Dividing a plate

[Kabe]

This may be old stuff to some of you and I'm sure someone else has thought of it before, but it was new to me,and may be useful to someone else, so I thought I would pass it on. I was watching a girl at school dividing a plate into parts. She wanted to cut symmetrical half-moon shapes around the edge of the plate. Most the time if I want to do this, I divide the plate in half with a straight edge of some type, then divide that in half again (4 pieces of pie) half them all again(8 pieces of pie) and again. That gives me 16 sections for half-moon cuts. This is a real pain in the west end if you are watching the sun rise and hard to get accurate. Then it hit me, not like a thunder-bolt but more like a snowflake. This is so easy! If you have, let's say a nine inch plate, get a compass and make yourself a nine inch circle and cut it out. Thin paper is best. Fold the cut circle in half, fold it again (4 pieces of pie), fold it again (8 pieces of pie) and again. When you unfold it you will have 16 sections, lay it on you plate and mark your clay. When it is folded up you can cut the half-moons just like how we made snowflakes in grade school. (Knew that learning experience would be good for something some day.) When you open it up you can just trace them onto you clay. You could cut any shape you wanted it would not have to be moons. Also if you want the circle divided into thirds. Fold your paper circle once, twice, three times. Take this folded wedge and fold it up like how you fold up a letter to put in an envelope. This will give you three parts instead of two. Crease it well. When you open it you will have 12 sections like a clock face, 1 to 4, one third, 4 to 8, one third, 8 to 12 the last third. Seemed slick to me but I am easily intertained. Keep your head out of the plaster and happy firing to all, Kabe

[Christine]

This may be old stuff to some of you and I'm sure someone else has thought of it before, but it was new to me,and may be useful to someone else, so I thought I would pass it on. I was watching a girl at school dividing a plate into parts. She wanted to cut symmetrical half-moon shapes around the edge of the plate. Most the time if I want to do this, I divide the plate in half with a straight edge of some type, then divide that in half again (4 pieces of pie) half them all again(8 pieces of pie) and again. That gives me 16 sections for half-moon cuts. This is a real pain in the west end if you are watching the sun rise and hard to get accurate. Then it hit me, not like a thunder-bolt but more like a snowflake. This is so easy! If you have, let's say a nine inch plate, get a compass and make yourself a nine inch circle and cut it out. Thin paper is best. Fold the cut circle in half, fold it again (4 pieces of pie), fold it again (8 pieces of pie) and again. When you unfold it you will have 16 sections, lay it on you plate and mark your clay. When it is folded up you can cut the half-moons just like how we made snowflakes in grade school. (Knew that learning experience would be good for something some day.) When you open it up you can just trace them onto you clay. You could cut any shape you wanted it would not have to be moons. Also if you want the circle divided into thirds. Fold your paper circle once, twice, three times. Take this folded wedge and fold it up like how you fold up a letter to put in an envelope. This will give you three parts instead of two. Crease it well. When you open it you will have 12 sections like a clock face, 1 to 4, one third, 4 to 8, one third, 8 to 12 the last third. Seemed slick to me but I am easily intertained. Keep your head out of the plaster and happy firing to all, Kabe

 

 

.... or you could try http://ceramicartsdaily.org/clay-tools/decorating-tools/the-dividing-web-a-handy-tool-for-making-evenly-spaced-patterns-all-the-way-around-a-piece-of-pottery/ ! Thank you for your information though - it's always useful to have a variety of methods and yours is beautiful in its simplicity

 

Christine

[AmeriSwede]

I agree with Christine, I wonderfully simple and creative manner of division in its concept and execution.

 

I may give this a try myself.

[Kabe]

Thank you for sharing that. It makes it possible to work on more than just one plane. like the side of a plate.