Okay, everyone if you are just tuning in on this video, we are making pottery for Sherry’s class, doing an instructional video for her kids and this is a video that hopefully might be useful for some beginners.

Okay! The next step now is to drop a hole. And what that means is I have to get started. I have to get the inside of the clay started. There is a lot of ways to drop a hole just like there is a lot of ways to center. The way I drop a hole is I start first with my sponge so I can have even pressure. I put my arm on my wheel and my leg, just put my hand on the clay, put my thumb as close at the center as I can using the hand also breaks on my leg. I push down using my thumb almost as a tool to make a dent in the clay. I am just going straight down. Okay and I am gently taking my hands away.

And now what I have inside my clay is kind of an upside down cone. And let me show you what that looks like. Here is what the clay looks like from my point of view. So you can see, this is kind of slanted shape that goes in. My thumb made this impression.

Now the thing I want to do especially as a beginner is I want to measure the bottom and I want to make sure that I do not have too much clay in the bottom. So I am going to use my pointer tool. I am just going to use that to put a hole on the bottom. Okay and then from doing that, I can tell I got a lot of clay. I got a lot of clay that much clay in the bottom. So I need to go deeper. I need to dig that hole a little bit deeper. I have no idea. I never done this before. I am going to see if I can do that one handed on video taping.

So I am using my middle finger. I am pushing down just a little bit further and pulling out like this to take up some of the clay from the bottom. Okay, so I am going to use my pointer tool again to measure the bottom. At this time, I am going to stop the wheel. Pull little edge in the bottom. See now, I have about that much clay and that is much better.

Okay, so that is called dropping the hole. Now the next step is called opening. And what I am going to do when I open is while I have the camera in the single, I will show what the wheel stop. I am going to take these fingers here, these three fingers and I am going to slowly pull this clay, this direction and the bottom will open up for me. Okay, and that is called opening. So that is the next step.

Okay, so I am ready to open. What I like to do before I open is I put my hand on the wheel back in the centering position. Just kind of make sure that when I drop the hole, I did not get the clay up center. So I am just kind of double checking that and keeping my hands funny yet, the clay yet. Just double checking. Okay. Once I feel like I am good to go there, I am going to slow my wheel down a little. Okay, I am just taking these fingers and I am pressing in to open this up. Okay.

Now, I am not a professional potter. I am just the hobbies and so there are professionals out there that probably had videos that also show how to do this and they properly do it differently and much better. But hopefully from one beginner to another this would be helpful.

Now, I can tell by doing that. I have taken my clay and it is up center a little bit. So I am going to put my wrist together, my hands on the wheel gently, my thumbs over the top. I am just going to hold that for a minute and help that clay to get back into center because I wanted to be centered before I do anything else. Always check, make sure you are center. And the next I am going to go is I am going to put my hands on the clay like this, finger on the outside. This finger coming down on the top, not really putting any pressure on the side, it is just on the top and I am going to do this number. It is called compressing the top. But sometimes, it also felt maybe get the piece and to center as well.

So, I opened the clay up, so on my wheel down even more now using the sponge, I am going to sop up the extra water. And at this point, I am going to smooth out the bottom. Sometimes the bottom leads for me goes straight up and straight and I want to flatten that up just a little bit so I am putting the sponge in the middle and pulling towards me. I am just flatting in out the bottom. There you go compressing that top again.

And let me show you what the inside of the pottery looks like now. Okay, so here is the inside view. Here is what it looks like now. My sponge, I put my sponge down in the middle and pull towards me to kind of smooth out the bottom, compressing the top and see where I have done that.

And so now the next step, double checking if its center, if its not, I am going to do that over the thumb number I just showed you a minute ago. And the next step then is I am ready to pull the piece or pull up these walls. This is way too thick. I want that to be thin and pretty. So I have to pull at that clay and thin out those walls. So we are ready to do that next. That is the next step.

So before I wanted the next step, I wanted to show my dog Roily. If he likes to watch me through a pottery, his kind of hangs around when I am doing that up, there he goes. Say hi Roily. Roily, sing hello to all of you.

Okay, so we have got our piece. The bottom is compressed and flattened. The pieces opened and it appears to be fairly center and to speed the wheel up to just a little bit again so I can have some moment. Still I have just kind of working on flattening out the bottom just a little bit. Remember, I want to be really gently when I put the hands on the clay and take them off, still smoothing out the bottom. Okay, I am going to just compress with my thumbs here. Now putting all the pressure just really holding out in place, raising my arms on the wheel, feel like we have a little bit of a warble there. So I just want to get that out before we start pulling.

Okay, that is pretty good. I think we are ready to go. I am going to dribble some water on the lip and that make some goal in the inside and the outside. Now the next step is pulling the piece and I am going to move the camera over there so you can see this better.