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My Feet Are Turning Into Legs.


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I leave a lesser (but not much) amount on bowl bottoms so I can trim a wide deep foot. My clay is porcelain.

I do not know Lucy Rie but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn once.

OK I looked her up and her feet are super narrow and super deep. Its her style-very tippy for everday use.These may be what I call mantle pots-ones made to look at. They are very nice just not what I see in your yet to be trimmed cut in 1/2 bowls.

Mine are made for everday use and are stable wide and I glaze the bottom between the foot.

Mark

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ok, you young'uns, don't attack an icon.  you guys all have clay educations, how can you not have heard of lucie rie?  

 

if you really want to learn to trim a foot, throw your ball of clay down, center it and make the shape that remains in the center look like a doorknob.  then thin what is the fat handle of the doorknob leaving the stem as the base.  that way you are not trimming pounds of clay away to get to the foot.  try it once and you might find it works for you.

 

and they ain't necessarily unstable.

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Being called a young'un at 62 tickles me. I plead gulity as Lucy Rie was not on my radar. But in my defense (I did look her life history up) I may have learned about her in Collage and forgot-seems the older I get the less I recall. I'm sorry but I'm rooted in functionalism and its what consumes my thought process so thats my focus and has been for 40 years. Its what refreshes me feeds me and what I dream about. The perfect foot and feel and funtional form. I like her bowls but they fall short of some of the quailities I like and look for. Its not an Icon attack just another point of view. I like them I just think they may be tippy.

Mark the young wippersnapper

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When i was in college my art history classes contained very little pottery and my pottery classes contained very little history so i can understand people not knowing other potters. I, on my own i found the treasure trove of ceramic monthly magazines our college had, rebound cms all the way back to the 70s that featured pots and potters.

 

Funny little story, i teach mostly senior citizens. I throw in the mention of well known potters and their work all the time when talking about methods of making. I mentioned the name of a potter and showed their webpage to the class where they had a old photo of himself making a large thrown form from back in the 70’s. One of my student chirps up "omg, i went school with him." It made my day, she has not been my only student that actually knew potters that i learned about thru cm magazines either. I pays to encourage student's talk during clay class, the teacher learns many things. :)

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I would classify the image as being a bit excessive under the outside walls of the bowl. Take @oldlady's advice and pull from a more narrow stem.  All that being said, I still leave about 3/8" at the bottom, trim the foot so there is a little less than 1/4" standing, then pull the the remaining foot back up to 3/8"+...then polish off the foot with a chamois or something similar.  That's probably not production-potter best practice, but having done it enough times it goes very quickly (for me, at least).

 

Does anyone else throw their feet as part of the trimming process?  I just re-read that and laughed...sounds like some sort of dance step :)

 

-Paul

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I'd rather have too much on the bottom than too little. One can always trim it away. I may be strange [the verdict is still out on that one] but I actually enjoy trimming. It's a Zen thing for me. Most of my pieces look like your cut away picture, Joel. I view it as a chance to spend a bit more loving time with the piece before I consign it to the blazing alter of the Kiln Gods. ;)

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I leave large bottoms on most of my pots and mugs.  I like to trim elaborate feet.  They are very useful for holding on to when dipping in glaze.  I will try and find a picture.  This does create a great deal of scraps to recycle though.  But I consider wedging my home exercise program.

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Yes, I throw all the feet on my 2# - 6# bowls, so I don't have a lot of trimming excess.  I like the lift that this gives the bowls and it gives the user a solid base to hold on to when they're hand-washed. It also allows for for me to decide how elaborate or simple I want the foot. (And yes I love Lucie Rie's work. She's really influenced me as a potter.)

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I try to avoid deep foot rings on functional ware, even though I love the look of them. Grotty water collects in them during the dishwasher rinse cycle.

 

I have thrown foot rings on pots. Push a finger through a ball of clay to make a doughnut shape. After turning the piece, score where the foot ring is to be with radiating grooves. Apply slip with a toothbrush. Draw a shallow groove in the slipped area to act as a guide and press on the doughnut of clay, centering it by eye. It may be necessary to pinch the doughnut a little to make the hole bigger.  Then slip your fingers and throw down, to spread a little clay onto the turned piece. Then pull up the sides a little. The unevenness will come out at the top and you can trim it off with a needle. 

 

Throwing on a hollow bowl puts a lot of pressure on the turned bottom. There are ways to support it from underneath to avoid distortion or complete collapse. Throwing foot rings is something to be reserved for pieces that will give a return for the extra effort.

 

I have added foot rings on pieces that I have thrown too thin on the bottom, by using a clay gun. The clay gun delivers a perfectly even, if short, coil that can be pressed onto the turned piece and shaped with slippy fingers. Use a toothbrush to add slip to the turned surface and give yourself a guide line. To make joins in the extruded coil, cut at an angle and don't use slip.

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