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#18 How to open our clay
43 Plays3 years ago
On this Lesson of Shaping Your Pottery you will learn how to open your clay after centering your clay. Getting the opening right is crucial because it will help you when you begin pulling and can prevent S-cracks on the bottom of pot
How Do You Open Your Clay?
step 1: wrap your fingers around the clay with thumbs in the middle of the clay
step 2: add water
step 3: drop your thumbs towards the middle
step 4: check the bottom with a needle tool
step 5: pull the clay towards you
step 6: compress the bottom ( should be about a 90 degree angle)
If you have any pottery questions send me an email at nictorres1684@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Opening Clay
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello there listeners and welcome to Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. In this episode I'm going to explain to you how to open your
Why Open Clay?
00:00:09
Speaker
clay. Opening your clay is the step right after you center your clay and it's pretty important. Every step is important as you go along.
00:00:17
Speaker
It's important because you're going to be able to create a flat surface at the bottom so it makes it look nice on the inside.
Opening Clay: Hand Positioning
00:00:24
Speaker
And it also prevents S-cracks. Because if you don't have a flat bottom, S-cracks happen more and more often when you fire the clay. So now, let's get into the steps on how you open the clay. There are many different ways to open your clay.
00:00:41
Speaker
but the one i'm going to show you or explain to you i should say is i use this when i have when my hands are able to reach the bottom of the clay when i use large amounts of clay i will tell you a different technique i use but for this technique what you want to do is put your hands
00:01:01
Speaker
have them connected and make sure your elbows are still connected just like when you're centering.
Thumbs and Tools for Opening Clay
00:01:06
Speaker
Have your hands connected and have them in the shape of a bird and then you're going to wrap your fingers around the clay and then the next step is you're just going to drop your hands, your
00:01:16
Speaker
your thumbs you're gonna drop your thumbs into the clay and you keep on pressing and sometimes you will most likely need water when you do this because it will there's no water in there so you're gonna have to add water in but you just drop your hands your thumbs into the clay and you just press down until you think there is enough room or that you didn't go all the way to the bottom and now once you think you have the right height for your bottom
00:01:42
Speaker
You're going to want to check the bottom. So how do you check the bottom? So you're going to need a needle tool for this. You're going to place the needle tool directly into the clay where you're making the opening and make sure the needle is straight up and down. And then once it's straight up and down, use your pointer finger or any finger really for that matter. And then you're going to use it and go all the way to the bottom as well and then touch the needle. And after you have your finger touching all the way to the bottom,
00:02:07
Speaker
Take out the needle and see where your finger was at when you took out the needle. Ideally, you want your bottom to be about as long as your pinky nail, maybe a little bit more. That is about the height you want. Once you got the right measurement for the bottom, you're gonna begin to slowly pull the clay towards you. This is gonna allow you to have the flat bottom and make it look nice.
00:02:32
Speaker
and it's going to make it a lot easier too when you begin pulling. So you pull the clay towards you and then most of the time it's not going
Flattening the Clay Bottom
00:02:40
Speaker
to be flat. So you're going to have to flatten it yourself. You can either use like a rib tool and then just place it at the bottom and then slowly move back and forth.
00:02:49
Speaker
while you are doing this or if you want to speed it up a little bit, just use your fingers. Your fingers are a great way to make it flat. You do the same exact thing. You start from the middle of the bottom and then you press outward and then you do it the opposite direction as well. And you keep on doing that until
Conclusion and Invitation
00:03:06
Speaker
it's flat. Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope you got lots of value from this and I hope this makes opening your clay a lot easier. Join me next week for another pottery tip.