Video: Ceramic Plate Throwing

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Throw a small ceramic plate on the potter's wheel by compressing the clay and pulling out an edge. Learn how to throw a ceramic plate with tips from a master potter in this free ceramics video.

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Video Transcript

Now we're going to pull this out. First you want to push down in the center with your fingers and pull toward the outside of the wheel. You want to leave a pretty considerable amount of clay because with any flat object like this you need to have at least a quarter of an inch, probably closer to a half of an inch, somewhere in between, which is about what I have right now. And the other really important thing with flat objects is compression. You want to take your flat rib and you want to give that a really good compression. A little bit of clay is going to come off and that's okay. You don't want to push in so hard that you're digging it out deeper though. Now, this is to make it stronger and smoother, but most importantly, on large flat items you're likely to get something called an S crack. It happens right in the center and it's because it's not compressed enough and as it dries the clay shrinks and it pulls apart and leaves a crack. So now because this is a rimless plate all we have to do is put our thumb on here to get a little edge and just pull it up by pinching with your left hand into the shape that you're looking for. I personally like to see the concentric lines that a hand would leave by throwing. Because I've gone ahead and compressed I've taken them out. But you can add them back in with your finger just by going in like that. And there we have a small rimless plate.

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Ceramic Plate Throwing

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