What is Pot Throwing?
We get asked this often! And no it isn’t physically throwing the clay or the pot a distance!
The term pot throwing refers to the process of creating a pot or other objects on a potter’s wheel.
The term refers to the way your hands shape the clay on the potter’s wheel and can be called ‘Pot Throwing’ ‘Throw a Pot’ or just simply ‘Throwing’
It is a term that is used worldwide and throwing started in Mesopotamia around 4,500 BCE?
We are unsure if it was called anything else back then and they obviously would have been some differences and difficulties with wheels, not like our convenient electric potter’s wheels!
But how lovely to think this ceramic technique has been used for over 6,000 years!
Once you have thrown a pot, you can often hear a term called ‘turning’
This refers to putting the thrown pot back onto the potter’s wheel once ‘leather hard’ (partially dried) in order to trim the edges / make decorative lines in the clay and beyond.
Potter’s use a variety of tools to create the look of their finished creation and this part of the process can be very rewarding and therapeutic as the wheel turns slowly and in a controlled manner meaning much less can go wrong!
Glazing and firing is next in the process and we will be talking about that aspect more in our next blog so please revisit!
