Crouching Cats and Singing Birds
Mimi Stadler
What do crouching cats, singing birds, honey jars and tiny dishes have in common?
They were all "thrown off the hump" on my potter's wheel.
unfired porcelain with underglazes, thrown off the hump and altered
unfired porcelain with underglazes; thrown off the hump and altered
four honey jars and four tiny bowls, thrown off the hump; unfired cone 6 porcelain
I put a big hump of clay on the wheel. I centered just the top little bit. I made a bird body, which starts as a two-sphere snowman, a closed form.
Again, center just the top little bit. A three-sphere closed form will become a cat body.
Again, center just the top bit, and make a honey jar body.
Again; a lid for for the jar.
And so on! A large hump of clay is the start of many small building blocks for pots and sculptural forms.
Throwing off the hump. A great trick, a really useful skill!
(Then after throwing comes all the trimming, altering, embellishing, and coloring. But that's another story.)