Hump Day!

You know, my pottery class meets on Wednesday, right? 

This week, I tried throwing off the hump.  Let me try to explain.  If one needs to make a number of relatively small pieces, it can be done by using a large ball of clay, centering just the very top part, making the piece, cutting it off, and then repeating all those steps.  I am not good at it.  Not.  At.  All.  In the past, I have tried throwing some very small pitchers off the hump, but I kept cutting the bottoms out when I'd remove the pitcher.  I was successful in making some nice bottomless pitchers...which are good for nothing.  

I worked on jars with lids this week.  Ron first showed me how to use my fingers to make the gallery for the lid to sit in.  I've always used a putty knife or some similar tool.  Fingers make a softer, curved gallery which I think is a little bit better for some types of lids.  A putty knife makes a more distinct, 90 degree angle at the outside edge of the gallery and in ways I think that might be less forgiving when attempting to get a lid to fit.  I'm going to continue to use my fingers and try it with some different types of lids for a while and see what I think.  

For the sake of full disclosure, Ron demonstrated two ways to make the galleries for lids.  I only tried the first one.  When throwing the jar, leave the top edge kind of thick.  Then push down on the inside edge of the rim forming sort of a shelf (which is what I am referring to as a gallery).  The lid sits on this shelf.  The other method involves a rim that is thinner and folding it over to make the shelf.  I have not tried that yet.  

The lids that I made on Wednesday night were flat bottomed and sit down in the jar.  Getting the fit perfect is not essential with this kind of lid.  If it is a little bit large, it just sits up higher and if it is a little bit small, it sits lower in the jar.  The truly hilarious part was cutting them off the hump.  Ron used a string to wrap around the clay and cut the lid off flat.  The key to that is holding on.  The first time I tried it, I let of the string and my clay ate it.  Yes.  String more or less disappeared and the lid was still connected to the hump.  Um. No. I managed to relocate the end of the string and disconnect that lid, but I never got a neat, flat bottomed lid.  Here are two of my attempts.  

As you can see, I got better.  I'm going to keep trying this.  I do think that if I can get the hang of it, I'll be more successful getting a flat, level cut than if I try to use my cut off wire.  

Here are the jars with the lids on.  

Pictures that I wish I had to share in this post include, a close up picture of the gallery so you can see what I'm talking about and some step-by-step pictures of the lid throwing/cutting off process.  For that I'll need an assistant.  Maybe I can talk Jeff into going to the studio with me later today...