[Originally posted 11/1/20 by Erika Posey on MemberConnect]
One of the common challenges I have with throwing plates on the wheel, is cutting them off the bat without damaging them. I saw this technique somewhere, tried it and found it very effective. A bonus is the canvas circles take less room to store than thick plaster bats. The full video is on my YouTube channel at youtu.be/WPC3lFEQ1Rc. Let me know if you try this and how it works for you.
Stay Well,
Erika Posey
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I don’t really throw, but found the video fascinating! I do use lightweight fabric and paper in my hand built things to help in handling, but it never occurred to me to use in in throwing. Next time I venture that way, I will most definitely do this. When I did some throwing at Rebecca’s, moving the pot off the bat was a pain, but this way I could pull the canvas over to a ware board instead of handling the pot.
Terry Wilson
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Clever solution.
I find that I can cut plates/platters —16 inches and larger— cleanly with homemade cutting wires. I use a lightweight octave-G string for a 12-string guitar. The wire is very thin and when cutting doesn’t ride up the grog in the clay creating a slightly domed cutoff pad under the platter. I use large threaded nuts from the hardware store, 1/2 inch or larger in diameter — sometimes 2 — on each end of the wire.
I use Dirty Girls Ergo-Thin (3.5, 7, 13 inch) cutoff wires for normal use. They are thin, twisted stainless steel with looped, comfortable, ends. They cut flat and thin. I have a range of wire lengths from 4 - 24 inch lengths. The ones over 13” are made of the octave-G string above. I don’t ever wrap a cutting wire around my fingers or hands. I find doing that damages the wire over time. Bends, kinks, etc. I want the wire to be long enough that I can hold it tight between my hands while by thumbs push the wire down on the bat without wrapping. My wires stay straight and usually last for years.
For 24 inch platters, I just ordered 23.5 inch Hydrobat. I normally use 5/8 inch MDO plywood for bats. It has few voids. Uses a waterproof resin, and is faced with a paper/resin/plastic laminated layer top and bottom. They don’t warp. I have a few that are over 20 years old, still flat, and in quite good shape. I buy a 4x8 sheet — about $75. Cut it into the diameters I want. Usually 12 inch and 16 inch. Then cut the corners off making them octagons. The hydrobat is a platter bottom test. I don’t have trouble cutting the 24 inch platters off evenly, but since the MDO bat is not porous, the bottoms tend to stay wet too long causing problems in about 25% of them. Hence the hydrocal test. About $75 for one 23.5 inch hydrocal bat or for a sheet of MDO plywood which creates 32 - 12” bats or 9 - 16” bats and 16 - 12” bats.
It’s so cool that there are so many solutions for the same problem in clayland...
wyn matthews
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Great information Wyn! And it is so nice there are many solutions for the same issues! I will have to make your guitar string wire!
Terry suggested wiring under canvas after throwing then sliding plate (or any object) and canvas off the bat (wheel head?) onto a ware board or cement board. Her idea might help with even drying.
I checked the price of 59 inch wide Duck Canvas at Joann Fabric, regular retail is $9.99 per yard. It goes on sale periodically and sometimes you can find a 50 % off coupon for one item. Here are a few yield estimates (hope my math is correct:
1 yard canvas
- 12 circles 12” wide
1.33 yards canvas
- 9 circles 14” wide plus 3 circles 12” OR
- 9 circles 16” wide OR
- 4 circles 24” wide
I haven’t tried using canvas wider than 14 inches in diameter. If I do and find it is a problem I will report back. But for less than the cost of one Hydrobat, using 5 yards of Duck, a couple of spools of thread, and a few hours, could yield three dozen canvas “bats” in all the various sizes shown above. And they save a lot of space for those of us with small studios.
Happy clay play!
Erika
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Actually it’s even better than that.
59” is practically 60” which is 5 feet, so with a 5’ x 3’ piece you get 15 circles ~12” in diameter.
Also, duck comes in a lot of colors if you want to color code for different clays.
Terry