Throwing Pottery

The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships

If you are a fan of pottery, you have probably spent a significant amount of money purchasing pots that you can use as decoration, or even that you can use for practical purposes such as plants in your house or storage for different items. Pottery, of course, is an excellent way for you to add some character and beauty to your home, and while you probably knew this already, you might not have known that it is not that difficult to throw pottery yourself; in fact, throwing pottery can be a lot of fun, and decorating your home with pots you have thrown yourself will be much more rewarding than decorating it with pots you purchased from someone else.

When you are first getting started throwing pottery, you should begin with a small piece of clay (after all, each chunk of clay tends to make a larger pot than you might imagine), and you should spin the wheel at full-speed, keeping the clay wet as you slowly work with your hands to get the clay centered.

Once the clay is centered and shaped so that it is symmetrical all the way around, you can slow the wheel down to about three-quarters speed and make a hole in the center of the clay, using your outstretched fingers; the hole should be right in the center of the clay, and should go all the way down near the bottom.

Finally, you can start to shape the clay with the pottery wheel at about one-quarter speed; do this by putting light pressure on the inside and outside of the clay as you slowly raise up, which will gradually increase the length of the sides of your pot.

The more time you spend working with pottery, the easier it will become for you to make pots that look the way you are wanting them to look – and of course, the more you work with pottery, the more you will be able to decorate your house with pots that you have made yourself!