Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Narrow cylinders are some of the trickiest forms to throw, mainly due to not being able to comfortably reach one’s hand inside without the vessel being distorted. Distorted, splayed out clay can be difficult to collar back in, especially if the clay itself hasn’t been properly wedged and centred. It buckles instead, the stoneware rippling and eventually collapsing.
It’s for this reason that I’m much more diligent when it comes to wedging and centring the clay for these, as admittedly, there comes a point where you can centre quickly and throw simple bowls and mugs even if the clay isn’t 100% centred, or if it’s kneaded rapidly and lazily. I’m pretty sure as potters we’re all the same and occasionally we don’t run through these foundational procedures like we properly should. With these narrow vases though, that just isn’t the case.
Perhaps more than anything it’s the interior form that’s the most important, as if you leave the inside shape relatively curvaceous and thickly potted, you can never truly trim back enough on the outside to counter it, without utterly destroying the straight cylindrical shape. To negate this, and to keep my vases from becoming overly weighty, once the cylinder is lifted up, I’ll spend some time with a throwing stick making sure the internal shape is correct. I don’t mind if this alters the exterior as I’ll be able to clean that up with a kidney or at the leather hard stage, but the inside, well, there’s no fixing that if it is thrown inaccurately, (save for extremely laborious trimming), so it has to be right at the thrown stage.
#cylinder #vase #pottery #tutorial #ceramics #handmade
Narrow cylinders are some of the trickiest forms to throw, mainly due to not being able to comfortably reach one’s hand inside without the vessel being distorted. Distorted, splayed out clay can be difficult to collar back in, especially if the clay itself hasn’t been properly wedged and centred. It buckles instead, the stoneware rippling and eventually collapsing.
It’s for this reason that I’m much more diligent when it comes to wedging and centring the clay for these, as admittedly, there comes a point where you can centre quickly and throw simple bowls and mugs even if the clay isn’t 100% centred, or if it’s kneaded rapidly and lazily. I’m pretty sure as potters we’re all the same and occasionally we don’t run through these foundational procedures like we properly should. With these narrow vases though, that just isn’t the case.
Perhaps more than anything it’s the interior form that’s the most important, as if you leave the inside shape relatively curvaceous and thickly potted, you can never truly trim back enough on the outside to counter it, without utterly destroying the straight cylindrical shape. To negate this, and to keep my vases from becoming overly weighty, once the cylinder is lifted up, I’ll spend some time with a throwing stick making sure the internal shape is correct. I don’t mind if this alters the exterior as I’ll be able to clean that up with a kidney or at the leather hard stage, but the inside, well, there’s no fixing that if it is thrown inaccurately, (save for extremely laborious trimming), so it has to be right at the thrown stage.
#cylinder #vase #pottery #tutorial #ceramics #handmade
