Pottery Making: Learn Trimming

Pottery Making: Learn Trimming - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Many pots thrown on the potter’s wheel will require some trimming when they reach the leather-hard stage. Leather-hard means that the pot has dried some. It is still damp, but quite firm, and in England they refer to this as cheese-hard, gives you an idea of the texture. So, this bowl was thrown with a little bit of extra support here. That will need to be removed, and in doing so, I will create a foot ring here on the bottom. So, the first step is to get this re-centered. You can use your needle tool and draw a circle and see how that circle is positioned within the edge of your bowl and that will help you get it into the center of the wheel. Once it is re-centered we will secure it with some logs of clay. Then we will start removing the extra clay and revealing the foot ring. These three trimming tools are just some of the many possibilities. I will usually start with the small trimming tool, which gives me a little better control, and then finish with the larger trimming tool. You want to just use the angle, the sharpened edge of the tool, to remove the clay that is not essential. Think about the diameter of the foot ring in relationship to the diameter of the ring so the foot ring supports the bowl well. If it is too small, the bowl might be wobbly. If it is too wide, the bowl might be bottom heavy. You can shape the foot ring by using the different corners of your trimming tools. They have different shape ends. Then you can remove the extra clay from the inside. As you remove this clay, you will reveal the space for the foot ring and you will also remove any extra weight on your bowl, so that when you are finished a well-balanced bowl that will feel good and hold up to years and years of wear and tear. So, a little bit of detail in the foot ring to create a little shadow line. Check for sharp edges. Clay is quite hard when it is fired, and with sharp edges, they can be hard enough to cut you. You can dust out the little bits in there. And that is a trimmed foot on a bowl.