Back from a long hiatus and out of centre.

Every time I take a substantial break from pottery, and then come to my senses. I have a great deal of trouble centreing the clay on the wheel when I get back into it. This is the situation I am facing right now. Some mounds go into the middle, some don’t. This is something that historically corrects itself over a couple of sessions, but is especially good for the ego, as one can hear it chime “aha, so you are not as good as you thought you were”.

Despite these teething problems I was still keen to try “throwing off the mound” for the first time. What a great technique. Clearly it would save time and perhaps even clean the potter’s canvas even more, pun intended. After a couple of lumps attempting this, I found it practically impossible to keep the bottom of the mound and the top centred at the same time. It was like trying to control a push me pull you. I just couldn’t get it to work together, even after ten minutes of coning and nudging. It seems to require skill and a touch that I don’t have. Inshallah it will come with some more practice, and a serious review of the basics.

For some inspiration I turned to Michael Cardew who shows us how to “throw off the hump”. He really does make it look easy. The commentary is interesting as well.

Thanks to samkellystudio for posting this video of Cardew demonstrating.