Trimming Unusual Shaped Bowls Using a Chum on the Potter's Wheel also Giffin Grip Flex Sliders

This video is a demonstration of using a chum to trim unusual shaped bowls. Chums are a wonderful technique for holding a leatherhard piece upside down on the wheel to trim. I highly recommend my students learn this technique, even if they have access to a jig- like a Giffin Grip. I review the very basics of trimming a bowl, and then demonstrate how make the chum from stiffer throwing clay- doming it to fit up inside the pot, and then ribbing and scraping off all the slip to prevent the pots from sticking. I also make horizontal reference lines to help place the pot on evenly.

At the end, I also show the use of a Giffin Grip and the Flex Sliders (See both links below).



The throwing of these bowls are a little different, and I here is a link to that video.
I will also post a link of how I glaze these to really show off the split rims.

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


For the great tools I used in the video (including the Kemper trim tool) check out this link to a live searchable (control F) Googledoc I continually update with lots of my favorite tools on Amazon using my associate links!

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;

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!

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