Centering Clay on the Pottery Wheel Tips — Pushing & Pulling

This weekend's video goes over centring slightly larger lumps of clay, I'd say it's an intermediate amount, 3 kg, or about 6lb 10 oz. When working with smaller pieces of clay you can rely on simply squeezing with your hands in order to get the mass of clay to cone up and down, yet when you begin throwing with larger amounts, and especially with clay that's a touch on the firm side, you can start to use more of your body weight to push and pull the clay in order to get it moving on the wheel, thus leading to properly centred clay. The thing is, at the start, beginners are often under the impression that centring clay is all about immediately shoving the spinning clay directly into the middle of the wheel. Of course, this is the goal but it isn't the necessarily the easier route to get there, introducing some movement into this process helps tremendously, as when you shove the clay around it centres the clay and churns the body up, lining-up the particles, the platelets of clay, and making it easier to throw with. So, that's what this week's video is all about. Centring, but with a slight twist, together with discussing a few tips and tricks along the way to make the process easier. Thanks so much for watching! How to wedge clay: https://youtu.be/hYdLGLztT-Q How to cone smaller amounts of clay: https://youtu.be/69dMLpXosSk 📚 • You'll find many more guides on how to centre and pull up the walls of clay here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT 📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: https://geni.us/bymyhands 📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby ⏱ • Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:24 - Firstly, the condition of the clay 2:02 - The ease of centring soft clay 2:58 - Why you need to release the clay gently 3:47 - Centring the firmer clay via the push & pull method 10:10 - Another tip for centring larger lumps of clay 11:22 - What to do if the clay feels too 'sandy' 12:40 - Even a small amount of movement helps 14:09 - Clean up *I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340. ____ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/floriangadsby/ TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@floriangadsby Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com