8th
Pop Quiz: Problems Throwing Pots (answers tomorrow)
When I was an apprentice, I was like a deer in the headlights: I could hardly imagine what the next step might be without being shown it. Over the years I began to realize much of what works with clay is good old common sense.
Can you outshine my young apprentice self and troubleshoot these questions?
QUIZ: Common Problems in Making Pots
1. You open up a pot on the wheel and during a pull you realize there’s an air bubble in the clay. What caused the air bubble?
2. You finish a pull on the wheel and realize one side of your wall is higher than the other. How did that happen?
3. You are shaping a bowl and as you pull it wider the lip starts to tear. What causes this?
4. You are throwing a tall shape and before you can finish it, it starts to waver and the walls give way. What happened?
5. You are throwing a bowl and there’s a step on the inside you can’t get rid of. Where did it come from?
6. You’ve thrown and trimmed a bowl and you’re really happy with the silhouette, but it seems bottom heavy. How did this happen?
7. You are trimming a foot ring on a bowl and it is noticeably thicker on one side than the other. What caused this?
8. You have a bisqued bowl and you realize there’s a vertical 1/8” crack in the lip traveling straight down the wall. Where did it come from?
9. You have a bisqued pot and there’s an “s”-shaped crack on the inside or in the bottom. What caused it?
10. You have a bone dry mug. The handle, which looked great when you put it on, detached from the pot. What happened?
11. You want to throw a tall pot with a narrow foot. How wide should your centered clay be before you open?
12. You have a pot you need to trim but the lip is too dry and the foot is still too wet. How can you prevent this?
13. You are trimming and suddenly you can no longer see your pot because there is a cloud of fine dust shooting up from the wheel. How could this be?
14. You are trimming and the clay keeps grabbing your trimming tool which makes deep gouges in your pot. What’s wrong?
