Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Drying out pots that are both thick in sections and thin in others can be a nightmare and these days, like you may have seen in yesterday’s post, (detailing their throwing), are somewhat tricky to get right.
Ideally, when trimming pots, I want them to be entirely the same consistency, that means strategically drying these out in such a way that the rims are protected overnight, so they don’t dry out too much, whilst the thick damper bases are properly exposed.
There’s a knack to learning to dry work properly, in fact it’s a skill in itself, and annoyingly it’s one that changes from workshop to workshop, country to country and clay body to clay body, meaning there’s no one rule to fit everything, only common sense and most importantly, practice. I’ve lost pots as I’ve let them dry out too much overnight when I thought they’d be fine. I’ve also completely ruined my schedule by pot drying pots out quickly enough. It happens and you learn and you adapt, that’s making pottery in a nutshell.
#pottery #wheelthrownpottery #ceramics #trimming #howto #craft
Drying out pots that are both thick in sections and thin in others can be a nightmare and these days, like you may have seen in yesterday’s post, (detailing their throwing), are somewhat tricky to get right.
Ideally, when trimming pots, I want them to be entirely the same consistency, that means strategically drying these out in such a way that the rims are protected overnight, so they don’t dry out too much, whilst the thick damper bases are properly exposed.
There’s a knack to learning to dry work properly, in fact it’s a skill in itself, and annoyingly it’s one that changes from workshop to workshop, country to country and clay body to clay body, meaning there’s no one rule to fit everything, only common sense and most importantly, practice. I’ve lost pots as I’ve let them dry out too much overnight when I thought they’d be fine. I’ve also completely ruined my schedule by pot drying pots out quickly enough. It happens and you learn and you adapt, that’s making pottery in a nutshell.
#pottery #wheelthrownpottery #ceramics #trimming #howto #craft
