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Covered Butter Dish: Trimming the Bowl and Fashioning Knobs Creating a ceramic butter dish, Part 2 of 4 From "Throwing Clay" episode DTHC-208

Master potter Bill Van Gilder is making butter dishes with distinctive lids. So far, he's thrown two shallow bowls, one with a flat base and a second with a curved inside. He split the thick rim of the flat-bottomed bowl, forming a ledge and a neck, measuring both pieces often to ensure a good fit. When they were finished, he set them aside to dry leather hard. He next made a second butter dish; each dish will have a distinctive knob, one thrown on the wheel from very soft clay and one a hand-sculpted bird (figure A).

Bill is now ready to trim the bowls and create the knobs (figure B).

Figure A

Figure B

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Figure C

1. Bill first throws a clay pad from a 1-pound piece of clay. He'll use the pad to hold the base and the lid while they are being trimmed. The tacky clay surface will firmly hold the bowls to the wheel head. He skims away the slip in the water; if the slip were left on the clay, the surface would be too sticky and the base would become stuck on the pad (figure C).

2. He makes a keyhole in the pad, which will let him lift the base off the pad when he's through trimming.

3. As he trims the first piece, he has to keep in mind what is on the other side of the base. The base has a flat ridge, along with angles and drops; Bill will imitate these shapes in upside down form as he trims. As he works, he'll also soften the edges and burnish the clay with a fingertip (figures D and E).

Figure D

Figure E

	Figure F
	Figure G

4. He uses the side of his thumb to define a foot ring; the ring will be useful when it's time to wax the base, indicating where to stop waxing before Bill glazes the dish (figure F).

5. He lifts the base and checks to make sure there is no clay attached to the rim. Because he skimmed the pad before he began trimming, the rim is clean.

6. He centers the lid, first tapping and then pressing it in place to create a tight seal.

7. The inside of the lid is domed; Bill will mirror the dome shape on the outside. As he trims, clay chips fly off, away from the tool; if they don't fly away, the clay is too wet to trim. He also trims using as much of the tool blade surface on the surface of the pot as possible. This technique creates a smooth, fluid clay surface. He doesn't want any tiny grooves showing in the clay (figure G).

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