KWPP - Kick Wheel Pottery Projects

Firstly, thank you for offering this very convenient and wonderful platform for all of us to share knowledge. Learning on Permies.com is a beautiful way of sending out the awesomeness of Permaculture. Not only by gifting the freebees through dailyish, but seeing the words of encouragement are two ways I see that The Love is being spread!

I would like to share my most current pottery projects on a regular  basis. When the weather starts to cool down, I'll consider filming while turning. You can learn a lot watching someone throw, particularly if you're still getting a grasp on hand placement. And, I gotta admit that 'Ghosting' with someone can really increase the chance of them catching on even faster. For now, I'll stick to photos and small video clips after the project's been turned and/or trimmed.

Here are a several special projects I will consider doing if you like what you see:

-100 Mugs for your next Kickstarter
-100 Bowls for your next Kickstarter
-Special table setting for Paul's dinner guests

Here is last weekends projects, 1-sat & 2-sunday

Sat afternoon:

Sunday 6am-2pm MST:

Everything's turned and trimmed in the same day. Mostly discards of midrange bag clay in the bucket.

If anybody wants to see anything special this next weekend, please let me know.

Beautiful work Adam.

Mostly discards of midrange bag clay in the bucket.

So these particular pieces are from purchaesed clay? I'm eyeing a patch of clay in my yard. I may try something when the growing season is over. But I would be doing a a snake style as I don't have a wheel.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:So these particular pieces are from purchaesed clay?

Yes, aardvark and laguna clay bodies. Some of the names that come to mind are terra red, speckled buff, and red b-mix. There's possibly up to 7 other different clays in there as well. This came mostly in the form of scraps from the members of a local studio. Being out in the yard for about 16months, it's picked up a bit of organic matter that will be wedged, or fired out.

I'm eyeing a patch of clay in my yard. I may try something when the growing season is over. But I would be doing a a snake style as I don't have a wheel.

The local studio just recently closed so I will forage some in the surrounding area. Let us know how that turns out for you Joylynn. And thank you for those affirming words.

Today, I'm going to throw some bottle forms. Simple to exaggerated these bottles serve a purpose for the learning potter. After you're confident with the cylinder form(who am I to tell you when to start, practice whenever) moving to bottle form and remember these key items:
-fewer pulls, 3-5, make for a more durable wall & don't forget to compress the outer wall before collaring
-Remove slip from form and water on top of foot before closing the form
-Collar lip first, then go down(incrementally if need be). Then further down collar whatever diameter you collard at the lip and make your way up with the rhythm of the wheel(tip: try to use all water no slip and slightly faster wheel speed while collaring).

This is great! I recently spent some time doing social forestry camps and am curious about firing clay somehow during the biochar process, building some kind of Raku kiln that  could get fired alongside charcoal. I am also really interested in wildcrafting clay- looking forward to your updates Adam!

Nice work and good inspiration, Adam! I first wondered how I had missed this last year, then looked at the dates and realized I was away for two weeks building a wood-fired cob kiln and making and firing medieval reproduction pottery then

I hope you can make some videos of your process - there is nothing like hands-on teaching, but where that is not possible, detailed videos can be very helpful.

Hi Adam,
did you make your kick wheel? What did you use? Ive been keeping an eye out for a free one...

Free kilns do come up randomly - I have gotten several free or nearly so - but wheels are much less common. Adam's wheel was obviously handmade, and I suspect by him given some of the details. You do need a couple of manufactured parts to make a decent kickwheel, in particular the shaft, bearings and wheelhead. The rest you can make from one sheet of plywood and some lumber and bricks. I got one like that that I didn't have space to set up, but rescued it and later gave to a friend.

Yes, im wondering what it looks like under the kick disk. Also, not sure of the correct terminology here, does it have the propelling force of a manufactured kick wheel.. is there a tube within the tube that makes the top spin faster then the bottom??

Kick wheels always spin the same at the wheelhead as at the flywheel. There is no speed increaser aside from kicking the flywheel faster. Typical homemade wheels have a layer of bricks sandwiched between two layers of plywood.

Thanks, i really thought the one I used 20 some years ago spun faster than i kicked it, ha....