At first glance, a skilled potter may find it easy to use a potter’s wheel, but in reality, it takes skill, patience, and a lot of practice to master. The potter’s wheel is known as throwing, and these wheels especially get designed to form uniform rounded pieces such as plates, cups, and bowls.
What is a pottery wheel?
The potter’s wheel is a machine used to shape (known as throwing) round pottery. The wheel also gets used to cut off the excess body from a dry dish and apply notched decorations or colored rings. The potter’s wheel sometimes gets called the “potter’s wheel.” However, the term often gets used for other machines used in another molding process called lathe, similar to those used for molding metal and wood products.
How does it work?
While using the potter’s wheel, you sit in front of the mill and lean forward to handle the clay. The wheel continuously rotates while you step on the foot pedal. As the spinner spins, the potter shapes the clay into the parts the spinner wants to make. Meanwhile, the potterer wets the clay or floats it. There is a pottery wheel for beginners to help them through the process.
Benefits of the art of pottery making
- Expressing yourself by creating has physical and spiritual benefits. Art gives an exit and liberation from all of this. With pottery, you can make something and express yourself.
- Ceramics allow for improved flow and spontaneity, give an exit for sorrow, help you identify and express yourself, and build self-confidence and self-esteem.
- Pottery allows you to avoid the worries of life and focus on your creativity. You commit your time to your creation in the process, as external influences do not affect your work.
The art of pottery often gets described as healing and relaxing. When spinning clay, your mind and body are in a natural synergy that revolves around your artistic ambitions and purposes. This thoughtful and creative activity can open your mind and free you from external worries.
