Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here’s the trimming and ‘decoration’ of a simple, angular vase, it’s a process of refinement really, taking a thrown, rough form, relatively, thinning the walls, narrowing the foot and attaching a linear protrusion. Whilst lots is trimmed off this vessel, it wasn’t thrown too heavily to begin with—rather, once trimmed I’m aiming for an almost unnaturally light form, as the thick glaze that’ll eventually coat this adds a lot of weight back. If I threw a balanced piece and then glazed it as per normal, I’d end up with an object that’s on the weighty side, but this helps to avoid that.
I also throw the form with a touch of thickness in the lower portion, the narrow, tapering half, as if thrown like this initially, it just creates a shape that’s more susceptible to leaning over in one direction as it dries, which I really want to avoid. A very narrow foot also makes scraping the slip off the top section more difficult—this thickness, such as before, is then carved back.
The line goes on last, with a bowl pressed into the opening to help keep it properly round h as I work, as you can imagine, as at the line is pressed and worked onto one side, it could distort the opening into an oval shape, but with a brace of some kind pushed into the vase it helps to keep things even.
As for the line itself, it’s attached roughly initially and as it quickly dries, I tidy up the sides of it, although nowadays, if it is left a little scraggly, I don’t mind, as once biscuit fired I just sand it back with a diamond block, perfecting it.
#vase #pottery #wheelthrownpottery #clay #ceramics #artwork
Here’s the trimming and ‘decoration’ of a simple, angular vase, it’s a process of refinement really, taking a thrown, rough form, relatively, thinning the walls, narrowing the foot and attaching a linear protrusion. Whilst lots is trimmed off this vessel, it wasn’t thrown too heavily to begin with—rather, once trimmed I’m aiming for an almost unnaturally light form, as the thick glaze that’ll eventually coat this adds a lot of weight back. If I threw a balanced piece and then glazed it as per normal, I’d end up with an object that’s on the weighty side, but this helps to avoid that.
I also throw the form with a touch of thickness in the lower portion, the narrow, tapering half, as if thrown like this initially, it just creates a shape that’s more susceptible to leaning over in one direction as it dries, which I really want to avoid. A very narrow foot also makes scraping the slip off the top section more difficult—this thickness, such as before, is then carved back.
The line goes on last, with a bowl pressed into the opening to help keep it properly round h as I work, as you can imagine, as at the line is pressed and worked onto one side, it could distort the opening into an oval shape, but with a brace of some kind pushed into the vase it helps to keep things even.
As for the line itself, it’s attached roughly initially and as it quickly dries, I tidy up the sides of it, although nowadays, if it is left a little scraggly, I don’t mind, as once biscuit fired I just sand it back with a diamond block, perfecting it.
#vase #pottery #wheelthrownpottery #clay #ceramics #artwork
