Throwing Beakers
I have finally graduated from four inch bowl production. I am not sure exactly how many I made but certainly more than my target of five hundred. Now I have moved into beaker production.
Beakers are a completely different shape; a cylinder rather than a bowl. Instead of 8oz of clay I'm using 10oz. They are thrown four and three quarters of an inch tall and three and a half wide at the top. So here is the process. It took me a few goes before managing to get the right dimensions. A lot ended up in the bucket of clay to be recycled.
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| Cone up. |
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| Cone down. |
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| Open up the base. |
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| Make it wider than the finishing width. |
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| Now pull the clay up into a cone. |
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| Try to get the clay right out of the base. |
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| Check the top is centred. |
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| Going for another pull. |
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| Check the rim again |
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| When you are nearly at the height pointer throw against a credit card to remove the slip. |
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| Throwing with a card also helps to straighten out the form. |
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| The rim can be tricky. It needs to be straight rather than flaring out of curling in. |
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| Undercut the beaker. |
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| Remove the puddle. |
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| Wire it off. |
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| Scrape the slip off your hands. |
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| Here it is on a board with one made earlier (middle left), one trimmed (middle right) and a finished one (right). |
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| A board of beakers, with a birthday card from Brian the shoe repairer, and his cat Boots, in the background. |