Pottery Wheel Lessons: Step One
In this short instructional video I go through the process of making a step one, a small cylinder, on the potters wheel. Also on the Jeff Rogers Pottery Youtube Channel is a step one practice session video which covers the same step one over and over for those students who would like to see it a few more times to get those hand positions down! Many of my Miami pottery students have been asking for a video for quite some time, and I am very grateful to Mo Hoffman of Mo Hoffman Studios both for the start on these videos and for our website!
Sometimes students come to a pottery class with the intention of making all their Christmas presents, or a dinnerware set for themselves, not guessing at the enormity of the task of Learning to throw pottery on the potters wheel. Instead what they often discover is that they have taken the first step in the journey of a lifetime. That is certainly my experience. Having made pots for well over twenty years, I can safely say that I have only begun to scratch the surface of learning clay.
Spending time with clay, either in a class like those I offer from my little studio in Miami, or in the studio as a professional potter, is very much like spending time getting to know another person. There is a language of form and motion that must be learned and paid attention to, there are countless ideas to explore and develop. Each of them takes experimentation, dedication, attention. There is a dynamic dialogue between the potters hands and heart and the clay, and later the fire. This dialogue is ever-engaging. It is at turns sometimes discouraging and sometimes exhilarating, and is this dialogue that keeps me excited about working in clay.
In the beginning students may struggle for what might feel like an endless time to master the basics of centering and pulling the walls of a pot, and yet it is the journey that everyone who makes pottery on the wheel has gone through. I find great joy as a teacher in walking through this process together with students.
If you’re looking for a new challenge and to begin a different kind of dialogue that engages a different part of your spirit, you may want to consider pottery classes in our Miami studio setting right on the edge of the Little River and near to downtown.
To all of my past and present students, I hope you enjoy these videos and find them helpful. Thank you for letting me share in your journey in clay!
