Wedging, method one
How to ram’s head wedge your clay
This is the method almost everybody learns first, and there is a good reason for that. Both of your hands do the same thing at the same time, so your brain only has to hold one idea while the rest of you works out what a wedging table is for.
The one almost everybody learns first, because both hands do the same thing at the same time. Here is the whole method with the reasoning stripped out.
It is also the one people quietly get wrong for years, because a lump that was wedged badly looks exactly like a lump that was wedged well.
The whole thing
What it is and how to stand
Wedging is kneading. You work the clay until the wet patches and the stiff patches stop being separate materials, and until the air pockets are gone. Skip it and the lump fights you at centering, then opens a blister just as your wall gets thin.
Set up: two or three pounds of clay, a table around hip height, one foot in front of the other, knees soft. You want your shoulders above your hands, because this is a rocking motion from the body. If your arms are burning, the table is too high or you are lifting instead of leaning.
How long: about 30 pushes from a fresh bag, 100 or more for reclaim, at roughly one a second.
Worth knowing: wedging does not stop pots exploding in the kiln. Water does that, not air. Drying all the way through is the thing that saves your work in there.
The point
Wedging is kneading, and that really is the whole idea
You push clay around on a table until it stops behaving like several different materials wearing one lump as a disguise. Four things happen while you do it.
It evens out the water
Clay does not come out of the bag uniform. Stiff patches sit right next to soft ones, and on the wheel those behave like two different materials. The soft part gives while the stiff part shoves back. That is the wobble you spend twenty minutes chasing and then blame on the wheel.
It closes the pockets
An air pocket is a thin spot with a schedule. On the wheel it turns up as a small blister that opens under your finger at exactly the moment your wall gets thin. It also throws your centering off, because the lump is no longer the same density the whole way through.
It wakes the clay up
Clay that has been sitting still goes stiff and stubborn. That is a real property with a real name, thixotropy, and working the clay breaks it down. Same clay, better attitude. It is why a bag that felt like a paving stone can feel lovely ten minutes later without you adding a drop of water.
It lines the particles up
Clay particles are flat and platey, and wedging is meant to organize them so they grip each other instead of sliding past. Potters argue about how much this one really matters. I am in the camp that says it does, and I am also not going to pretend the argument is settled.
One thing it does not do
It does not keep your pot from exploding in the kiln. Water does that, not air. A piece that feels bone dry on the outside while the middle is still holding moisture turns that trapped water into steam, and steam wants roughly seventeen hundred times the room the water did. Something has to give, and it is usually your pot.
Wedge anyway, because pockets genuinely wreck your throwing. Just know that the thing actually saving your work in the kiln is drying it all the way through first. The longer version of that correction, and one more like it, is on the main wedging page .
Before you touch it
Set up so your body does the work
Most of the people who tell me wedging hurts are not wedging wrong. They are standing wrong, at a table that is the wrong height, with too much clay in front of them.
The surface
Ours are canvas stretched over concrete board, which sits in a good middle. Too slippery and nothing you do transfers into the clay, it just slides around. Too dry and porous and it drinks the water straight out of your lump while you work. Plaster and unsealed wood behave. Sealed laminate and bare metal do not.
The height
You want to be able to get your shoulders above your hands. If the table is too tall you end up pushing with your arms, and your arms are going to lose that argument. Around the top of your hip bones is usually about right, and if the only table free is too high, stand on something.
How much clay
Two or three pounds while you are learning. Ram’s head gets harder much faster than the lump gets bigger, so three small ones beat one large one every single time. Your wrists will file noticeably fewer complaints about it.
Your stance
One foot in front of the other, weight forward, knees soft. You are about to rock from the hips for a few minutes. Standing square to the table with locked knees quietly turns the whole thing into an arm exercise.
The motion
What your hands are actually doing
The name comes from the shape the clay ends up in. A ridge down the middle for the nose, a spiral curling at each end for the horns. Here is what to look at while you work.
Four steps. The drawing shows where the hands go and what to look for.
- 1 The heels of your palms Every bit of the pressure comes from here. Your fingers are not pressing, they are steering and scooping.
- 2 Your thumbs ride on top They sit there and go along for the trip. If your thumbs are digging in, you are pushing with the wrong part of your hand.
- 3 The horn The spiral that builds on each side, a little more defined with every push. Flat sides mean you are not squeezing inward.
- 4 The nose The ridge down the middle that the method is named after. When it shows up, the clay is folding into itself the way it should be.
- 5 The crease underneath The lower edge opens and closes like a small mouth as you rock, and air on its way out shows up right there. It is the closest thing wedging has to a progress bar.
- 1 The heels of your palms All the pressure comes from here, never your fingers.
- 2 Your thumbs ride on top They go along for the trip. Digging in means wrong hand part.
- 3 The horn The spiral building on each side. Flat sides mean squeeze harder.
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1
Set it down and get over the top of it
Lump in front of you, a hand on either side, thumbs on top. Get your shoulders above your hands. Everything after this is a rocking motion that starts at your hips.
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2
Push down and forward
Heels of your palms, pressing into the table and away from your body at the same time, as one movement rather than two. The picture that helps people: you are trying to push the clay through the table, not slide it along the top.
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3
Squeeze inward while you push
Your hands come toward each other at the same moment they press down. Skip this half and the lump just spreads, and you have made a pancake with a fancier name.
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4
Scoop it and roll it back
At the end of the push your fingers come under the front edge and roll the lump back toward you, onto its face. That roll is what loads up the next push.
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5
Find a rhythm and stay in it
Push, roll, push, roll. Somewhere around one a second is a fine place to start. The horns build a little more with every repetition, which is how you know the thing is working.
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6
Finish by rolling the nose up
Ease off the pressure over your last few pushes, then roll the lump toward you so the folds along the bottom tuck up into the spiral. You want a cone or a ball with no seam left underneath it.
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1
Get over the top of it
A hand either side, thumbs on top, shoulders above your hands. The push comes from your body rocking, not your arms.
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2
Push down and forward, and squeeze in
Heels of your palms, pressing into the table and away from you while your hands come toward each other. All one movement. Push the clay through the table, do not slide it along the top.
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3
Scoop and roll it back
Fingers under the front edge, roll the lump back onto its face. That roll loads the next push.
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4
Repeat, and never fold
About one a second. Folding the top down over the bottom traps fresh air every time, which is the exact opposite of the job.
Wedging Clay: Ram’s Head method
Video by Amy Burnham Ceramics . Not ours, not affiliated with us, and better at explaining this than another paragraph from me would be.
Keep the beat
A pulse to wedge along to
Almost nobody wedges for long enough, and almost nobody wedges evenly. Counting in your head fixes both, and you are not going to do it. So here is a beat instead. Prop your phone against something, pick a tempo, and push once per click.
Straight from the bag it has already been de-aired at the factory, so this is mostly about evening out the moisture and waking the clay up.
Nothing coming out of the speaker? Some phone browsers keep audio locked until you have tapped something on the page. Tap start once more and it usually wakes up. The dot keeps time either way.
Starting points, not rules. The clay in front of you gets the final say, and a tempo that feels frantic is the wrong tempo no matter what the number says.
The usual suspects
Four ways this goes sideways
Three ways this goes sideways
Every one of these is something I have watched happen at our tables, and the first one is something I did for an embarrassingly long time before anybody told me.
The first one is the one that actually ruins a lump.
You are folding, not pushing
The big one, and a genuine own goal. Folding the top half down over the bottom traps a brand new pocket of air on every single repetition, which is the exact opposite of the job. You are not making a sandwich. You are rocking the clay forward and letting it curl back on itself under its own weight.
You made a pancake
If the lump is getting wider and flatter instead of building horns, your hands are not squeezing inward. Keep them cupped and keep them close together. Too far apart and the horns run wider on every push until the whole thing is a puddle.
You stopped too early
A dozen pushes feels like a lot when your arms are involved. It is not a lot. It is a warm-up. This is the mistake nobody ever catches themselves making, because a badly wedged lump looks exactly like a well wedged one from the outside.
Your arms are doing the work
If your shoulders are burning after two minutes, you are lifting the clay instead of leaning on it. Get your weight over the top and rock from the hips. Your arms are guides. Your body is the engine.
You are folding, not pushing
The big one. You are not making a sandwich. Rock it forward and let it curl back under its own weight.
You made a pancake
Wider and flatter instead of building horns means your hands are not squeezing inward. Keep them cupped and close together.
You stopped too early
A dozen pushes is a warm-up. Nobody catches themselves doing this, because a badly wedged lump looks exactly like a good one from the outside.
Rams Head Wedging: Preparing The Clay
Video by Kara Leigh Ford . Not ours, not affiliated with us, and better at explaining this than another paragraph from me would be.
A plan
Your first four sessions
Nobody gets this in one go, and trying to is how people decide they are bad at it. Four short sessions and it starts to feel like something your hands know rather than something you are thinking about.
Just the motion
Two pounds. Twenty pushes. Do not care what the lump looks like at the end and do not go chasing the horns. All you are learning is what down and forward feels like as one movement instead of two. Then cut it open, look at it, and be unimpressed on purpose.
Add the squeeze
Same two pounds, but now your hands come in toward each other while they press. This is the session where the horns show up for the first time, and it is genuinely satisfying when they do. Thirty pushes.
Count it out
Three pounds, thirty pushes, no stopping to admire your work. Use the beat further up this page if it helps. At the end, run a wire through the middle and actually look at the cut face. Most people find out how their wedging is really going right about here.
A real lump
Four or five pounds, or three lumps in a row for the same class. This is where it stops being an exercise and starts being the thing you do before you throw. If your wrists complain, that is information, not failure.
Checking your work
How to know you actually finished
You cannot tell from the outside. A badly wedged lump and a perfect one look identical sitting on a table, which is exactly why so many people stop early and feel great about it. So cut it open. Four seconds, and it is the only honest answer you are going to get.
You cannot tell from the outside, so run a wire through the middle and look at the cut face.
- Dark holes or obvious banding Not close. The dark spots are air pockets and the wavy stripes are patches of clay at different moisture levels that have not blended yet. Push the halves back together rounded face to rounded face so you do not trap something new, and keep going.
- No holes, but you can still see a swirl The air is gone, which is the important half. What is left is a faint marbling where the moisture has not fully evened out. Fine for hand building. For the wheel, give it another twenty or thirty pushes, because those faint bands are the soft spots that will fight you at centering.
- One even color all the way across That is a finished lump. Push the halves back together rounded side to rounded side, a couple of smoothing pushes to close the seam, and go make something with it before it stiffens up on you again.
- Dark holes or banding Not done. Push the halves back together rounded face to rounded face and keep going.
- Clean, but a faint swirl The air is gone. Fine for hand building. Another twenty or thirty pushes before you throw with it.
- One even color Finished. Press the halves back together and go use it.
The quicker version, if you do not want to cut the lump: bend it gently instead. Any pockets near the surface pop open along the bend and announce themselves. Less thorough. Far more likely to actually happen.
That is the whole thing
Now go hit some clay against a table
Push down and forward. Never fold. Squeeze inward. Do it for longer than feels necessary. That is ram’s head, and everything else on this page is detail hanging off those four things.
If it is still hurting your wrists after a few weeks of honest practice, that is not a character flaw and it is not something to push through. Stack and slam exists for exactly that reason, and nobody has ever picked up a finished pot and known which way it was wedged.
Nobody gets this in one go, and if it is still hurting your wrists after a few weeks that is information, not failure. There is a longer version of this page with the reasoning, a practice plan and a rhythm trainer: switch it at the top.
We have wedging tables, and if you are a member who wants somebody to stand next to you and watch you do it once, ask. That is usually the whole fix. If you are not a member yet, here is how that works .
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