Throwing - Shallow Cylinders

I’ve been trying out some new ideas in the past week or so. I started off throwing a series of low, shallow pots which you can see drying in the picture below. I suppose they’re low cylinders really: a very simple design thrown straight across at the base and then straight up at the sides. These are quite small, made in stoneware using about 175g of clay. I have a plan for these which I won’t reveal at the moment because I want to see how they turn out first! But it’s part of a new series of functional ware I want to experiment with over the next few months.

As I was throwing them I had an idea I’d take some photos of me throwing ‘in action’. The composite picture at the top of this post is the result. You can see how small the balls of clay were. And it’s not easy taking a photo using a timer whilst trying to concentrate! Luckily the camera only got a little bit smudged with clay – I was more worried about knocking it into the drip tray! And luckily I think the photos came out OK too. I tried to show in sequence the ‘opening out’ phase of throwing a pot which widens the base (the stage that comes after putting the hole in the centre of the clay). But it all depended on when the timer went off! I’m not even sure if that pot survived now – I might have been too distracted by photos…