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these are the steps I will be teaching
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you in this portion of the
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DVD before we get our hands muddy let me
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tell you why it's called throwing on the
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wheel the first potter's wheel were
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about 2500 years ago and only the wheel
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head was on the ground and only men were
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allowed to be po ERS and they would sit
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cross-legged by the wheel head and they
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would have a big heavy stick with a
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string on it the string would wrap
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around the wheel head and then they
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would throw the stick which would spin
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the wheel head like a top and that's why
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it's called throwing to this day even
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though there's really not any throwing
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involved just for your information so
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the first step is called centering
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centering is not the hardest step but it
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is the first step if you talk to anybody
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about throwing on The Potter's Wheel
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they will tell you that they never got
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their pot centered well that's why they
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never really made any good pots because
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centering is very important but there's
00:01:04
just a couple basic hints that you need
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to know to where you can Center your
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clay there's a lot of different ways of
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teaching centering but I'll show you the
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way that works so you need to have your
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ball of clay nice and round we're
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throwing a round pot on a round wheel
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going round and round this needs to be
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nice and round you want to make it sure
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that it's secure to the wheel head so we
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want to give it a little bit of a tap
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maybe Pat it on the top and then it's
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time to get our hands wet it's very
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important that you keep your hands wet
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while you're working on the wheel you
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always want your hands slipping across
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the surface of the clay if at any time
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your hands get dry and it drags on the
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clay that's going to throw off the
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Rhythm and the rotation of the pot and
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that's when you start getting a lot of
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warping and a little bit of sagging so
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make sure that your hands are nice and
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wet a lot of times a teacher will teach
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you to hold a sponge and keep squeezing
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the sponge over the clay the entire time
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in a couple steps that works but I will
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tell you that you don't want to get too
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wet because then your Olive clay start
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slipping off the wheel head so I'm going
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to get my hands wet and it's time to
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Center my position at the wheel is good
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my elbows are tucked in I'm going to
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lean the whole weight of my body behind
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my elbow to where it goes down my arm to
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the heel of my hand I'm going to push
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the heel of my hand into the clay on the
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left hand side it's the left hand side
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of the ball of clay with my left hand my
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right hand is going to grab the thumb of
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my left hand and push down so as I push
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the clay down it swells out to hit the
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heel of my hand with the whole weight of
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my upper body pushed into the clay this
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is a wonderful way of centering let me
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show you we want our wheel head about
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fast medium fast I'm going to push in
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and down in and
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down I'm getting a little dry so I'm
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going to put some water on my hands and
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again again I'm going to push in and
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down it's very important that your left
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elbow is tucked into your body right on
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that pelvic bone that's why it's
00:03:11
important that the pelvic Bone's a
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little bit higher than the wheel head if
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I have my elbow out on my leg and my
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clay is not centered the whole wobble of
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the clay pushes my hand which pushes my
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leg there's no stability there if you're
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having a hard time centering just
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tucking that left elbow in will make all
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the difference there are a couple of
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ways of teaching centering some people
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will have you Center like this squeezing
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both on the left and the right hand side
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again my elbows are spread out and so I
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do not have any stability a lot of times
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you'll be taught to Cone where you pull
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the clay up into an upside down ice
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cream cone and then you push it back
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down again this relies all on upper body
00:03:52
strength being able to squeeze that clay
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in I'm not really a fan of coning
00:03:56
because I think as you cone up and add
00:03:58
water and push it back down you're
00:04:00
actually wedging water into the clay
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which will make your clay too wet and
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then it will be hard to make the shape
00:04:06
of the pot later on but coning does work
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if your Clay is a little stiff if your
00:04:11
Clay is a little stiff go ahead cone it
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up douse it with water push it down to
00:04:15
that two or three times and you're
00:04:17
wedging water right into the clay so
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let's go back to the centering position
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I'm grabbing my thumb my right hand
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pushing down on the top my left hand is
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pushing into the clay you know your Clay
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is centered when you look at it it
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almost looks like it's sitting still
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another thing is to close your eyes and
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feel the clay and make sure that there's
00:04:37
not any wobble to it at all I will tell
00:04:39
you that you can have the top of your
00:04:42
clay centered and the sides are
00:04:45
not you can also have the sides
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centered with the top not centered it's
00:04:53
very important that you have both the
00:04:55
sides and the top smooth and centered
00:05:01
if your Clay is a good consistency and
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soft your elbows tucked in you lean your
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body into the clay you will Center very
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quickly our next step is opening I'm
00:05:12
going to get my hands wet the clay wet
00:05:15
my left hand stays in position it's not
00:05:17
really pushing on the clay it's just
00:05:18
resting on the left hand side of the
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clay and then I'm going to take my
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finger and just lean it in to the center
00:05:25
of the clay again I can be the Rock and
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the stream will move around I don't have
00:05:29
to find the Center and just poke
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straight in I can just lean in and the
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clay will move around the finger finding
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the center you want to make sure that
00:05:37
your hands are wet because as you're
00:05:38
opening you're getting into fresh clay
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so you want to slide in notice how my
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right hand is braced on my left with a
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thumb so that I have still good
00:05:47
stability elbows are tucked in and I'm
00:05:49
nice and stable you don't want to keep
00:05:51
poking all the way through the clay or
00:05:52
you'll poke all the way down to the
00:05:54
wheel head and then your bottom of the
00:05:55
pot will be non-existent you'll just
00:05:57
have a donut so be sure that you leave
00:05:59
at least a half in or a/4 of inch of
00:06:02
clay at the bottom of the pot once we've
00:06:05
opened it's time for what I call cut in
00:06:08
and widen my hands are in the opening
00:06:11
position I'm going to crook my fingers
00:06:13
into the palm of my hand cutting into
00:06:16
the clay almost creating a ledge of clay
00:06:19
right here cutting in again we don't
00:06:21
want to cut all the way to the palm of
00:06:23
the hand or I'll have a doughnut in my
00:06:25
hands so what we want to do is just
00:06:27
barely cut in leaving about a half inch
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to 3/4 inch of a wall between the palm
00:06:33
of my hands and my fingers so I'm going
00:06:35
to start cutting
00:06:39
in my hands are crooked and I have a
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little shelf of clay right there on top
00:06:43
of those fingers now I'm going to widen
00:06:46
and what I do is with these two fingers
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I just flatten the clay right into the
00:06:50
palm of my hand when you're working on
00:06:52
the wheel you have to remember that the
00:06:54
pot is going around and around and
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whatever pressure you put on the pot you
00:06:58
need to wait for one full Revolution so
00:07:00
that the clay can adjust all the way
00:07:02
around the pot and then you can continue
00:07:04
with your pressure that's why you move
00:07:06
very slow and very steady when you're
00:07:08
working with the wheel you know that
00:07:11
you've done cut in and widen
00:07:12
appropriately when you can look into
00:07:14
your pot and you can see a definite wall
00:07:16
and bottom on your pot you want this
00:07:19
squared off edge a lot of beginner
00:07:20
Potters will make a little U on the
00:07:22
inside they're not making a definite
00:07:24
bottom so we want to make sure that we
00:07:26
have a definite wall and bottom this
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will make pulling up so much easier the
00:07:31
next step is compressing the bottom and
00:07:34
the compressing the bottom a lot of
00:07:35
teachers leave this step out but I think
00:07:37
it's very important the bottom of your
00:07:39
pot is a little uneven and also we want
00:07:43
to make it strong we want to comess that
00:07:46
clay making the little mic particles of
00:07:48
clay lay flat and strong next to each
00:07:51
other I take the sponge and I push it
00:07:53
from the center to 3:00 pushing down
00:07:56
making sure that it's nice and flat as
00:07:59
as well as
00:08:00
compressed compressing the bottom is
00:08:03
important because as your pot dries
00:08:05
normally on a pot the walls are thicker
00:08:08
than the bottom and so it will dry
00:08:10
unevenly and then when it starts drying
00:08:13
the bottom of the pot can give a little
00:08:15
bit quicker than the walls will and so
00:08:18
it develops a little s crack in the
00:08:19
bottom but if you compress the bottom
00:08:21
99% of the time you will not get an S
00:08:24
crack the other thing about compressing
00:08:26
the bottom I call it the Breather step
00:08:27
because there's a couple things that you
00:08:29
need to know no when you're compressing
00:08:30
the bottom your wheel speed needs to
00:08:32
slow down to medium also from now on
00:08:35
every other Step At the Wheel is going
00:08:37
to be on the right hand side the first
00:08:40
three steps were on the left we centered
00:08:43
we opened we cut in and widen now we're
00:08:47
compressing the bottom and this is just
00:08:49
our clue that from now on everything's
00:08:50
on the right hand side the way that you
00:08:52
get a clue is if I try to compress on
00:08:54
the left side that Clay is feeding
00:08:56
underneath my sponge and it's jabbing
00:08:59
into into my fingers so it's just
00:09:01
natural for me to put it over here from
00:09:02
the center to 3:00 so the clay will feed
00:09:05
underneath my sponge where the sponge is
00:09:07
under my fingers and the clay is sliding
00:09:10
underneath the sponge so this is our
00:09:12
clue it's time to slow the wheel down
00:09:15
and move to the right hand side
