Tools to Compress the Bottom of a Japanese Bowl

Video Transcript

"Ok so here's that black rib that I was talking about earlier, real sturdy, not as floppy as the blue one. And they are all like that, the black ones are always going to be more firm. So I like to use this one to really get in there. Compress the bottom, I can hear the clay, it's mushing like, I can just hear it compressing real nice. Right there. I've compressed that clay. And it's good to go. And since this is a rice bowl, you really want to have that trimmed right in there, you really do, that spiral that potter's signature. I'm going to put a big one in there, cause I love them big there. I like that. There are little bits of clay in there that I like. So from here you got this, you got your compressed bottom, you got your chitamya (phonetic) in there and you have your bulk of clay right here all this clay is going to go up like this. And compress it- now the next move would be just a couple of simple pulls and a couple of pushes from the rib."