Ceramic Bowls: Weighing Clay

Series Summary

Ceramics are art works made out of clay bodies that harden with the application of heat. Originating in Chinese, Cretan, Greek, Roman and Mayan cultures, ceramics have a long history that dates back to the third millennium BC. Potters most traditionally use their hands, but several tools have been developed to aid in the ceramic making process. Ceramics range from functional vessels to decorative sculptures and remain both a long-loved craft as well as a fine art. During the process of throwing ceramics, the wheel rotates rapidly while a solid ball of soft clay is pressed, squeezed and pulled gently upwards and outwards into a hollow shape. In this free video series, an artist demonstrates how to throw clay to make bowls. From weighing and wedging the clay, to centering on the hump, pulling up the walls, and drying and trimming, all of the steps are covered. Any artist interested in ceramics and pottery can create their very own set of bowls with these instructional videos.

Video Transcript

"So next we're going to throw a set of cereal bowls. We're going to throw two but obviously the process is, can be used to throw a set of six. And what we're going to do first. When you're throwing sets of things you have to weigh the clay. It's very important to weigh the clay so that you know that your pieces of clay are all the same size. And it makes the process on the wheel a lot easier. So what we're going to do is we're going to take the clay and we're just going to stick it on here and we're going to see if we can get it to be about 550 grams. And that's approximately right. As you can see we've got these kind of pre-made here so we're just going to double check them to see if they're about right. There we go. And that's good enough. So there we have our weighed pieces of clay. And this is the first step in making a set of cereal bowls, salad bowls or anything like that. And the next step is going to be wedging. And we're going to get to that in just a moment."