HOW TO; Fix Ripples and Twisting in Your Walls

Ideally when you throw a cylinder you bring the walls up evenly and smoothly. However in reality sometimes you'll experience bumps and ripples. So today I'm going to show you three possible causes and some solutions as to how to fix them. So rippling might be caused by clay that's catching on your hands. Now you might be able to throw your way through it, that is concentrating on even and that might work but if it's not enough try compressing the wall with a rib. Try holding the rib on the outside and gently pressing from the inside. It might be enough to even and straighten out your wall. But if not it might help you determine what's going on here. Another possibility is that you've thinned the walls unevenly, that is there might be a bit that you've thinned too much so the thin section of your wall can't support the clay above. This could be due to uneven pressure or squeezing in one spot for too long. Not in this case but if it's not too pronounced you might be able to fix it. So feel where the thin bits are in the wall and then try pulling some of the clay up into that part of the wall. You can even push clay down into the thinner part. It's about adjusting the pressure of the pull. Now ripples and bumps can also be caused by pockets of air and most likely cause improperly prepared clay. If it's fairly minor you can use a pin tool to gently open up the hole and smooth the air out and then carry on. The clay may repair over. If you don't feel it anymore you're good. Sometimes if it's a particularly large or extensive air pocket or if the piece is very thin at that point it's not going to be enough clay to repair and you could either trim the affected part of the pot or start again. Now generally small air bubbles don't cause explosions in the kiln but air bubbles might create a bump or a crack in your final fire piece. I've saved many a pot with these simple techniques but sometimes a pot just can't be saved. In which case cut through it and take a look to see what's really going on. Watch my olive oil bottle to see these techniques in action and let me know if you find this helpful. As always happy potting!