I know nothing about ceramics but something I have learned in a completely unrelated career is that when you begin to question common advice and learn to navigate exceptional situations or try new things is a critical part of growing in whatever field you are working in.
Exactly, why stick to rules that are just opinions (there is no danger to the pottery, the potter or the kiln to trim the inside of a piece). Think outside the box and question everything! 👍🏻
Try running the wheel in reverse when you trim the inside. Then trim on the inside left of the form. this makes it much more like trimming the outside.
This is one of those traditional ideas in pottery that is debatable to me. I routinely trim the inside of large bowls, platters or candle holders. It helps to get the shape and ideal weight for each piece. Trimmings can be easily removed with a metal rib. All this costs is a few minutes more work, which doesn't bother me at all.
My take for the first few months of wheel throwing was to just experiment wildly and learn from failure. I ended up finding a couple whacky things that I really liked: 1) Trimming the inside of pieces 2) Throwing double and triple walled pieces (chips and dip bowl, vase inside a vase inside a vase with cutouts etc) 3) Throwing a piece off-center after an initial throw in order to add off-centered features (useful for a desk organizer, think thin vases arranged on a plate) 4) Making mug handles by throwing rings on the wheel and then cutting them up - so far everything turned out fine so idk why this isnt a thing 5) Leaving water on certain parts of the piece so that it dries at a different rate, and I can "edit" them by hand later while the rest of the piece is structurally stable Each of these requires some experimentation to really unlock the practical knowledge, but they've been fun for me at least. And you can make stuff with way fewer limitations.
my professor says the same thing, you shouldn’t have to trim the inside you should just throw it to how you want but you can get such interesting forms by breaking the rules! hope you have fun in japan!
You highlight so many points in your process that help me think through my own work in a different way. I have never trimmed the inside of a pot but I love that you do so in order to get the glaze to do what you want and not necessarily only to thin the walls. It's becoming more and more important to me that there are evident maker's marks on my pots or any I would purchase. I think it's really a nice thought to make sure there is evidence of the maker when someone turns the pot over. I believe that hand made ceramics are loved for all the reasons you have shown here but I don't think that people understand why they love it. It's only the potter's hands that truly know how it comes to be special.
My mentors have always told me not to trim inside, but it is so versatile and useful for all sorts of cool textures and interior shapes that are borderline impossible to do with just fingers. I love using the method to create textured interiors.
youve been my inspiration to continue turning bowls and whenever i make a mistake (which is quite often) i'll just remember that everyone during their beginning stage will make mistakes
I love watching the clay peel off as you carve it. I have no idea why this is so satisfying but sometimes you just have to be in the moment and not ask questions.
Such a pleasing video! So good to push back on silly rules that pass negative judgment on creativity. I love how those edges respond to the glaze!!! Great work, brother!!
I feel there is a not particularly subtle distinction between what you do - throwing very light and then trimming until it is ridiculously light - and what I do, throwing heavy and then trimming until it is light enough that I am not humiliated.
I like the cleanup at the end... and the whole video really. I regularly tell kids that a job isn't done until the mess is cleaned up and it's nice to see it included in the video.
You Rebel! LOL Beautiful pot & thanks for the links to the spinners; They seem much more functional than other styles I've seen -- no slur on anyone who makes a different style intended.
I feel like this video catches the spirit of art. Hundreds of years of tradition are finally bucked by that one artist with incredible talent, and the outcome creates an entirely new concept for the art that will never be quite as good, because all the artists that follow are... well following. Good on you for looking at a rule and thinking "that's a bit silly, because our fingers can make a lot of shapes, but not all of the shapes." Also, thanks for including us all in some small way, on what could be a revolutionary change in your field.
Depends on the use of the pottery, I'd imagine introducing a thinner and therefore weaker segment on the inner walls is a bad idea if it was going to be filled with anything though, since you'd essentially create a point where all the pressure pushing out on the side wall could cause cracking over time.
I'm surprised with these tight crisp forms, you're not figuring out a way to use support guides for tool work like machinists do with their lathes. But not sure if that would take away the character of the pieces being slightly out of round?
i'd love to see how you threw these bowls too!! as far as trimming the inside and bucking convention, my thought is - it's your work! i love how individual every potter's approach is, and the resulting work is sort of a patchwork of different ideas, instructors, techniques, and perspectives!
I've never done pottery before and this video just was randomly recommended to me but like... damn dude, that's a nice pot. Lol You going against the norms of your trade some how makes me happy because everyone is is like: No, don't do that and here you are just make art and doin' awesome things. It makes you think about the world. I know I got deep and I'm not going to follow up but that's a nice pot! 🤣
As a metal worker and someone who likes robustness , i would avoid trimming the inside , sharp corners are stress risers , so if i were to do finishing sharp corners on the outside and large radii on the inside . Great video!
You ever consider setting up a stand with a bar like a wood turning lathe? You don't need anywhere near as much rigidity so you could probably get away with just a couple of tension ball joints and it would improve the chatter and straightness of your cuts.
in most forms of art, you have to start out by following the rules, building up a foundation so that you know what you're doing, however, past that point, to make any progress and create something truly stunning, you have to begin finely and accurately breaking those rules.
i trim my peices on a bat & ancor it heavily, so when i trim the interior i can just lift the bat up, flip it upside down and use a dry brush and it works quite well & is fast! it only really works on smaller peices, but its a useful method when trimming multiple. i trim the inside of a fair amount of my pieces, our clay is extremely finicky and its very common for it to have some ISSUES when throwing, so ive developed some methods to make it easier. (my teacher, who has been doing this for longer than ive been alive, runs into issues with our clay aswell, so its not just a me being semi new at it thing.)
Florian, have you tested any of these pots with dirt and taller plant in them? I'm concerned with the foot being that small that if you put a tall plant in it it's going to topple over because it'll be top-heavy since you like to trim your pots to be so light 🙁
For the issue of the trimmings, what if you used a plastic wrap (think what can be used to seal food dishes) so that you can peal it out and not leave any behind? Could help them be less annoying since the alrgest amount of them can be taken out without getting pressed back into the clay
Looks like a vacuum hose that you could position well and switch on with your foot might help you remove the shavings more easily. But there’s probably a problem with that.
well I'm far from an expert but I have been making some fairly large garden Ollas and making them in two halves being the clay is so groggy I can only pull it up so high. At the bottom I have been having to leave it a little extra thick for support until it hardens up a bit then go back and trim the inside bottom to get a more uniform wall thickness
It is good advice for beginners not to rely on trimming inside and rather learn control skills in a practical way. After that, what we see here is about exploring expression. I have to say however that the effects he desires are not really being produced with that glaze. So subtle as to not make a difference. There are other glazes that would show pooling and breaking better.
It depends on what the use of the bowl is. If it’s a water bowl or a bowl you fill with rocks and bulbs then having a finished interior makes sense. If it’s actually a pot (with drain holes) and not a cachepot (with no holes) then the interior is not going to be seen depending on how low you place the soil line. Plants generally need drainage so, I recommend drain holes regardless of how nice the inside is fashioned 🪴
This may be a dumb question. Can you talk about your inspiration, and how you can implement things you’ve seen and learned into your pieces without copying them? Like plagiarizing. If that’s even something you have to worry about.
I’m not very good, but I’m trying to do better. In the meantime, I’ll continue to trim the inside. I also like using the rounded trimming tool to add texture to the inside, which isn’t really something that can be done through proper throwing.
Stoneware is just a specific mix of clay. Other common ones are porcelain and earthenware. The difference is that earthenware is low fired and often left unglazed. Stoneware will usually have fine particles of what they call grog which helps with its strength. Porcelain is very fine to the touch. At the end, whatever type of clay you use becomes a ceramic after it has been fired.
Interesting channel, binge watching at the moment. A question: can you do brown Betty style tea pots or are they slip cast done? What about Japanese tea ware or a Gaiwan set? Thanks
I’m wondering where I can get the tool you used. The one that is more or less shaped like an “L”. Is it a Dolan tool? I can’t seem to find it . By the way, I purchased a spinner last year and picked it up when I was in the UK last year. I love it. Thank you! 😊
Saying there is no need to trim the inside of a vessel is just silly. There is no way you can get clean lines, like you're known for, while the clay is wet.
Pish, I never follow "opinion" rules with my pottery, its all about exploring. What works for me might not work for others but if it works and my studio has no issue with it then its fine. I follow known rules like no air bubbles, keep glaze off the bottom etc..."never trim inside" just sounds silly.
Similarly, English teachers would tell us never to use the passive voice. Instead, they should be teaching that passive and active have different roles, and one needs to think about the intent of a sentence when choosing which to use. I will spare you any examples.
the worlds oldest profession. surely after the hot and sweaty work that is commonly referred to as the 'world's oldest profession', she'd need a vessel of water to drink from? very calming footage, and excellent voice to match. If anything, I'd say be less concise. I'd watch this over 30 minutes if it were so.
Hmm, you decide to trim the inside in order to make the glazing look interesting, and then you don't show how the glazing eventually looks. A rather pointless video.
Good thing there’s a more recent video that shows the glazing and firing of this pot. When I made this video I hadn’t glazed or fired it yet, my RU-vid channel documents my craft as I go, and sometimes that means a video that’s more focused on singular steps of the process, not all of them.
@@charlottesmom Accepted. Yes he could have been self taught. I didn't say anything was wrong with his pottery. I was blaming a teacher, not his pottery skills. Have a pleasant day.
@@ArabellaPottery , So wait his skills are okay in your opinion but his teacher (or whomever taught him) was poor? Not sure if I understand. If his work is good (he has over a million subs here, almost 2 million on TikTok, 3/4 of a million on Twitter...I assume loads of people love his stuff) why would whomever taught him even be an issue? I'm not trying to be a pain, just trying to understand.
