10 Steps to Throw a Pottery Mug @floriangadsby

Florian Gadsby When I first began learning pottery, I quickly realised how overwhelming the process could be. Centring the clay, pulling up walls, shaping, fixing the rim, sponging out the water, and so on. What helped me most was breaking it all down into clear, manageable steps, which I wrote on a piece of paper and pinned next the wheel. Instead of seeing the entire act of throwing as one daunting process, I learned to approach it as a sequence of smaller actions, each building on the last, which with time and plenty of practice, would gradually become more seamless.

That’s the idea behind this weekend’s video. I take you through the 10 essential steps involved in throwing a mug on the wheel, from preparing the clay to forming the final shape. Along the way, I share practical advice on getting your wheel set up correctly, preparing your clay so it behaves more predictably, (or not in this instance), and even how using a mirror can help tremendously to see your pot take shape.

Whether you’re completely new to pottery or just looking to refine your process, I hope these steps and techniques help simplify the craft and make the wheel feel a little less intimidating.

Thanks for watching!

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • If you want to learn how to throw a pot, you might like my 'A Beginner's Guide' series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby

⏱ • Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:05 - Weighing out and preparing my clay, 300 gram lumps
3:36 - Tips & tricks regarding tools and wheel setup

5:06 - STEP ONE - centring
7:19 - STEP TWO - opening up
8:43 - STEP THREE - the first pull
10:03 - STEP FOUR - the second pull
11:27 - STEP FIVE - the third, shaping pull
12:39 - STEP SIX - removing the skirt of clay
13:18 - STEP SEVEN - refining the walls of the cup
14:49 - STEP EIGHT - chamois leathering the rim
15:33 - STEP NINE - wiring the pot off the wheel
16:15 - STEP TEN - lifting the pot off the wheel

17:35 - A cross-section of the cup
18:15 - Some encouraging words
21:03 - Clean up

*I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340.
____

Instagram – instagram.com/floriangadsby
TikTok – tiktok.com/@floriangadsby
Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com

updated 11 months ago

10 Steps to Throw a Pottery Mug

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-21 | When I first began learning pottery, I quickly realised how overwhelming the process could be. Centring the clay, pulling up walls, shaping, fixing the rim, sponging out the water, and so on. What helped me most was breaking it all down into clear, manageable steps, which I wrote on a piece of paper and pinned next the wheel. Instead of seeing the entire act of throwing as one daunting process, I learned to approach it as a sequence of smaller actions, each building on the last, which with time and plenty of practice, would gradually become more seamless.

That’s the idea behind this weekend’s video. I take you through the 10 essential steps involved in throwing a mug on the wheel, from preparing the clay to forming the final shape. Along the way, I share practical advice on getting your wheel set up correctly, preparing your clay so it behaves more predictably, (or not in this instance), and even how using a mirror can help tremendously to see your pot take shape.

Whether you’re completely new to pottery or just looking to refine your process, I hope these steps and techniques help simplify the craft and make the wheel feel a little less intimidating.

Thanks for watching!

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • If you want to learn how to throw a pot, you might like my 'A Beginner's Guide' series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby

⏱ • Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:05 - Weighing out and preparing my clay, 300 gram lumps
3:36 - Tips & tricks regarding tools and wheel setup

5:06 - STEP ONE - centring
7:19 - STEP TWO - opening up
8:43 - STEP THREE - the first pull
10:03 - STEP FOUR - the second pull
11:27 - STEP FIVE - the third, shaping pull
12:39 - STEP SIX - removing the skirt of clay
13:18 - STEP SEVEN - refining the walls of the cup
14:49 - STEP EIGHT - chamois leathering the rim
15:33 - STEP NINE - wiring the pot off the wheel
16:15 - STEP TEN - lifting the pot off the wheel

17:35 - A cross-section of the cup
18:15 - Some encouraging words
21:03 - Clean up

*I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340.
____

Instagram – instagram.com/floriangadsby
TikTok – tiktok.com/@floriangadsby
Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com

Why Repetition Making is SO Important

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-22 | There are so many small tricks that you develop when making pottery, some are always useful, others are more situational, a few you only whip out when you really mess up throwing a pot. I plan on making a much longer YouTube video that discusses many of these subtle techniques, for instance, spinning the wheel as the vessel is lifted away, or how you can compress the rim in the same moment that you lift it, nullifying an undulation in the rim you can feel developing.

Many of these you only out through intense repetition, as it takes encountering them hundreds of times before they become second nature, or for you to simply be able to react to the clay in a certain way, recognising what the issue is and how to fix it.

The joy is that this is a never-ending task, as each specific shape will lead to a whole trove of methodologies appearing, what’s even better is that every thrower or hand-builder or slip-caster, will find fixes to these tiny problems in their own way, adding to their unique language of pot making.

#mug #pottery #ceramic #crafts #wheelthrownpottery #clay

Some Ideas on Helping These Survive...

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-20 | Before you ask why on earth I made these, considering my last tests with this black clay were so dreadful, well, these were thrown and trimmed long before I fired those initial tests. But I’ve got some ideas on how to get these through the kilns successfully.

It seems that enclosed sections—whether it’s the space within a lidded form (a body with a lid on top) or the cavity within a foot-ring cause the glaze to fire rough and scratchy, presumably because the gases can’t escape from the glaze and the manganese decomposing in the clay.

So for these, they’ll be placed in the lowest-temperature spots in the kiln, and I’ll raise them up on props. I’m going to create a kind of channel in those props so the gas inside the foot can escape, or I’ll simply fire them on wadding, a clay-like mixture I make from 50% kaolin and 50% coarse alumina hydrate and stick, like tiny feet, into the foot, raising it up. Whilst I don’t think lidded forms will work with this particular black clay, I believe these should be fine, provided I don’t overfire them.

#clay #stoneware #studiopottery #pottery #tableware #ceramics

My Favourite Tool for Stabilising When Trimming

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-18 | Spinners have become a much larger tool in my arsenal of trimming devices than I would have ever imagined, they distribute downward pressure, which is great for when you’re finishing vessels with thin bases. They make it easier to keep this hand steady, as your fingertips aren’t being spun by the rotating clay component, rather they rest on one part of the spinner, (the black portion), as the white part spins freely. They’re fantastic for ripping coarse clays, as it saves the pads of your fingers from being rubbed raw and I sometimes even use them as guides for the shape of the foot itself.

They won’t fit everybody’s style of working, but for my highly finished, trimmed to high-heaven pots, they’ve been a wonderful addition to my toolkit. Unfortunately, the person who used to make mine, Richard Carter, has retired from making spinners, although I’m sure a good lot of you managed to get one.

Either way, there are other producers of similar tools, such as @monkeystuff_co, @momotools_bymariamonasterio, @diamondcoretools, @hsinchuenlin.

All those sold by the above are a bit different but they function in the same way and you can equally use something like a metal bottle cap or a coin, it has to be smooth so your finger glides over it, yet those with a ball bearing inside them that separates the two parts are easily my favourite. There’s also heaps of much more similar spinners on Etsy, but I can’t necessarily vouch for their quality.

#toolsofthetrade #tools #spinner #craft #maker #pottery #ceramics

My Favourite Style of Pot to Make

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-16 | Trimming lidded forms to fit together is my happy place and despite my style staying within a self-imposed ‘ruleset’, there’s still a tremendous variety of shapes that can be created. The rules aren’t set in stone, rather they’re simple proportional ideas that keep the vessels leaning towards the aesthetic I like as it’s very easy to accidentally throw stumpy forms that feel heavy and squat, whereas what I’m aiming for is elegant and light, which can be a challenge considering the angular forms and large-flat lids I tend to create.

If it’s a tapered form, the lower half needs to account for at least half the overall height and the opening can’t be too much wider than the foot. The lid too can’t be too thick in comparison to the body, if it’s thrown and trimmed too thickly it can overpower the body, looking top-heavy.

The funny thing is that the thrown components often have the faults listed above, yet through the process of trimming the pots they’re greatly changed into what I have pictured in my mind.

#jar #potteryvideos #trimming #clay #stoneware #pottery

Blue Clay & Glaze Experiments—Making Pottery for the Financial Times & Nikkei

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-14 | Strap in, this weekend's video is a lengthy one! About six months ago I was asked by the Financial Times, to create some pots, (mugs and pourers), for a travelling teahouse to celebrate their ten-year anniversary ownership by Nikkei.

Nikkei's brand colour is a navy blue, and thus that's the type of glaze they were after and in this film, I'm documenting that entire process, from all the testing, both in terms of clay and glazes, then there's the actual making of 200 stoneware cups too, from throwing them, trimming them, attaching their handles, glazing them and finally reduction firing them to cone ten, (1290ºC).

SOME of these will make it onto the online shop soon, but do sign up to my newsletter or follow me on Instagram for more concrete announcements.

Thanks for watching!

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • If you want to learn how to throw a pot, you might like my 'A Beginner's Guide' series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby

⏱ • Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:44 - Experimenting to create a blue clay body
6:30 - Blue glaze test tiles
9:46 - Glazing the test cups
11:08 - The results of these test cups...
12:05 - Throwing 200 cups
15:31 - Trimming 200 cups
17:14 - Handling 200 cups
30:50 - Stamping the cups
36:07 - Biscuit firing the cups to 1000ºC
38:14 - Waxing the cups
39:25 - Glazing the cups
41:25 - Tidying the glazed surface
44:22 - Packing my Rohde KG 340 gas kiln
45:55 - Reduction firing the kiln to 1290ºC, (cone ten)
47:35 - Unpacking the kiln & the initial results
50:38 - Sanding the cups bases
53:41 - Wrapping the cups

*I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340.
____

Instagram – instagram.com/floriangadsby
TikTok – tiktok.com/@floriangadsby
Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com

Stepped Bowls from Beginning to End

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-14 | Small stepped bowls, from start to finish, pots with absurdly tall feet, good for gripping onto as you eat from or drink from them.

Thrown from approximately 450 grams of clay with a vast majority of that being left in the thick foot. I always prefer to throw them with too much clay in the base as compared to leaving a touch too little, this way I can always turn the pedestal-like base shorter, if necessary, but you can never easily add height back to pots like this, unless you do it when the pot is still on the softer side, which yes, is something I admittedly do from time to time. Bodging, as I’ve heard numerous potters call it, tacking on additions to provide more material to trim later or dropping in a ball of clay and smearing it on the bottom to further pad out the base—not everything has to be perfect at the thrown stage and changes can be made, you’ve just got to make sure your timing’s right.

Get it wrong, try to add clay too late and that’s when things can go awry, cracks form around the knitted-on stoneware, leading to deep lines in the clay-work the glazes will pool into, this can seal them but they’ll still always remain present.

Oh, and don’t you like the new callipers in the video? They’re nautical dividers that I’ve screwed to be incredibly tight, the best part though is their sharp tips, which score a beautiful fine line in the foot, with this set it ensures the diameters of all these feet are the same.

#pottery #ceramics #satisfying #craft #maker #bowl #tableware

New Black Clay RESULTS

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-12 | These are the earliest forms of these new black clay and glaze tests, wonky bowls unfortunately, due to being trimmed too finely and positioned right next to the burners in the kiln. It seems this blend of stoneware clays doesn’t hold up quite so well as compared to my usual mixture, which means from this point on, future pots will be potted more thickly and placed in more sheltered places inside the kiln.

The very basic idea is my want for a simple black clay and glaze combination that end up feeling as if the vessels aren’t even glazed, yet I want just enough of a layer to cover once grog filled gaps and to smooth the forms a touch, (so I don’t need to be so fussy with the clay-work).

Both bowls were reduction fired to cone ten, some 1290ºC, and along with the rims distorting a little bit, the bare clay bases also plucked away at the kiln shelf a touch, meaning they needed to be sanded a touch more than normal, (a task for which I use my @diamondcoretools diamond pads). With my typical stoneware, grinding back the clay too much reveals dull, grey stoneware underneath, but at least with this combination I can polish to my heart’s content without ruining any of the colour as well, all that’s revealed is even more black.

Let me know what you think!

#bowl #stoneware #experiment #satisfying #asmr #pottery

Mixing New Blue Glazes — For Reduction Firing

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-10 | It’s been a week of making glazes in preparation for some up-and-coming reduction firings. This blue is one a number I’m mixing up in larger quantities, 8 kg to be exact, with more or less the same amount of water. As they’re new glazes I haven’t tested properly, as in I haven’t dipped pots into them before, only tiles, I tend to mix them thick and then add water, (that’s also measured—I’m going to be more diligent with this, thanks Matt Katz, until the mixture feels like it’s the right consistency.

This will make mixing the glaze in the future easier as I start with the perfect amount of water in the bucket prior to dumping in all the raw materials, then I can just check it as I go using a hydrometer.

I know this is glazing 101 but with the feldspathic crackle glazes I’ve been using for so long, I can easily judge the correct thickness via the archaic, ‘how it coats a finger’ test, but with these new glazes and for continuing into the future, I need to be more measured and careful.

Results sometime next week, if everything goes according to plan.

#glaze #reductionfired #pottery #ceramics #asmr #howto #oddlysatisfyingvideo

Trimming Using Sticky Pads & Spinners

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-08 | When a pot has a particularly thin or delicate rim and it’s on the drier side, it’s more likely to crack if secured to the wheel with three lugs of clay or mechanical arms like found on a Giffin grip, equally, if the rim is finely trimmed and the clay is still relatively wet, it’s also likely to be deformed by the above.

In these cases, as I’d be lying if I said I’m always trimming my work when it’s the perfect consistency, I often use a sticky pad like this—a round of chamois leather works too, as does a thin pad of foam. It works nicely provided you press down firmly enough from above, (using a spinner in this case), yet I’d say it does lend itself to be slightly more technical trimming and it’s remarkably easy for everything to abruptly go terribly wrong, or rather, the pot flinging off centre and destroying itself. Hence why this isn’t a technique I’d recommend to somebody that’s new to trimming, in that instance pinning the bowl to the wheel with clay stuffed around the rim is a much safer method.

Thanks @diamondcoretools for the sticky pad and @kevin_scott for the super spinner.

#pottery #trimming #handmade #satisfying #tools #ceramics

Failing Making Porcelain Vases

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-07 | Here's a video I promised I wouldn't make... and it's the failures fault really. I had expected the process of trimming all of these vases and attaching their lines to be far more time intensive, yet, as you'll see in this video, I ruined most of them and then ran home with my tail between my legs to edit this defeatist video about trimming porcelain.

The truth is, despite all my hours on the wheel, failure is always present and it tends to rear it's head most when I'm throwing and trimming new clay types as you have to adjust, carefully, to the new properties of the materials at hand, porcelain in this case.

Thus, in this weekend's video, I'm trimming the angular porcelain vases made in my previous video. I explain why certain mistakes occur and how best to avoid them, together with speaking about filming and deciding to post what are arguably questionable, fail-filled videos, the type most potters would want to hide.

Thanks for watching my destroy these vases. They simply weren't meant to be.

💌 • Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

📖 • Order the HARDBACK of my book: geni.us/bymyhands (available now). OR you can pre-order the PAPERBACK via this link: penguin.co.uk/books/452259/by-my-hands-by-gadsby-florian/9781837310289

It'll be published in October!

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction
1:15 - Speaking about posting failure online
2:54 - My ambition with these vases
5:07 - Failure no. 2
5:39 - A Successful attempt
8:33 - Balancing trimming vs. throwing
10:33 - Failure no. 3
12:38 - Failure no. 4
13:45 - Clean up
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https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Get in touch here: floriangadsby.com/contact
Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

Why I LOVE Spinner Tools

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-07 | My YouTube video this weekend is one for the nerdy, tool-obsessed trimmers out there. It’s all about the spinners I use on top of my pots as I trim them, from what their function is, to why I think they’re useful and are perhaps better than simply using your fingertips, together with discussing my own personal preferences as to what I think makes a good one. If you’d like to indulge in 15-minutes of spinner chat, you can find a link to the fully narrated video in my profile’s biography.

(Tap the Linktree and click on the very top link)

When putting this video together and properly thinking about spinners, how I use them and why I use them, I did some to a sort of revelation, they were a step, so-to-speak, in my journey as a potter, as whilst they’re so incredibly simple, the difference they make is rather staggering. For instance, when filming this week’s film and returning to some of the older spinners I have, (those without a ball-bearing inside), the difference in concentration and pressure needed to pin the pot down is remarkable.

When using a spinner with a ball-bearing and a comfortable handle, I can trim with more attention on my hand that’s holding the turning tool and therefore the shape of the pot itself, without a spinner, or using one that is just a simple flat surface, part of that attention is put back on my left hand, the one that supports the spinner, keeping it place, as you constantly have to readjust the fingers on it and the spinning motion of the spinner itself influences the movement of your fingers.

I’m probably massively overthinking it but I’d wager I’m one of the potter’s that’s used a spinner like this the most so there’s no wonder why they’ve been in my thoughts so much. The truth is, there’s an awful lot of spinners online and some are far better than others in my opinion, so in this video I also breakdown what I think you should be looking for.

Thanks for watching!

#pottery #tools #toolsofthetrade #satisfying #asmr #craft

The Most Satisfying Trimming

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-05 | These types of plates top the chart for most satisfying object to create, they’re straightforward to throw provided you have big enough bats and I’d say by far the single worst moment is wiring a vessel like this, off of the bat itself, the sheer potential for things to wrong is so astronomically high.

Once thrown and safely separated from the bat though, they’re a breeze, as long as they’re trimmed and dried evenly so they stay flat throughout the process, in fact that’s likely the second trickiest part of the making these, finishing them so they don’t warp, also a nightmare. It’s for this reason that whilst leather hard a pot like this is only ever flipped around between two bats as it’s so easy to accidentally bend the plate, warping it, which could eventually lead to cracks forming.

Once bisque fired, I lay these pieces on a flat surface to see if they teeter or spin. If they do it’s at this stage that I grind back the offending clay until it sits flat. If you catch it here it normally doesn’t come back to haunt you once reduction fired.

Glazing is simple, again provided you have a wide enough bucket, in and out, that’s it. I used to be wary about placing the pots on foam like I do, my fear was it would grind away the dry powdery glaze itself, and it can if you rub it around on that surface, but the heavier objects tend to hold themselves down firmly enough so this doesn’t occur.

Then it’s fired again, this is the final test and there’s still plenty that can go wrong, but it worked a treat this time. Thanks for watching!

#plate #tableware #pottery #ceramics #maker #craft #satisfying

Creating a Large, Angular Urn

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-03 | I know there’s other ways of glazing shapes like this, such as first coating the inside and then dunking the outside, or attempting to dip it all at once, but the reason I do it the other way around is as follows.

The first thing to understand is that this specific glaze dries into an absurdly fragile layer. If I were to coat the interior first, let it dry, (which you must do in order for the walls to become desaturated with water—thus being able to absorb water again when the exterior is dipped), and then push it underneath the glaze like so, there’s a chance I’d chip or damage the interior surface as it’s plunged into the bucket of glaze.

I personally feel as if I can handle the vessel more delicately if I do it the other way around, this way I’m pushing the jar into the glaze without worrying about harming the interior form. Yet, if you have a glaze that dries into a harder layer, then by all means do it the other way around, this is just what works for me.

As for deciding to glaze these in two parts, I do this because by dipping the exterior like so and by slowly pulling it out of the glaze, I’m able to achieve a really flush, consistent layer on the outside. If I were to dip the entire vessel, pull it out of the glaze and then pour the contents back into the bucket, there’s a high chance that the glaze on the inside would spill over the exterior form. The large volume of glaze that flows out can be enough to manoeuvre the glazed that partly absorbed to the outside shape, creating an uneven layer. In this instance, unevenness is my enemy, which is precisely why I do it the slower, more careful way.

#jar #pottery #ceramics #clay #glaze #oddlysatisfying #asmr

My New Pottery Obsession!

Florian Gadsby 2025-09-01 | Out of all of the shapes I make, it’s the bowls that have undergone that greatest change over the past few years. Fundamentally, when they were simply fully curved forms, they were the objects that felt the least cohesive when compared to everything else I create. Yet, since introducing tall feet and angular sides, they’ve started to feel far more welcome within my body of work and they certainly are more unique and individual, I feel like I can have fun when throwing and trimming them, as the angularity opens up a vase realm of shapes that can be created verses those that are just simply rounded.

I never liked bowl forms that had an angular interior that matched an angular exterior, which is what happens you try and throw the angular shape straight off-the-bat. I prefer a rounded, sleek inside shape, as the glazes conform to it in a far better way, thus the solution, and the revelation I’ve sort of had since, is to throw a relatively thick curved shape that’s then trimmed back to be sharp and angular, a vessel made up from numerous straight planes.

Revelation is the right word too, as since beginning to make vessels like this my enjoyment of the process has rocketed, as have the quality of the pots themselves, not to mention that I’m far more content with how individual, in terms of character, they feel.

That’s a lot of words for a small change in my craft, but it’s had a considerable impact on my practice.

#bowl #craftsmanship #trimming #wheelthrownpottery #clay #pottery

My Love-hate Relationship with Porcelain

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-31 | It's been an age since I've done any throwing using porcelain and still, despite this cycle happening so many times, I'm always shocked by the transition and material difference when switching to throw this smooth, plasticky-cheddar cheese. I have a love hate relationship with porcelain, I adore the qualities that make is so special, how finely it can worked and it's translucency but this comes with a myriad of struggles, it's throw-ability, warping, cracking, collapsing mid-throw, together with trimming away in chunks and occasionally tearing itself apart, all of which are factors my usual stoneware clay deals with easily.

You've heard me talk about the want of wanting to incorporate more porcelain into my practice for a few years now and hopefully this video will explain some of the characteristics of clay like this. I'll also try to set some time aside to test all of the porcelain bodies I have, if that's a video that may be of interest to you folks?

Thanks as always for watching and apologies in advance for a week away, I need a break!

💌 • Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

📖 • Order the HARDBACK of my book: geni.us/bymyhands (available now). OR you can pre-order the PAPERBACK via this link: penguin.co.uk/books/452259/by-my-hands-by-gadsby-florian/9781837310289

It'll be published in October!

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction
1:00 - Preparing & wedging the porcelain
2:46 - Throwing the angular vases
5:11 - The properties of porcelain
12:25 - The purpose of these pieces
14:40 - Refining the interior shape
15:28 - Clean up

•
Find out much more via the link below!
https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Get in touch here: floriangadsby.com/contact
Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

Gifts From a Fellow Potter

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-31 | I’ve been following Jono Smart for years and checking in with what he and Emily Stephen are up to, is one of those things I always look forward to throughout the week.

You may see us bicker from time to time in the comments, well, I’d argue that’s Jono’s doing, but behind the scenes we are kind to each other, I promise, we chat about work, how on earth to run a business, how to deal with clients, how to fix problems and apply glazes, the lot.

We’re both potters who’ve grown up putting ourselves and our work on the web and his pots are used regularly both at home and in my workshop, hence why this capacious unexpected parcel was such a surprise to receive.

Perhaps most importantly though, in a few days’ time at 7:00 pm BST, 30 March, Jono and Emily will be updating their online shop with a collection of lovely pots, I’ll see you there.

#pottery #jonosmart #ceramics #unboxing #craft #stoneware #maker

How I Create the Ledges on my Pots

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-29 | Some people think I use specific rims to create my stepped forms, the types that have the exterior shape cut into them, so they can be used like a template almost, pressed against the soft spinning clay. Instead, the way I really do it, is simply by throwing a straight-sided form that’s then indented like so, with the sharp edge of a metal rib pressed into the wall, a crisp little ledge created. It’s not the easiest technique, especially if the walls are wafer thin, and much of what allows this to work is supporting the indentation from behind, from inside the pot, as pressure is exerted on the outside.

Beyond that, there are two other important factors to making a successful mug, (in my opinion), the first tip will help you to throw a shape without any trapped, ‘useless’ clay in the bottom, and that’s simply throwing an internal form that has a distinct flat base with walls that jut upwards vertically, without any gradual curve connecting the two. If you leave the floor curved in a shape like this, the raised portion closer to the walls will keep the vessel bottom heavy as you can’t trim it away easily thereafter.

The second tip is more ergonomic and that’s to create a lip that fits the shape of your mouth. I see so many cups that resolve in a thick, blocky rim, a form that simply doesn’t nestle into the corners of your lips. Instead, I throw the rim with a bevelled edge that comes to a sharp point on the outer portion of the wall, the sharpness is then softened with a chamois leather, yet it’s crisp enough to snuggle into the corners of your mouth. Think of a stool made with a shape that mimics your behind, comfortable, right? Well, the same can be said for a properly thrown lip.

#pottery #howto #potterytutorial #clay #ceramics #maker #wheelthrownpottery

Id Love to Hear Your Thoughts on These New Bowls

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-27 | I’d love to hear your thoughts on these bowls…

This week’s YouTube video covers a topic you may have seen me writing about a fair amount lately and that’s how I want to use these bronze filings more intentionally in my work, as compared to simply wedging them at random into my clay, the idea is to use them from more of a design-led perspective, to create directional points on the vessel that end up linking groups of work together. For a much more thorough explanation of my thoughts and ideas and how I did this, make sure you watch the fully narrated video on my YouTube channel, which you can find via the Linktree in my profile’s biography.

I won’t lie, the arbitrary dots have been getting slightly on my nerves. There’s a certain amount that has made it into my reclaim and they keep coming back and marking pots, (even those I’m trying to purposefully imprint with red metallic spots, like these bowls, hence my annoyance). I see the beauty in their random appearance, yet at the same time, if by adding them myself I can introduce a new element of design that’s both purposeful and creates more interesting groups of work, then that’s a good thing in my mind.

Thanks so much for watching and do let me know what you think!

#bronze #pottery #oddlysatisfying #howto #craft #ceramics #maker

A Simple Decorative Line

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-25 | These lined vases have been some of my favourite pots to emerge from the kiln lately, they’re fundamentally simple objects, which means getting the proportions right is paramount in their success, yet it’s the line that can really change them. The initial idea with these protrusions was for them to act like a continuation of the rim that travelled down the side of the pot, thus allowing the dramatic glaze breaking to not only encircle the sharp lip of the vase, but one face of it as well.

It serves no purpose beyond giving the piece an obvious way to display it and they’re about the closest I get to hand-building. This process is slow and the coil must be allowed to dry in-between stages as it’s soft and tacky initially, which isn’t the best quality for the clay if you indent to create a flush, smooth mark. So, once joined roughly I let is sit for a while, (normally whilst I trim more vases and attach the coils), then I can go back and start work on the first, refining and sharpening the protrusion.

It’s slow work that’s a nice counterpoint to the more rapid throwing my days and normally filled with.

#vase #howto #craft #clay #ceramic #pottery #studiopottery

3 Minutes 53 Seconds: My Fastest Shop Sell-Out Yet

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-24 | This weekend’s video isn’t about making pots, but rather what happens afterwards. I talk about how I sell my work and why I’m determined to keep it fair and transparent. I share why I don’t go through galleries, the importance of keeping creative control, and how I try to make the buying process simpler and less frantic. I even show how I pack each piece so it can travel safely around the world. It’s not the romantic side of pottery, but it’s a huge part of what keeps this little studio alive.

This week has been a blur. For five straight days I’ve been buried in cardboard, tape, and endless mountains of packaging chips, my fingers are rubbed raw from folding, wrapping, and sealing. By Friday evening, I finally packed the last box from my 17 August shop update, only the labelling remains. To be completely honest with you, heading into this drop I felt anxious and incredibly stressed. With the sudden halt to shipping orders to the USA and EU (tariffs and GPSR regulations are enough to drive anyone mad), I feared sales would be far slower and maybe even stall completely. Instead, the opposite happened, you lot cleared the shop in 3 minutes and 53 seconds. I’m still stunned. Truly.

It’s moments like this that remind me of how lucky I am to have people who not only support what I make but do so with such speed and enthusiasm, even when hurdles such as a manic buying experience get thrown in the way. It’s all very overwhelming in the best possible sense and a topic which I could speak endlessly about, hence the longer YouTube self-examination this weekend.

Thanks for watching!

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • If you want to learn how to throw a pot, you might like my 'A Beginner's Guide' series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby

⏱ • Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction & why I didn't ship to the USA or the EU
3:02 - A brief guide to wrapping pots
5:41 - The current issue with my online shop
7:18 - Why I don't sell with galleries more
10:15 - Why I don't do pre-orders
12:30 - Three possible solutions... (raising prices)
13:54 - Auctions and real lotteries
16:00 - Do I keep it first come, first serve?

*I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340.
____

Instagram – instagram.com/floriangadsby
TikTok – tiktok.com/@floriangadsby
Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com

Proportion is EVERYTHING

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-23 | Proportion is EVERYTHING with these vases, with every type of pot honestly, but with these in-particular, there are some strict rules I follow to make sure they ‘feel’ right proportionally, not squat or heavy or unbalanced, and they’re as follows:

First and foremost, the lower tapering part has to account for half or more of the overall height. If it’s shorter than the angular section on top, then it begins to feel clumsy and top-heavy, stumpy as compared to elegant.

Secondly, the base, (and yes it can be trimmed narrower), has to be narrower than the pinched section towards the top, where the two walls meet. If the foot portion is wider or the same width, then again, the vessel loses its elegance.

Third, the line around the waist, (where the lower half and the top half meet), has to always be the most outward point, other angles can be equal to it, but they can never splay out further, otherwise the form becomes top heavy and it throws off the proportionality.

These might sound restrictive but sometimes it’s interesting to see how you can push the boundaries within a certain set of rules, moreover, these are just the rules I apply to myself when making these, by no means do you have to be a potter who creates according to order but it works for me, and I find I create the best vases when I follow these rules.

#vase #wheelthrownpottery #maker #clay #satisfying #pottery

The KEY to Making Successful Pulled Handles

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-21 | The same few questions always come up when I show the handling process, the first asking whether I attach these blanks immediately, or whether they’ll allowed to stiffen up before being joined and pulled into their final shape. Waiting for them to dry does feel intuitive, yet in this instance it only makes the process more difficult, the blanks become harder to blend into the cup smoothly as the clay is simply more tenacious, you have to work harder to create a seamless blend between the two. Equally, when it comes to pulling the length into its final shape, if the stoneware is firm, you’ll find it’s more difficult to stretch out, yes, you may have to exert more control, as softer clay tends to collapse and tear more easily, but you’ll find it’s easier to make flowing, curved shapes when the clay is on the softer side.

Thus, once the blanks have been pulled, they are immediately used, I want them soft, in fact, if I have many handles to pull or if it’s a particularly hot day, I’ll stack all the blanks up and will wrap them in plastic, as the wood tends to wick moisture out of them very quickly, drying out side of them and making them more difficult to pull.

It’s a skill that’s initially a nightmare to learn, yet once the basics have engrained themselves in your muscle memory it becomes a joy, you’ve just got to persist through the pain.

#handles #handlepulling #oddlysatisfying #clay #pottery #ceramics

Trimming Tricky Trinket Boxes #pottery

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-19 | If you’d like to watch both the throwing and the trimming of these trinket boxes or store jars, you can find a link to the fully narrated video via on YouTube via the Linktree in my profile’s biography.

These are deceptive objects. Simple, yes, yet trimmed to an astonishing level, my fault really for accidentally throwing the lids far larger than need be… I’m sure I’m not the only person that’s measured the opening of their jars only to then knock it larger, or smaller, without realising.

Thankfully, my general approach when making lidded ware is to throw the lids themselves thicker than need be, not the overhang itself, that was too much on these, but the vertical locating flange, for instance, is a segment of the pot I always throw more substantially, this way it can be trimmed back to fit the vessel underneath it no matter what. I’ll be trimming the underside of my lids regardless, so this fraction of additional material acts like a safety net of sorts.

Yet, that’s no excuse for the portion of the lid that’s overhanging to this degree, the next time I make these I’ll spend a few extra moments measuring.

These are useful pots though, the wider opening means I can easily reach inside to fish out salt or spices, or it can be used for trinkets, rings and the like, in fact, you can put anything inside, it’s not my job to tell you what to do with these.

#pottery #satisfying #clay #stoneware #jar #ceramics #maker

How I Carve Heavy Vessels Into Elegant Bowls

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-17 | This weekend, I'm trimming the tall, curved forms thrown last week. Bowls with indented tops but with a lower half that's more of a roughly formed vessels that'll be trimmed EXCESSIVELY during this video, into far more refined, elegant shapes. The ease of trimming these partly rests in how well they're dried out to leather hard. Rushed and in a space with drafts, one side of the bowl could dry out considerably more than the rest of the bowl, creating an undulation that you then have to trim around as you work, which is a pain. Thus, these forms are dried very slowly over a long period of time to best retain the original, thrown shape.

As always, I discuss each step along the way, from how to properly brace your hands as you trim, the importance of wheel-speed and vigour and finally, how I hollow out such an expansive foot, that's where the real tricky work is.

Al in all, I end up with two shapes I very happy with, although I can already foresee the troubles that'll arise in glazing such tall forms. Thank you so much for watching the video, I appreciate you taking your precious time to watch!

If you'd like to watch how these bowls were thrown, click here: youtu.be/9A198IDbV2w

Devon, Sophisticated_Pagen's website: sophisticatedpagan.ca

💌 • Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

📖 • Order the HARDBACK of my book: geni.us/bymyhands (available now). OR you can pre-order the PAPERBACK via this link: penguin.co.uk/books/452259/by-my-hands-by-gadsby-florian/9781837310289

It'll be published in October!

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction & the importance of slow drying
2:35 - Attaching the bowl to the wheel-head for trimming
4:03 - Trimming the outer, angular shape
6:55 - Refining the tall foot & hollowing it out
8:33 - Weighing the first bowl to see how much material is removed
9:01 - Trimming the second bowl
11:55 - Shaping the angular foot
13:54 - A more detailed demonstration of hollowing out the foot
15:49 - Stamping the vessel with my maker's mark
16:35 - How I dry them slowly to avoid warping

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https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Repetition Throwing Pourers

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-17 | Pourers, for the first time in a long time, to replenish bygone stock—I’ve got two left in fact, lonely things and I had an urge to make some spouts, a process which I never feel I’m actually very good at as it’s my least practised technique. The first few attempts are always trashed, in fact I normally begin by throwing a tall cylinder that I pull handle spouts in, I then slice off the rim, level and bevel the lip, and pull another round until things click.

As these the dry the forms loosen, especially the lip, which goes from being very defined, to rather splayed out as the clay is slowly drawn back into its circular shape. Hence, all the fiddling around I do at the start of this video to keep them refined.

Let’s just hope they pour well, but I need to show you the rather absurd trimming before I can move onto testing them.

#jug #pourer #howto #pottery #clay #ceramics

An Unconventional Method for Trimming Pourers

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-17 | These pourers aren’t enjoyable to trim, they topple to either side when upside-down and flattening and thinning the walls leads to creating ridges where the spout itself protrudes. I could not trim to the top but you know me, there are some things I have to do despite them being difficult.

Thus, for these, I trim and create those marks and afterwards I spend some time carving them back, to create a flush surface again, which I then fettle over with a sponge-on-a-stick and then compress with my fingertips.

The best part about all of this though, is being able to work the actual pouring edge back to being incredibly crisp, which means when used it should cut through the liquid wonderfully, resulting in a smooth, even pour. I even fractionally wipe the glaze back here so that the spout isn’t obliterated and smothered in glaze, (this can thicken the lip, rounding it and causing it to pour poorly).

This extra work means they certainly take longer to create but it’s well worth it in the finished product, provided I don’t mess them up hereafter.

#pottery #jug #qualitycontrol #carving #ceramics #studiopottery

The Lowest & Widest Jar Ive Ever Made

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-15 | After recently making a batch of low jars, I was tempted to create another that’s even lower and wider, and this is what I came up with. My main concern is the fine rim of the body section warping. I hope it’ll hold, and normally the wadded-up lid that’s placed in-situ as it fires is enough to keep it round, yet when scaling things up, or down in this case? There’s always the inevitability of things going wrong.

All in all, it was easier to put together than I thought. The throwing of the two halves sort of felt like throwing two plates, so my second concern is the vessel warping or moving as it dries out to bone dry before the biscuit firing can be done. Thus, the box has been drying beneath plastic for a week or so, unwrapped daily and allowed to breathe before being smothered again.

I’m not sure which colour to glaze this, white, black, pale-green, blue perhaps? With so many new buckets of glaze in the workshop I’m having a much harder time deciding how to coat the pots I make.

#jar #pottery #tutorial #studiopottery #contemporaryceramics #box #craft

Starting a Search for a New Blue Glaze

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-13 | It feels great to be testing glazes again, this time it’s a search for a blue I like, one rich with character, gradients of tone, crystalline flecks, crackling and breaking dramatically over sharp edges. All of that is much easier said than done, hence this expansive round of tests that I’ll hopefully be reduction firing soon, so make sure to check back over the coming week or two if you’d like to see an ocean of glassy blue tiles. I’m sure some will be failures, there’s always a few, but I’m also testing some iron slips and some gun-metal greys, bonuses, if they fire successfully.

There isn’t much to the process itself. Anyone that’s mixed up a whole range of test tiles like this will know it’s slow and careful work, yet you try to get into a rhythm that’s relatively fast otherwise hours can disappear very quickly. The most important part to get right is obvious, the right material weighed out to the correct amount, yet again, that’s easier said than done as all it takes is a tiny lapse of concentration for a glaze to be mixed incorrectly, a phone-call, a knock on the door and so on. We’ve all been there.

#glaze #test #testtile #glazing #satisfying #pottery #ceramics

Pottery Chucks, Chums & Cheeks

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-11 | My YouTube video this weekend is one I promised you recently, it’s all about chucks, chums and the newly named cheeks, the etymology had to be preserved. These are custom clay tools that fit inside the pots you make to make trimming easier and in this week’s upload, I’m demonstrating both how to throw them and use them after the heavy, sturdy pieces have turned leather hard. If you’d like to watch a much longer explanation, you can find the fully narrated video via the Linktree in my profile’s biography.

Chucks, (I’ll use this as the universal term for the three distinct shapes from hereafter), are tools I find the most useful when trimming many multiples of the same shape as they help eliminate time wasted centring pots and attaching them securely down onto the wheel, instead the chuck is centred and each vessel is simply slotted over it for trimming, the solid mass of clay holding the pot in place.

Not only that, but the chuck helps to preserve the shape of the opening of the pot, it can even correct oval or misshapen openings, as the leather hard clay of the pot that’s still relatively soft adapts to the roundness of the chuck as it’s inserted over it. I even use a chuck on all my handles vessels to quickly reshape the rim just in case they’ve been drawn into an oval shape as the new appendage pulls the rim to one side.

Thanks so much for taking your time to watch if you happen to click over onto my YouTube channel, it’s very greatly appreciated.

#pottery #chucks #tools #toolsofthetrade #ceramics #tutorial #clay

How to Center Using Two Lumps of Clay

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-10 | This week, I'm throwing the 'base' bowl shape that'll be trimmed excessively in next weekend's video, provided they dry without warping too much... I'm about to embark on an online shop restock, which means my time over the next fortnight will be a bit stretched, so follow along on this simple process of throwing a large bowl, beginning with demonstrating an interesting technique for centring larger masses of clay, whereupon two lumps are essentially jammed together and centred one after the other.

I also discuss opening up, shaping and tidying up this shape before prying them precariously off the wheel and then how I let vessels like this dry very slowly for a few days, so they don't warp or distort, which for a form like this is crucial, as otherwise trimming the distinct shape will be nearly impossible.

Thank you so much for watching the video, I appreciate you taking your precious time to watch!

💌 • Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

📖 • Order the HARDBACK of my book: geni.us/bymyhands (available now). OR you can pre-order the PAPERBACK via this link: penguin.co.uk/books/452259/by-my-hands-by-gadsby-florian/9781837310289

It'll be published in October!

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction & shop announcement (17 August, 7:00 pm BST)
1:30 - A drawing/cross-section of the bowl I want to throw
2:20 - Clay preparation
3:24 - The clay centering process
5:31 - Throwing the first of two bowls
9:51 - Throwing the second, better bowl
14:42 - How I dry these bowls out properly

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https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Teaching Myself to be More Efficient

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-09 | know what I’m about to write is immensely trivial, but it’s a relatively big change in my practice, and that’s moving on from a hair brush for waxing, to a foam brush like this. I’m sure there are pros and cons for each but this tool holds more wax so I can wax for longer and it’s also more versatile, as I can use its side for fine details, such as the waxing the smallest feet on my tiniest bowls, to waxing larger expanses of bare clay, like on the underside of these mugs or plates.

Either way, trivial yes, but a change to a tool that’s so engrained in my muscle memory feels peculiar and it took some getting used to. The main difference is that the wax seems to be pulled out of the foam more quickly by the absorbent stoneware and if this catches you off guard then it drags the entire pot off centre, potentially tipping it over.

By the way, that last daub that I do is to flood my maker’s mark and properly seal it, otherwise this little intricate crevice can fill with glaze that is somewhat irritating to needle out. Cleaning it out every now and then is fine, but if I had to do it for every single mug, I glazed then it would add a good 10-20 seconds per piece, 20 seconds x 120 mugs is 2400 seconds, which is 40 minutes. It’s all about efficiency in this workshop.

#waxing #wax #pottery #potteryvideos #craftsmanship #maker #howto

How to Fettle Clean a Mug

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-07 | Here’s what the next few days will look like for me, with the latest batch of work all glazed, all that remains is tidying up the glazed surface that encases the clay form, with special attention spent on the bottom of every pot, the base, which must be wiped clean of any glaze residue otherwise they could fuse themselves to the kiln shelf.

It’s a satisfying process, provided the glaze doesn’t chip and tear away more than I’d like. Thankfully, after this glaze has dried out for a day or so it becomes powdery and soft, yes it comes off on your fingertips and gets everywhere, but it also makes it relatively easy to scrape back and fix. Chips are simply flooded with new glaze from a brush before being blended into the surrounding area and any raised patches, like the tong marks, are fettled back to a flush surface.

The key is not rubbing away too much as to create a thin patch and that’ll show in the glassy surface once fired, yet this is easier said than done. Overall glazing is a process I could live without, I’ve become rather efficient and decent at coating pots evenly, even with a glaze that takes time to settle on the form and given the chance will dry into a bumpy layer, it’s all practice I suppose and it’s rather miraculous how much faster I am now as compared to in 2020.

A good audiobook and a handful of boards to fettle through is at least time well spent.

#pottery #glazing #oddlysatisfying #craft #asmr #mug #glaze

One of the Most Important Steps in Making Pottery

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-05 | You’d think cleaning up a bowls glazed surface might be easier, yet these are some of the most painful shapes to fettle clean. They have so many flat planes that any mistake really shows but it’s simply holding the shape, as one hand wipes and carves, that hurts. My left hand has to grip the surface so steadily as if it moves and rubs against the surface of glaze it will wear it down, creating thin patches, which aren’t ideal in my quest for uniformity. This means that this hand is tensed for hours on end as I whittle clean these forms and it’s likely one of the worst aches I get in my entire practice.

The second difficult part is cleaning over the foot. These are trimmed to be very fine and thus any small mistakes, say I wipe away too much glaze or chip away a tiny fragment, it needs to be corrected otherwise it’ll remain glaringly obvious, (to me at least, I’m sure I’d be the only person to see it).

What helps is the shape of the pot itself, I trim the bottom portion of the foot-ring to have three distinct planes, this way I can easily glide my knife or a wet sponge along them, they act as useful guides. If instead the foot was round, I’d have a much harder time creating consistent clean lines as I have to rely on my hand being steady as I carve away the glaze.

#pottery #glaze #glazing #bowl #tableware #oddlysatisfying #ceramics

Surprised by Contaminated Clay

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-03 | This weekend, I'm throwing and trimming a tall jar with a stepped lid with the initial focus being on sorting out an irritating teething issue I've been encountering... my fault, due to bad throwing. Sometimes, I've incorrectly been leaving strong throwing rings towards the bottoms of my pots, which means when I trim the vessel, a thin spot is created that ultimately buckles when fired, or it even collapse. So, in this video I'm sorting that out, whilst also covering each step along the way, from throwing the components, glazing the object, reduction firing it to cone ten, (1290ºC), and finally how I grind the lid smooth using diamond pads and carborundum paste.

I also used bronze fragments to try and create two very simple marks so that you jar and body can be aligned, but let's just say that idea went out the window...

Thanks for watching!

☕️ Mugs with Stepped Bases: youtu.be/JXfI9Czu2PI
🐚 How to Make Wadding: youtu.be/KCI_LQL3JIs

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction
0:25 - The problem at hands...
2:10 - Throwing the body and lid of the jar
4:55 - Trimming the parts to fit
10:46 - Why I trim a concave top to my lids
16:33 - Inserting bronze into the clay
17:19 - Bisque firing the jar & waxing it
18:27 - Glazing the jar
19:52 - Cleaning up the glazes surface
21:35 - Wadding the lid
22:14 - Packing and firing my gas kiln
23:15 - Unpacking the kiln
23:46 - Removing the lid and grinding it
25:11 - The finished jar

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https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Testing TWO Fake Porcelain Clay Bodies

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-03 | Here are two more clay bodies that I’ll be testing in my next firing, both are stoneware, yet they simulate porcelaneous clays, one is very smooth and the other is heavily, painfully grogged. Both offering their own unique challenges to work with as compared to my usual 10% grogged stoneware, if you’d like to watch my struggle with these in a longer format film, my recent upload on YouTube, (there’s a link in my profile’s biography), discusses working with these types of clay in far greater detail.

It’s incredible how much you need to adjust your technique for small differences in clay. How they’re thrown and lifted off the wheel and how they’re trimmed, the clay feeling so dense that it’s tricky for the blades edge to catch purchase, I can blame these differences on the undulations the smaller indented bowl has.

White clay for white glaze, that’s the idea, with a black clay also being tested with a similar, matte black glaze, the plan being to find some simple combinations I like to create some simple, black and white wares from, groups and pairs, light and dark.

#maker #ceramicist #bowl #oddlysatisfying #asmr #pottery #ceramics

Trimming on a Handmade Clay Chuck

Florian Gadsby 2025-08-01 | I thought this footage of trimming a bowl on my newly made leather hard ‘chuck’ deserved a longer video as compared to the previous rapid run-through. It’s a ‘chum’, technically, as it fits inside the pot in order to hold it in place, rather than being inserted into the support and it’s really as simple as a tool can get, it’s just a solid, semicircle of clay that bowls are other wide forms can slot over.

As most of the rims of my pots bevel out to a sharp point, this means the vessels themselves are gripped by the inside of the rim, rather than that lip, which means this very delicate part is protected and held slightly aloft, not coming into direct contact with the chum or the metal wheel head. This is a bonus in some ways as over the years my work has become more refined and those fine sections are the easiest to damage, so anything that makes trimming them easier, the better.

Yet perhaps the two best things about working on a support like this are as followings, first, the opening itself is kept properly round, no distortions here, and secondly, as there’s nothing clamping the pot in place, taking it off in order to check the cross-section is immensely easy, which is useful when turning forms I’m not very familiar with, or that I’m turning to be feather light.

#pottery #trimming #satisfying #chum #chuck #ceramics #craft

Creating a Lined Vase—From Start to Finish

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-31 | Together with all the blue test tiles unpacked from the kiln yesterday, there was also this sleek, medium vase with a little line across one face. It’s a decorative addition, a simple protrusion that gives the pot some direction or a face, without it you could display the form from any angle but with it the orientation is clear.

Now, I always get a TON of questions when I show these glazing videos, asking why I glaze the outside first, instead of doing it the conventional way, which is by coating the inside and then the outside.

So, the first thing to realise is that not all glazes are the same, depending on what the recipe contains, some dry into a relatively solid layer, whilst others turn very powdery and soft, this is the latter. I’ve also found that the way to create the most consistent exterior layer of glaze is to dunk them like this. Thus, if I coated the interior first, when it comes first to submerge the vessel by pressing on the inside form, there’s a chance the interior could be damage by my pressing down and my forearm could also damage the glaze around the opening.

By doing it the other way around, the interior remains unglazed so I can press downward as hard as I like and I also find it a touch easier to handle the exterior of the vase carefully when pouring the glaze out as I can easily see and feel what I’m doing.

It’s counterintuitive perhaps and it’s definitely dependant on the type of glaze, but this is what works best for me.

#vase #ceramic #pottery #handmade #reductionfired #madeinlondon #craftsmanship

Newly Designed Plates — Which Do You Like Best?

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-29 | I’ve never felt like the plates I make, (be it side-plates or dinner plates), really fit within my style, they’ve felt like outliers, forms that were visually more traditional in design and therefore never felt right when displayed outside my other works.

Thus, this weekend’s YouTube video and the exploratory making it shows, is my attempt to fix that, and this short montage of moments from that process is only a tiny portion of the longer, almost hour-long narrated version you can find over on my YouTube channel, (a link to which you can find via the Linktree in my profile’s biography.

That film covers everything you don’t see here, together with my detailing and fussing over each small step along the way, together with sharing numerous tips and tricks on throwing and trimming such shapes and some discussion of my design philosophies. It’s a long one this weekend, so thank you so much for taking the time to watch if you do happen to click over and let me know what you think of these new, slightly more complex, plates.

#plates #tableware #craftsmanship #maker #pottery #ceramics #satisfying

Throwing & Trimming Miniature Pottery

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-27 | Miniature pots are this week's project. Tiny vessels, jars, bowls and vases, to eventually use in tandem with larger collections of vessels, or as pieces to top the towers of pots I often create and exhibit.

This week, I'm taking you through the delicate throwing process and the even more time-consuming and troublesome trimming. It really is difficult, as the pots are essentially trying to end themselves constantly by coming loose and throwing themselves off the wheel-head.

Thus, in order to make these, you need to work with extreme care, turning the leather hard clay quickly, carefully and with an extraordinary amount of control. In many ways it's much more difficult to make pots on this scale as compared to pots that are normal sizes, but it's a good test of one's ability and annoyingly, they make WONDERFUL kiln fillers, which I wish they didn't, as it gives me a good reason to sit and throw hundreds of the damned things.

Thanks for watching!

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • If you want to learn how to throw a pot, you might like my 'A Beginner's Guide' series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby

⏱ • Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:49 - Setting up the wheel
2:15 - Throwing three tiny bowls
6:23 - Throwing two angular vases
8:07 - Throwing two lidded jars & lids
9:54 - How I dry these pots out safely
10:42 - Trimming the bowls
15:30 - Trimming the angular vases
17:20 - Trimming the lidded jars
20:49 - Talking about making small pots
22:08 - Clean up

*I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340.
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TikTok – tiktok.com/@floriangadsby
Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com

Searching for a New Blue Glaze

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-27 | Here’s a better overview of some of the reduction fired blue test tiles that I unpacked from the kiln a few days ago. There’s a real mix of surface textures in these and that’s partly why I started with such a broad range of recipes as my search isn’t simply for a flat colour, it’s for a surface that’s a lot more characterful than that.

I mix all of these recipes in-house from raw materials I tend to buy in bulk. Each recipe is then precisely weighed out, blended, sieved and dipped on a tile before a small code is scrawled on the back using whatever iron oxide I have at hand.

Often, there are colours and surfaces I like, but they don’t feel as if they’d fit within my body of work or the range of tones I use. For instance, if a cobalt is too bold it’ll overpower the rest of my glazes, so whatever passes the test has to be visually slightly softer.

That’s why I like the blue with the white borders so much, it takes the edge off the tone without completely dulling it down. This whitening also creates gradients, which I like in my surfaces, and lastly metal seems to really flux with the glass, creating small metallic rivulets in the glaze, which is another bonus.

Which one do you like most?

#blue #glaze #glazetest #pottery #ceramics #handmade #craft

Experimenting With Crimson Clay

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-25 | A small test, late to the party of course, as many of you will have seen jars and vases made from this combination materials on my page by now. This was the initial test though, a tiny angular cup, made instead of a test tile and sometimes you’ve got to see how the glaze will react on a vessel as compared to a tile. I’ve learnt this the hard way, observing what I think is a beautiful glaze on a test tile, only for it to feel flat and dead when applied on a much larger vessel.

This crimson glaze here isn’t absolutely right either and whilst this test was passable, it did inform me that my red glaze needs to be applied more thickly in the future, (if it’s dipped on in too thin of a wash the coarse texture of the stoneware shows through, making the glaze appear as if it’s slightly bumpy).

I’m moving on from this red now for a while to test out a new black clay body and glaze combination, simple, I know, but with that out the way I’ll be on the lookout for a similar clay/surface but in white. It’s about time I embraced my black and white pottery period.

#pottery #wheelthrownpottery #handmade #craft #ceramics #oddlysatisfying

Blending Red & Black Clay

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-23 | This should be enough clay for the first small round of tests I want to do with this new mix. The darker clay should fire completely black by itself, yet despite being labelled as ‘smooth’, it’s still pretty toothy and needs to be blended down by 50%, for which I’m using my usual, high-iron stoneware clay body that’s much smoother.

This is the technique I’ve always using for blending bodies. I cut very thin layers and sandwich them altogether, then the entire mass is given a quick spiral wedge to fully mix the two. No marbling here thanks, I can’t see it fitting within my more minimal family of forms and glazes.

I’ll be creating some lidded jars with this lot, in fact that’s the subject of my YouTube video that I’m currently editing for the coming Sunday. What I’ve found really intriguing is how much of a difference this new black clay makes, the combined clay is absurdly brittle, to the point where if the thrown leather hard pots are very gently squeezed, (say the opening of a jar is no longer round), it’s just crack. There’s no give to it, which is a bit of a shock as compared to normal stoneware that tends to be rather forgiving.

#clay #stoneware #oddlysatisfying #asmr #craft #pott

Making New Bud Vases

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-21 | Straight sides, refining the top and hollowing a foot—these bud vases are dead simple forms really, which is probably why I like trimming them so much.

I know you see me trimming a lot but in reality, it’s a huge part of my craft. Not every maker trims such a lot, many potters throw much finer and only trim a little, others leave more weight and trim back, as long as you end up with balanced forms that aren’t bottom heavy, the way you get there doesn’t really matter, (as long as you aren’t taking three years to complete each form). There’s far less turning to be done on many of my shapes, mugs in particular, but I still do it, aiming for very thin walls.

I trained in a capacity where many of the shapes didn’t need trimming. They were weighty, but again balanced, and all that was done to finish their bases was thumbing smooth the bottom corner and slightly indented the floor of the pot itself, (this way when they were raised up on waddings, the base wouldn’t sag, causing the vessel to spin). Yet, in my own work I’ve always been interested in sharp edges, lines, forms that are often trickier to throw than their curved counterparts, for that reason I often leave vessels thicker in places, as I feel I have more control at the leather hard stage to create the shapes I have in my mind’s eye.

Like I always say, (as this comment comes up a lot, “Why don’t you throw your pots to their final shape?”), wouldn’t it be dull if we all made pots in the same way, and why question somebody that’s obviously enjoying the way they create.

#pottery #vase #flowervase #maker #craftsmanship #studiopottery

Mixing Shards of Obsidian, Tungsten, Malachite & Tourmaline into my Clay

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-20 | It's time for another round of raw material tests. This time I'm wedging tungsten, tourmaline, malachite and even tiny shards of obsidian into my high iron stoneware clay body. Pray for my tools and for my hands.

I'll be throwing and trimming a batch of test bowls and I apologise in advance for the 'teaser', as this is only the first step in the creation process, the initial wedging, throwing and turning of the bowls once they're leather hard. My YouTube channel closely follows the day-to-day activities in the workshop, which often means I don't get to immediately see the results but that's working with clay, it's a slow process full of long periods of waiting for pots to dry, accumulate and then finally cool down in the kiln.

Rest assured, I will share the finished results when the time comes, when they've been reduction fired to cone ten, (1290ºC), but it may be a few weeks yet!

Raw materials kindly gifted by Devon Malazdrewicz, Pagan, here's his websites, (he also makes fantastically sharp tungsten carbide trimming tools):

Instagram: instagram.com/sophisticated_pagan
Website: sophisticatedpagan.ca

THANKS for watching and thank you Pagan, I'll treasure these.

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction & mixing the raw materials into my clay
4:58 - Cleaning out the wheel preemptively
5:42 - Throwing the give bowls
11:55 - Drying the work properly & safely
12:55 - Trimming the bowls
23:30 - Tidying up & avoiding contamination

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Find out much more via the link below!
https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Get in touch here: floriangadsby.com/contact
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Throwing Black Stoneware Jars

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-19 | I’ve been toying with using music in more videos lately. The kind I find myself mesmerised by are craftspeople at work with a score accompanying hands at work, so why not for a change. If though, on the other hand, you would like to hear my usual narration over this video, (and a much longer version too), you can find it over on my YouTube channel as this weekend’s upload. There’s a nifty link in my profile’s biography that’ll take you right there.

This week, I’m beginning a search for a black stoneware clay body, so expect blending clays, throwing them into small tea caddies and trimming them. As it turns out, this ‘smooth’ black stoneware is anything but smooth, it’s full of sharp grog and the body is actually incredibly brittle come leather hard, which makes turning it a real pain, as you’ll see in the full video.

I had to completely readjust my way of trimming, soaking the walls of the pots with a wet sponge and then refining these damp areas, otherwise all I was left with was scratchy surfaces that weren’t particularly nice. At least I know this know and the next time I make a batch of pots using this combination of materials, I’ll trim the clay when it’s on the softer side.

Thanks for watching!

Music — Yehezkel Raz - Murmuring

#pottery #ceramics #satisfying #asmr #craft #maker

Getting to Grips with New Black Stoneware Clay

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-17 | I really forgot just how brittle some clay bodies can be.

This black stoneware, (PF680), has been rather unforgiving, or rather, I’ve been treating leather hard pots a little roughly, or at least, in the same manner I treat my usual stoneware clay.

I made a few bowls where their rims had turned somewhat oval, now normally I can just gently squeeze the rim back into a round shape, yet with this black clay it just cracks in four places around the rim when I attempted the same thing.

Not only that, but this grogged body turns leather hard far more quickly than other clay bodies I’ve worked with, all of this means that my first round with this new material has been rather problematic. There were certainly teething issues but hopefully no more will sneak up as I biscuit fire and glaze fire it… wish me luck.

#satisfying #pottery #ceramics #clay #experiment #handmade

Curved Bowls into Angular Bowls

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-15 | 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

How to Throw & Trim Narrow Cylinders — A Surprisingly Difficult Shape!

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-13 | In this weekend's video, I'm tackling what's famously quite a difficult form to throw, a simple, but deceptively tricky narrow cylindrical vase. Thrown with a sturdy rim and balanced, consistent walls, to ensure the pot doesn't warp as it dries out to leather hard for trimming. This is key, as in the past I used to throw these really thin and light but I'd end up making the trimming harder than need be, as these delicate cylinders would the dry unevenly and bend to one side, whereas nowadays I'm just kinder to myself at the throwing stage and then I turn them quite excessively into very crisp, refined forms. I hope you find the video helpful.

Thanks for watching!

How to cone clay: youtu.be/69dMLpXosSk
The spinner tools I use: youtu.be/fBK31iuMOHw

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: geni.us/bymyhands

🏺 • You may also be interested in my 'A Beginner's Guide' series, which you can find here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction & notes on ideal interior shapes
2:03 - Clay preparation
3:04 - Centring the clay
4:09 - The importance of the initial, opened base
6:14 - How to fix a 'rippling' base
8:16 - Why I leave the rims thick
8:30 - Using throwing sticks to fix the interior form
10:45 - Why it's important to dry these vases out slowly...
13:22 - How I dry these overnight
13:41 - Trimming the vases
14:43 - Trimming & bevelling the rim
15:56 - Trimming the base of the vase
18:33 - A ramble about how variance in ceramics is a good thing!
21:22 - Clean up

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Find out much more via the link below!
https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby
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Get in touch here: floriangadsby.com/contact
Sign up to my newsletter here: floriangadsby.com/newsletter

The Usefulness of Chucks

Florian Gadsby 2025-07-13 | I adore chucks. They’re such simple, versatile tools and I have a whole box of them, wrapped in plastic sheeting, preserved for the next time they need to be used. The one in this short video is more than two years old and after each use it’s given a good dunk in water and then it’s wrapped up tightly in plastic and stored back in the airtight box hence it came.

I have some for bowls, others for my thrown ink dip pens, if you can remember those, some taller tapering shapes and some smaller ones, like this, for cups of various sizes.

Now, I’ve always preferred using leather hard chucks, storing them is a pain but it’s easy at least. The other option is to the bisque fire them, then you soak them when needed and hopefully the moisture retained is enough to help the pot stick. You can even smear soft clay onto the bisque fired chuck in order to make their surfaces even tackier, yet I found they never held the pots quite as nicely as chucks made from leather hard clay. The truth is, probably both work wonderfully, it’s just we tend to lean into preferences and then you’re stuck making pots in ‘your’ way.

I should make a more thorough YouTube video all about the creation of chucks, if that’s something you’d like to see do let me know!

#tools #toolsofthetrade #pottery #clay #howto #potterytutorial #ceramics