Removing Pots From the Wheel

Hello YouTube. We are gonna go over how to pick up pots again. So I've done a video on all the things that can go wrong but I guess I should do one about how to do it a way that's less of an issue overall in terms of equipment, expense, and storage. The best tool that we have for that are our two hands. So I'm gonna go through and center all this and I'll catch back up with you when we go to remove it. Alright so we are at the point where we're cutting the skirt off now. So I've got the traditional wooden knife that comes right out of your beginner toolkit. I've got the sharp edge facing up. I'm gonna hold it like a pencil. A lot of times when I say hold it like a pencil people do all sorts of weird ways of holding it but what I mean is you kind of gripping it like you do a writing utensil with the blade part up. I'm gonna hold it right at six o'clock and I'm gonna twist it and twist it this way a little bit and the tip is the last part that would hit. I spin the wheel. It's gonna make a snow bank on the outside here. That snow bank I'm gonna remove by holding that tool again about at six o'clock. I have the blade side now as in a contention on my finger. I'm gonna hold the blade parallel to the wheel head. I'm gonna do this in another view after I go through this step in the point of view situation here. I'm gonna start above the snow bank. I'm gonna drop through and that will cut it off. If I push and move towards it it's gonna smear it up against the piece. I just want to drop down and it'll come off in one ribbon. The next thing would be to scrape the slip off the outside. I'm gonna do that by wetting the inside a little bit using the flat edge or the rounded edge of the rib. Either one will work but I want to hold it at a way that I am scraping. I don't want to be smearing the slip. You see that the way I'm contacting is almost perpendicular to the surface. What I want is it to be unshiny on the outside. If I was making a cylinder we'd stop right there but I'm gonna shape it just a little bit. I'm gonna wet the inside. I'm gonna push out against that rib and every once in a while I'm gonna scrape the rib off. I'm gonna let the shape come out just a little bit. Now we have a little little bodily type form. I'm gonna get the water out of the bottom. All that out. I'm gonna take my sponge on a stick and I'm gonna get the water out of the bottom. Alright so the next step is to get the piece off the wheel. I'm gonna take a wire tool. I'm gonna hold it and there's different ways you can hold the wire. Depends on how long it is. I'm gonna pull it so that I've got the toggle at the end of one hand. I'm gonna wrap that around my hand so that it's over the meaty part. If we wrap it around my fingers I end up kinking my wire or actually getting it caught in like a crease of my finger and then kind of cutting it. So I get it between my thumbs. I want to pull it tight enough that the wire doesn't flex as I move through the piece. I don't want it to go up because it can cut up and into the piece sometimes. I want to pull it nice and tight. Put my thumbs on. I'm gonna push it down against the wheel head and pull towards me. Then I'm gonna do the most important thing which is scraping my hands off on the bucket. Scrape them on the bucket and that will leave them relatively clean. I'm gonna put my hands against the wheel head. I'm gonna move them so that four points are going towards the middle or all of it is heading towards the center. I don't want to just push like this or like this because that will change the shape of my piece. I'm gonna give it a little twist and then pull it off. If you're doing this right you won't change the top of your piece. If you're pushing too much like this like straight towards it you're gonna oval it. If you push it too much like that you're gonna oval it that way. If you're pushing too much in four points you'll make a square. What we want is when you pick up that you pick up from the bottom all the pressure towards the middle. Now you should put it on your your board. You should never try to tilt it and then move it. Just pick it straight up and then put it on your board. Now I've had the question asked um why do I use a bat then and that's just because I hate taking the the bat pins off and on. I usually will not pick up a piece unless it becomes really wide or an awkward shape to pick up. If it's a straight walled or curved piece even most bowls I'll pick up with my hands. I will not use the bat to pick a piece up but I do use bats for plates. I use them for my chucks and all those so I keep the bat pins in for that reason. All right so we'll do another one. We're gonna change the view. Okay so we have another point of view here. Again I'm gonna hold my wood tool with the blade side up. I'm gonna hold it right at six o'clock. I'm going to twist it so that the blade part goes into the rotation a little bit. I'm gonna trail the tip back some. I'm holding it steady with my left hand underneath it as well. I'm gonna go back, go through the top, cut the skirt off, take my flexible metal ribbed off, wet the inside and shape it. You'll find that the shapier your pieces, shapier is a word, the easier it is to pick up. Often because a curve in a piece gives it strength. I'm gonna get the water out of the bottom and the important part is scraping my hands off on the bucket. Change the view so you can see. I've got a sharp edge of my bucket. I'm gonna push and pull towards me and scrape it clean. Then start against the wheel head. I'm gonna go towards it in all the directions. Give it a little, oh I've got to cut it. Let's cut it. Then scrape my hands off. Go against the wheel head, give it a little twist and lift up. So easy. And then set it down. When you set it down, don't drop it. The beginners that always seem to pick it up, hold it three inches above and then drop it. So that's that's picking up your piece. So easy. Anybody can do it. Alright, we'll talk to you later.