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Featured Article The potters spinning wheel Early potters learned to make the task of periodically turning the pot much easier and more efficient by beginning their coiling on a dish or bowl, or even a flat plate or smooth platter they could twist round as they worked. Innumerable ways developed of using a platter or bowl to speed up coiling. Eventually a small turntable or "tournette" was developed. It would be more accurate to describe this turntable making process as "fast coiling". With this a pot could be turned around much more easily and quickly. The pot making technique in Mesopotamia gradually changed during the third millennium BC as more potters adopted the turntable for making and decorating. The need for pottery increased as more villages grew into towns. Today, the potter's wheel can be used for mass production, although often it is employed to make single pieces. The process is called "throwing" or "turning" where a ball of clay is placed in the center of a turntable, called the wheel head. The wheel is turned using foot power - a kick wheel or treadle wheel, or a variable speed electric motor. What follows is "centering," the process pressuring the clay into a radial symmetry, so that it does not move from side to side as the wheel head rotates. The finishing process is called trimming. The thrown piece is first allowed to dry to the leather-hard state then it is returned to the potter's wheel, usually with the rim down. The piece must be re-centered to allow trimming of the foot of the pot to create a smooth and well-defined surface. Wheel work can only be used to initially create items with radial symmetry on a vertical axis. What makes a piece more visually interesting is the application of impressing, bulging, carving, fluting, faceting, incising, and other methods. Copyright © 2005 4 Ceramics. All rights reserved.