Centering Clay on the Pottery Wheel

Video Transcript

"Alright, so you want to start off with a nice clean wheel head. Dry it up, clean it off, get it ready. So you need a wire tool, a potter's knife, a needle tool, rubber rib and a good natural sponge. Make sure the swirly stuff is heading up and down on the wheel head. So try to get it as centered as possible when you throw it on there, OK? Attach it to the wheel head, and you're going to start a wheel wedge. By this, what we're doing, we're wedging all the clay together on the wheel head, further eliminating any more inconsistencies that may be within the clay. So throw it up like a stalagmite here. That's about as tall or as thin as you want to go. And then it's called a karate chop, you come down with your hand, my hand here securing the clay there while my hand down here up top presses down. Smushes it all together. So it's like two for one. You center your clay, and you also eliminate any inconsistencies that may be throughout there, alright? There you go, one centered piece of clay."