Today was the first use of the outdoor studio! I connected the wheel to an outlet, wedged my clay to approximately 1 lb balls, and started throwing.
I usually throw on a Shimpo Whisper, so the table top wheel took some getting used to! I quickly noticed different things:
- The table the wheel is on is a bit wobbly. My partner put something under one of the leg so that was really helpful.
- The plastic bat is less stable than the metal wheel head I’m used to. This didn’t help in centering and opening up. It was a real extra handicap. I tried tightening the bat multiple times. I could also notice the slight slowing down of the motor as I’m trying to center.
- I’m used to resting my forearms for centering, as a way of anchoring myself. With the current set up, I found myself hunching in a weird way. I think I’ll try to elevate the wheel a little bit so that I can anchor myself better.
- Cleaning up took a lot more time than in the studio, I think I need to soak my large sponge so that it’s more absorbent. It’s hard to clean up with non-absorbing large sponge.
Overall, I think there are some adjustments that need to be applied so that I can look forward to practice at home, and I managed to ruin a bunch of pieces. I only got 2 acceptable pieces in for today, let’s see whether they’ll be ready for trimming in a few days. They’re currently stored in the plastic drawers. The 5 gallon bucket now is housing the wet slurry from the splash pan from throwing.
