Wheel Throwing Tools: Beyond Basic
Descriptions & Explanations - Clay Tools for Bottles, Jars, Teapots
Apr 25, 2007
Now that you're throwing larger cylinders and bowls, it's time to try tackling bottles, jars and teapots. Here are suggestions to expand on the basic pottery tool kit.
Once you’ve somewhat mastered the principles of throwing, you’ll want to attempt increasingly larger and taller cylinders and bowls. You’ll probably also want to explore throwing bottles, lidded containers and teapots.
It’s time to expand your tool kit to facilitate these projects, and to give your pots a nicer finish.
- Rubber Kidney – These flexible kidney-shaped ribs are used to smooth and refine a thrown form without distorting it. They gently compress the clay while protecting the potter’s fingers.
- Calipers – Aluminium or plastic calipers are used to measure the width of a pot’s rim or its gallery to ensure that a lid that is thrown later will fit properly. There are two types of calipers: regular v-shaped calipers and the x-shaped “lid master” calipers which simultaneously show both internal and external diameters. Some potters improvise with part of an old coat hanger from the dry cleaners.
- Throwing Stick – This long, narrow piece of wood with a curve or knob on one end helps the potter throw bottles and certain vases which have narrow necks. The throwing stick can be inserted down the narrow neck where it takes the place of the potter’s hand in shaping the interior surface (especially the shoulder) of the form.
- Sponge On A Stick– Also known as a dottle, a sponge on a stick is a very handy way of getting a sponge way down past where the human arm can reach to remove water that has accumulated at the bottom of a narrow necked bottle or vase, or a very tall jar.
- Bats – Bats, sometimes spelled “batts”, are flat discs of wood, plaster, bisque or plastic that are attached to the wheel head by pins or a disc of clay that has been grooved to create vacuums. Wide, flat-bottomed forms such as plates and shallow bowls that simply cannot be lifted off the wheel head without being damaged or distorted are then thrown on them. The bat, still supporting the finished piece, is then removed from the wheel head and set aside until the piece is dry enough to be trimmed.
- Chamois Leather – This is a small strip of tanned leather that is used to compress and refine the rim of a thrown form, and to provide a smooth finish without exposing the grog in the clay. However, it is easily lost in the clay and slip on the wheel. If desired, substitute with a strip of wet newspaper.
- Toothbrush – Not strictly a throwing tool, toothbrushes come in handy for scoring the surface of two pieces of clay that needs to be joined with slurry/slip, such as a handle to a cup or a spout to a jar.
- Circular Hole Cutter – Again, not strictly a throwing tool, but these can be used to create functional holes in colanders and strainers in teapots as well as decorative patterns in lids, rims and candle-holders.
Curious for more? Please visit the article archives and e-mail me with your questions.
The copyright of the article Wheel Throwing Tools: Beyond Basic in Pottery is owned by Jennifer Yap. Permission to republish Wheel Throwing Tools: Beyond Basic in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
