Throwing Off The Hump?
Do you do this? What are the advantages? What are the pitfalls?
Some of my biggest problems [being a newb to all of this] is either going too thin on the floor of a piece, or ending up with way too much. Would throwing off the hump help me with this? Or would I be more likely to turn a larger volume of clay into a bigger pile of goo than I presently do?!?
Your thoughts are eagerly sought!
I usually throw off a 15# to 20# hump when doing chalice bowls and stems. I have also used it to throw mugs and bowls of late. It is a bit of a control issue where I had to make a little alteration in the way you throw. If you open up straight down and pull the walls up you will probably have 20-30% S cracking. It is difficult to compress the base working this way. However, flattening out a pancake with the thumb, then curling this upward to form the walls will cause the clay particles to round