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Why Is This Happening?


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posted a question a few weeks ago about centering. I started doing pottery about 6 months ago and was progressing fairly well. And then suddenly i just couldn't center. No matter what I tried i just couldn't center. And it still continues. I get to kind of centered but I know i feel a wobble right at the base. I  manage to make something but its a mess trying to trim because there are knots and lumps all over. And now a few times the base of my pots look like this. (attached images) What am I doing wrong? Last night I stopped the wheel after I couldnt get it to center and wired through my lump of clay in several places. There were absolutely no air pockets. I just dont understand what im doing wrong. Any advice?

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Looks like to me you are leaving a bit of an the wedged area pocketed when wedging. Do you cone wedge, or rams head? I cone, get the clay to an cone, and then end up the wedging process with several short strokes where you roll and smooth the sides, and round in the bottom to a lightly domed form. You will end up with a a low bowl shape with a cone on top. This should get rid of the area you have in your pictures. If you are doing the rams head, then keep working again with shorter strokes to smooth in the sides, and just cut off the bottom, or slap it into a low dome.

 

Hope this helps out,

 

 

best,

Pres

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Regarding your inability to center...I had that problem until I tried centering with my eyes closed. If your hands are in the right positions and the clay is close to centered when you place it, you will be able to feel the clays reaction to your efforts with closed eyes. It was fascinating the way it worked the few times I tried it. After blind centering four or five times, I have gone back to centering with open eyes and haven't had a problem at all.

JohnnyK

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Use a well wedged clay. Like Pres and Marcia suggest.  As for the centering, I make my clay soft. But not sticky. If you are struggling with it it could be to hard. Try making three or four 1-2# balls of clay for throwing, or however a weight you feel comfortable. I think in the size of your hands matter when you are still learning to center and throw. Make each ball of clay a different degree of soft to hard. And give it a go till you find what works best. Remember, the basics of throwing are important. But once you get over that "hump"  :D you can then move on to what pulling and shaping works for you best. Watch other in the CAD videos. you'll see the basics and then something different. Just experimenting can be as fun as it is informative. Best of luck. 

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I did something similar when I was first learning to center clay, I think it was caused because I was squeezing the bottom to hard while trying to move the excess clay from the bottom into the cone.

 

Just a guess

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Hi everyone. So I tried some of the things that you guys suggested and I did manage to resolve the problem somewhat. Looks like it was a combination of trapping an air bubble at the bottom while smacking and also squeezing too hard at the bottom while coning up. Im still not getting it perfectly centered but its a lot better - and there was no knot at the bottom like my images - so thats good ! 

thanks for helping everyone. I love how helpful this community is !

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