Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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
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
