Let's critique my throwing skills

[Rae Reich]

Even later to this party, I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the tremendous amount of fine particles you are removing from your pots by constantly adding water, then scraping off the slip and throwing it out. Not only are you wasting lots of motion, you are not making use of the great lubrication that slip provides. 

Do try keeping a small wet sponge or piece of chamois tucked into the palm of your right hand, as Mark suggests, where it's handy to use to smoothly moisten the walls by redistributing slip, rather than scraping and re-wetting. Your walls will be stronger and be able to take on more stretching or fine-tuning without wimping out, helpful with larger forms.

Your finished pieces will be stronger, too, when the fine particles remain between the large ones, especially with thin walls. And, when fired, surface grog sticks out less, seems to me, if you have compressed those fines into your surface with a rib instead of scraping them off.

Happy Holidays!

[shawnhar]

Thanks Rae, that is a great point about the slip, and something I struggle with. There is a learning curve to using less water and keeping the slip spread around the pot so you don't need to add more water, I'm still running into problems trying to do it. I have gotten better at it but still a long way to go. Back in April I was filling up the splash pan with water! After all the great feedback I threw some more mugs but my tripod broke and didn't film it, going to get another one today. I used the sponge in my hand to throw and that made a big difference, needle tool on the bottom is TONS better than trying to use the wood knife, big sponge to clean off hands and tools is much better than what I was doing, and I tried to be purposeful in my movements, made all the same shape, no "winging it". Flattening the top during centering, avoiding the buttress and remembering to compress the rim helped a lot with uneven rims, still had to needle a few rims though as I was trying to pull more aggressively and ended up with a wobble or totally lost it, got most of them with 3 pulls though, and then shape, only using the rib once at the end, went a lot faster, produced 30 mugs in 2.5 hours, considering the losses that puts me well below the 5 minute mark and closer to my 2 minute goal. They came out a bit sloppy though, tough to have speed and accuracy at this early stage but you guys are freakin awesome. Thanks for helping me move in the right direction!

 

[Rae Reich]

You're a fast learner, @shawnhar! 

Speed and accuracy will improve by matching your motions to the wheel speed and vice-versa.  Eliminates wobble. 

[shawnhar]

Thanks Rae, the video that Hulk linked to for Mr. Clinton shows great wheel speed control, it's just second nature at that level and I'm guessing you don't even think about it. I tend to take my foot off the pedal and haven't been focusing on controlling the speed much. Watching that vid also really hit home how much I am fitting about with the clay.

http://www.mainstreamnetwork.com/listen/player.asp?station=wnfz-fm

[liambesaw]

15 minutes ago, shawnhar said:

Thanks Rae, the video that Hulk linked to for Mr. Clinton shows great wheel speed control, it's just second nature at that level and I'm guessing you don't even think about it. I tend to take my foot off the pedal and haven't been focusing on controlling the speed much. Watching that vid also really hit home how much I am fitting about with the clay.

http://www.mainstreamnetwork.com/listen/player.asp?station=wnfz-fm

I cant take my foot off the pedal so I had to become quite intimate with speed control.  It's easy for me to judge whether I'm going too fast or slow, if something feels wrong it's off.  Usually if it's too fast when I'm pulling, the pull will feel frantic or stressful, by the time I hit a dry spot it's too late.  If it's too slow I might get a wobble no matter if I match the speed of the pull or not.  I've been doing bigger pieces, I'm up to 20 pounds on my journey to 25, and it's something you can really feel on larger stuff.  Maybe try throwing some bigger stuff because it all translates down into smaller stuff without you even noticing.  Throwing bigger has definitely improved my control and water usage and I have noticed it have a direct effect on my bowls, plates and mugs.

[Rae Reich]

Learning on the kick wheel, that speed-matching became essential. You wanted to get the maximum amount of work in before you had to kick it up again. The natural slowing was especially helpful when shaping large pieces. You feel how much drag you put on it - the optimum is not to drag at all.