Centering Clay and Recentering an Opened Hunk of Clay on the Potter's Wheel- Troubleshooting Tips

This video is designed as a tutorial for students learning to center. Sometimes the big struggle of centering is throwing it off. This video explains how to RECENTER the opened piece of clay and realign your wall to continue the throwing process. The posters I have shown in the video cover the hand position of centering and recentering. Here is a link to the posters I made which you can download and print if you would like: I just ask that they are not used as to resell. https://drive.google.com/file/d/13UWy...

Just remember, you must always have pressure from all sides, top, side, (bottom=bat) and if opened, the interior when you are trying to center. If you remove pressure from any one of those areas, the off centered clay will move to the place of least resistance, and will stay off centered. I show how to create a “channel” through whith the opened wall must pass, and with correct hand pressure, this can recenter the wall which is off.

I happen to be using Standard 153 stoneware for this demo- as that is the clay my students use on the wheel.

For my whole playlist on beginning throwing, check out this link on my channel.    • Beginning Wheel Throwing  

I also have a NEW throwing playlist here:    • NEW Wheel Throwing Playlist!  

For the great tools I used in the video (including the mudtools ribs and needle tools) check out this link to a live Googledoc I continually update with lots of my favorite tools on Amazon using my associate links! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X...

I made this video for my Ceramics II and III students at Mason High School. The wheel class practices a few weeks on just centering and opening. So, this is designed to lessen their struggle.

I am a public high school ceramics teacher at William Mason High School in Mason, Ohio. (Mason is currently the largest high school in Ohio!) As a potter, I have been working in clay for over 30 years, and I have been teaching for over 28 years, the past 20 have been specifically teaching high school ceramics. I love what I do! I have my own studio in my home basement, where I work on my personal pottery for my Etsy site; https://www.etsy.com/shop/KaransPotsA...

I started my Youtube channel a few years ago, to make videos to help my students if they are absent and miss a demo, or if they would like to explore more advanced techniques independently. I have been amazed to reach such a wider audience than my own students!

Please subscribe to my channel if you would like to receive channel updates, or would like to learn more about clay and studio processes!