recycled clay. Sometimes it's not perfect. As I know that it's getting to the point where I want it to be I'm going to press a little bit lighter. A lot of students ask, well how do I know when it's done? And I've mentioned something about the wrinkles in it, also you know when it's done by pretty much the timing. If you've done it for about two minutes that's pretty much enough time. So just roll it back and forth, and I'm going to pound it down and that's all set for centering on the wheel."