Centring Two Lumps of Clay in One

This isn’t even that large of a bowl, yet, for a piece of clay this size, sometimes it’s easier to do the initial centring with two weighed out lumps, this way you can cone two more manageable pieces, one on top of the other, which is helpful for when the clay is a bit stiff, like this was. The other option is doing it all in one go, which can be straightforward if the material itself is very soft, otherwise it’s a slower, more fastidious process. Now, the unusual thing with these bowls is that a vast amount of weight is purposefully left in the base to provide enough clay to trim the tall foot this piece will have. Another route would be throwing a short bowl with barely any clay in the bottom, then, at the leather hard stage a thick coil of stoneware is scored and slipped onto the initial thrown form, and this addition is thrown into the foot. I’ve always preferred doing it in one, even if that means I spend more time trimming, as at least I don’t have to worry about the adjoined parts cracking as dry, ruining the entire piece. Despite having a lovely curve to the form at this point, this bowl’s shape will change drastically at the leather hard stage, when the exterior to trimmed angular and the tall, pedestal-like foot is created. There’s a lengthy period of slow drying though before we get to that… #ceramics #pottery #handmade #bowl #satisfying #howto