Ed who is also of course help me today if, he is a lot more advanced at pottery than I am. He's getting one-on-one lessons in the pottery studio, which I would love to do but accessibility is a limited.

His tutors just teach him at the moment by throwing cylinders and not buying something for purpose. By learning to flow cylinder you learn to centre the clay and you learn how to pull the clay, it also teaches you how to pull the clay up and keep it even the whole way. Instead of trying to throw bowls I'm going to start throwing cylinders to perfect my technique. Ed showed me how to turn up at which makes it look really neat for biscuit firing. To turn the clay you should put it upside down on the wheel and put clay around the bottom to keep it in place, then you can use several different shape tools and told them lightly next to the clay to create engravings as the clay spins on the wheel. This creates a symmetrical and even pattern the whole way round the bowl. At  first I found it difficult to apply the right amount of pressure to create an engraving but at the same time not dig into the clay too much. As not all of my bowls were centred some of the markings and finishings I made weren't consistent all the way round.

After close turned and is used to create patterns against into the kiln to be biscuit fired. The kiln is still something I need to get a grasp on Andy has printed some information for me to read about the kiln which I plan to make notes on.



These are my Bowls once they were biscuit fired: