Wheel

Lecture/Demos/Practice: Wheel-Get Your Practice On!

Wheel
Clean Hands
No Jewelry on hands or wrists, and remove necklaces
No watch
Pull hair back
Wear your apron and have a towel

Tools
Your bucket full of clean water
A clean sponge
Your loop tool
your wooden "knife"
Your wire tool
Your ribs
Your needle tool

Set up
The wheel should be clean and dry
Your tools should be set out in front of you in an easy to reach way, this will differ based on if you are left or right handed and your reach.
Some wheels are able to change direction and some left handed people prefer to change the direction. If you do so, please change it back when you are finished.

Wedging
Wedge your clay into a spiral. This allows the particles to line up in the direction of the wheel's movement. Make sure that air bubbles are compressed and that no foreign material is in the clay.

Centering
1. Use a little water to "tack" the clay to the wheel.
2. "Seal" the clay to the wheel.
3. Using "equal and opposite pressure"--not force--center the clay. It is centered when it stops wobbling, this is about the way it feels verses the way it looks.
4. Don't pull it to the side or push it.
5. Centering is your highest speed

Tips
◦ Your hands should always be in contact with each other.
◦ Your arms should never roam free, but rather, they should be braced in your legs, each other, or the guard.
◦ Water is used as lubrication, but too much will saturate the clay and make it slump.
◦ The only thing holding the clay to the wheel is the suction of the wet clay

Slow your wheel!

Open
Brace your hands and using your two fingers push in. Use your needle tool to check your floor depth (1/2 inch is good). Using your two hands together, pull back slowly and steady.
Note:
If you are centered you shouldn't wobble.

Pulling up
Using both hands together, braced, begin to pull up. Pull from the bottom up, not from the top. Be careful not to pinch the lip, you need this to stay the same thickness from bottom to top.

Note:
Your top should stay even or smaller then the bottom, if it bowls out there is a problem.
If your throwing lines are uneven, there is a problem.
Check that the width at the bottom and top are the same-no kiln bombs!

Removing clay from wheel
Using your knife, work with your wheel to trim away the extra clay, then smooth out the bottom.

Use a slight bit of water. Put your wheel on very slowly. Using your wire tool, hold it tightly and pull toward yourself.

Use clean, wet pot lifters (or fingers) to remove from wheel and place on your board. Keep covered well.

Clean up
The wheel should be clean and dry, including the guards. You must use a guard when throwing. You are responsible for cleaning the wheel, the table near the wheel, the wedging table, and the floor around the wheel before you leave. Leave it as you want to find it, not as it was left when you found it.