All pots are cut off a moving wheel with a twisted wire.

If you can manage to get the wire to enter and leave the
base at the same point, this gives an attractive shell
pattern on the base cf a pot. Not all pots are lifted off
the wheel grasped between the thumb and index finer, and we
are shown a method of folding two sheets of newspaper into
two long one inch wide strips, which are then placed either
side of the base of a pot and pinched together, allowing
the pot to be lifted off the wheel with little distortion.
At this point Tom switches to using their own very coarse

grog clay.

Centering a 15 1b. ball of clay, he pulls up a cylinder,

to maybe 18", smoothes the outside with a rib and brughea on
white slip in the Hakame style with a very coarse brush.
Normally he would leave the pot with its top covered with
plastic as he requires the outside to be drier than the
inside. To speed up the process, a hair-dryer is called into
service. The pot is then stretched out to a spherical shape
uging the rib on the inside whilst the drying continues on
the outside. The outside surface starts to crack open,
giving a textured effect and showing the brown clay through
the white slip. When the inner shaping is complete, Tom
almost closes the form at the top to leave a sense of inner
apace.

Ginni achieves the same textured effect on a large slab,
into which she has wedged a lot of grog. She takes the

slab to the wheel, adds some throwing lines and brushes on
white slip. The slab is then stretched by throwing down

on to the wedging board. She then drapes the slab over a
bowl shape to dry, and finally adds four ball feet. When
leather hard she will make holes through the feet so that
the platter may be easily hung for storage or decoration.
Tom thros a round teapot using the same texturing technique.
Ginni's teapot is paddled to match the pattern on the mugs.
Before the paddling, Ginni dries the top opening with the
hailr-dryer so that it 1s firm enough to hold its shape.

In spare moments Ginni has made attractive 'kiln stuffers’,
usually taking the form of vases. Tom finishes the day

with a 34 1b. pitcher which he assures us will be fool-
proof against dripping after it is trimmed.

7