Homemade Pottery Wheel

Well, here is the finished product. A homemade pottery wheel for under five dollars. Except for the stainless steel drain hole in the upper right hand corner of the table top the entire wheel was constructed with recycled or reclaimed found materials.

This was a really fun project, so much so that I am going to build another wheel with a slightly different design.

If you would like to see additional photos of the building process you can check out my slide show at my other blog that I write for work (my paying job), Coulee Region Art.

Build Your Own Potter's Wheel

The potter's wheel works. This wheel was constructed out of materials found lying around the shop. The only thing that was purchased was a stainless steel drain hole that was mounted in the right hand corner of the table top to make cleaning easier. I'll post some step by step photos of the construction a bit later. There is still some tweeking to do. It still needs some paint and a spring operated footpedal for the motor assist but otherwise the wheel is done.

Raku Vases

Here are a couple of raku fired vases that I fired about a week ago. These are slab constructed and I used a wax resist technique in the leathaer hard stage to create some interesting texture. Click on this link to see a photo of the wax resist in the leather hard stage. I used black underglaze on the vase on the left and then glazed it with a clear crackle raku glaze. The vase on the right was glazed in an unknown glaze that I had in the studio, but it is very similar if not "reynolds wrap raku glaze."

Kids Day

Friday was kids in the studio day. Natalie made a small bowl on the wheel all by herself. Pretty amazing for a first day on the wheel. I can remember learning to center--took me quite a bit longer. She just did it on her own with no help or direction. Anyway, today is "clean up the studio day."

Will also be firing up the raku kiln. Both Natalie and I have a few things to fire.