I spent a good 12-hours last week stood up pulling handles. I have to say, it makes a nice change from being hunched over the wheel, mentally and physically it’s also vastly different, I’m not working clay as it rapidly spins, instead it’s more like hand-building. Despite that, there are many similarities between throwing pots and pulling handles. For instance, when lifting up the walls of a pot, it’s very helpful if you’re consistent with your movements, stopping and starting or changing the pressure as you pull results in walls that mirror those inconsistencies. The exact same premise applies to pulling these lengths of clay. It’s all about quick, confident and consistent movements. Secondly, there’s water usage. Whenever you’re throwing pottery, you need your hands to be lubricated, this way your hands don’t stick to the spinning clay, nor does the clay stick to your hands. The same is true when pulling handles. If you’re hands become too dry, they’ll stick to the length and it’ll tear off. Lastly, there’s the clay’s strength. If you overwork the stoneware, it weakens as it over-saturates with water. You’ll struggle to lift up the walls the you will have a much more difficult time getting the pot to hold its shape. With handles, if the clay softens too much as you’ve been pulling it for longer than you should, once you go to set the handle in its final position, it’ll simply want to sag or flop as the clay no longer has any strength. This, in a way, makes me think that there are probably some transferable skills, or rather, whilst the skills are different in a way, the theory behind them remains the same. #pottery #oddlysatisfying #craft #ceramics #clay
6.62% ERengagement of this clip — below the author's average (7.25%)
top 62%outperforms 38% of the author's clips
0%of the author's average views
