Throwing Clay: The Art of Making Pottery On The Wheel: New Ceramics Rebecca Proctor Herbert Press

Throwing Clay

The Art of Making Pottery On The Wheel

Throwing Clay

The Art of Making Pottery On The Wheel

Description

Learn how to throw clay on the wheel with this essential guide from one of the UK's leading contemporary studio potters.

Whilst a potter shaping clay on the wheel is both the iconic and familiar image we associate with ceramics, the skill is notoriously hard to learn. Using step-by-step photos and illustrations, Rebecca Proctor shows you how to master the potter's wheel.

With an emphasis on craftsmanship, Throwing Clay demonstrates the specific techniques required to make a range of elegant modern tableware – mugs, jugs, plates and more as well as vases and more complex forms such as teapots. In addition to detailing the processes required to create each piece, Proctor features beautiful examples of finished ceramics from other contemporary makers based around the world.

Including a combination of projects and gorgeous inspirational photographs, Throwing Clay is the ultimate guide for complete beginners and advanced ceramicists alike.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Why throw pottery? Not just how but why? Form and function, skill, repetition, meditation.

Tools
The necessary tools. Different types of wheels.

Clay
How to prepare clay for throwing on the wheel.

Centring
The most important step in all wheel-thrown pottery.

Cylinders
Step-by-step guide on how to throw a cylinder.

Mugs
How to pull and attach a handle to a cylinder.

Jugs
How to make a pouring spout creating a jug.

Bowls
How to throw a bowl.

Plates
Attaching a batt. Throwing a plate.

Trimming
How to trim.

Vases
Forming curves and creating vases.

Lidded jar
Making a lid.

Teapot
Making a teapot.

Striving for Beauty
Looking at form and considering decoration, glaze and firing. Next steps – throwing off the hump or throwing big.

Taking Care
Drying and looking after your pots. Recycling clay.

Glossary

Index