Glazing · Glazing on the wheel

Let the wheel do the moving while your hand stays still.

An even coat wants a steady hand, and many of us struggle with that. A pot turning under a still brush gets the same pressure and speed all the way round, so coats come out even and bands come out level. On a potter’s wheel the pedal holds the speed, the head takes any pot, and both hands are free. It is the fastest route to glazing that looks practiced.

Four steps with a tick list at each: waxing and centering on a bat, the still-hand coat at the slowest pedal, three coats, and bands last with the wheel wiped down. Six fixes, most of them about speed, center and the splash pan, and five videos.

This is the short version: wax, bat, center, slow pedal, brace, one revolution per pass, three coats, bands last, wipe it wet, each with a tick list. The reasoning and the questions are in the comprehensive version.

x1Revolution per pass. The brush does not move until the turn is done
CrawlThe slowest pedal you can hold. Faster flings glaze
x5Videos, from potters who have nothing to do with us
x4Steps, each with a tick list you can work off
Jump to a section
Why this page has words and video The whole idea in three lines The technique in six moves What you need at the wheel 1. Wax, bat, center 2. The still-hand coat 3. Three coats 4. Bands, and the wipe-down Four potters, five videos The one video When it goes wrong How it works at The Clay Hole Questions people actually ask Related lessons
Illustration of a smiling bearded potter in glasses and a green apron brushing pale blue bands of glaze onto a cream vase on a potter's wheel, with a jar of glaze and a folded cloth on the table beside them

Every step, the reasoning, the centering detail and five videos.

Read it, then watch it

Why this is written down and filmed, both.

Glazing on the potter’s wheel is one idea and a few habits. The idea, that the wheel moves and the hand does not, fits in a sentence. The habits, a bat on the head, a clay ring, centering with a needle, the slowest pedal you can hold, a braced elbow, one revolution per pass, are a list, and lists are what a page is for. What a page cannot show is the pedal held at a crawl and a hand that does not move while a band goes on, and those are the videos.

Use both, in this order

Read the idea. Watch a pot glazed on a wheel head. Do it on a bisque cup you do not care about, on a bat, with the tick list open and a wet sponge ready for the wheel when you finish.

The whole idea

The wheel moves. The hand does not.

A bat on the wheel head, a ring of soft clay on the bat, the waxed bisque pot centered on it with a needle held still off the rim. The slowest turn the pedal will hold, an elbow braced on the splash pan rim, a loaded brush held still against the pot for one full revolution, then moved one brush width. Three coats, each dried. Bands last. Wheel head, bat and pan wiped down wet when you finish.

The five-minute version

The whole technique in six moves.

If you already throw and brush glaze and you just want the shape of it, this is the shape of it. Everything below is these six moves, slowed down and with the places they fail marked.

1Wax the foot, bat on the headWax goes matte first. A bat on the wheel head so drips land on the bat, not in the splash pan.
2Clay ring, then center with a needleA ring of soft clay on the bat, the pot on it, the wheel slow, a still needle off the rim, nudge until it runs true. Press the ring down.
3Slowest pedal you can holdOne revolution every second or two. Faster flings glaze. Heel on the floor, toes just touching.
4Brace, load, one revolution, liftElbow on the splash pan rim. Brush held still for a full turn, lifted straight off, moved one width.
5Three coats, inside off the wheelEach coat dried, the second offset half a width. The inside poured with the wheel stopped, never brushed turning.
6Bands last, then wipe everything wetOnto dry glaze, loaded brush, one turn. Then head, bat and pan wiped wet, bat rinsed at the sink.

Before the pot goes on

What you need at the wheel.

Six things, and the bat is the one that keeps the splash pan clean. The last one is a pot you do not care about.

A potter’s wheel with a pedal you can hold slowAny of our electric wheels. The pedal is the advantage over a banding wheel: it holds one speed for as long as you like.
A batOn the wheel head under everything, so drips land on it and not in the splash pan. Rinsed at the sink afterwards.
A ring of soft clayPressed onto the bat a little smaller than the foot. Holds the pot and lets it be nudged true.
A needle toolHeld still just off the rim while the wheel turns, to see which way the pot is off center.
Wax resist, a loaded brush, a damp spongeWax for the foot first, where wax is open to your Level. A fan or hake for coats, a round or flat for bands. The sponge for beads and for the wheel.
A bisque cup you do not care aboutFor the first three bands. Bands are a habit, and habits are cheap to practice on scrap.

A potter’s wheel, a bat, a ring of soft clay, a needle tool, wax and a loaded brush and a damp sponge, and a bisque cup to practice on.

1

Step one

Wax the foot, put a bat on the head, and center the pot on a ring of clay.

Wax first, bat second, center third. A pot on a turning wheel drips and a low band lands where the brush wanders, so the foot gets waxed and left to go matte before anything else, or sponged bare if your Level has no wax station. Then a bat on the wheel head, because glaze that drips onto a bare head runs into the splash pan, and the pan’s slurry is what gets scooped into reclaim. A bat catches every drip and goes to the sink.

Then the centering, which is the part everybody skips. Press a ring of soft clay onto the bat a little smaller than the foot, set the pot on it, and run the wheel slowly with the pedal. Hold a needle tool perfectly still just outside the rim. Wherever the rim swings toward the needle, nudge the pot away from that side. Two or three nudges and the rim runs true, and every band you lay from now on is level because the pot is. Then press the clay ring firmly up against the foot so the pot cannot creep when the brush touches it. Florian Gadsby’s tap-centering video below is for leather hard pots before trimming; a bisque pot gets the clay ring and the needle instead, but watching the rim for the wobble is the same eye.

A wide bowl sits on the ring upside down or right way up depending on which face you are glazing; a tall vase wants a taller ring and a slower wheel. A foot ring drops over a slightly smaller coil so it is held on the inside. For a pot with no flat foot, a chuck, a bisque cylinder centered on the bat, does what the ring does.

Tick list, before the brush0 of 4
2

Step two

The slowest pedal you can hold, a braced elbow, and the brush held still for one revolution.

The brush is a fence the pot turns past. Pedal down to the slowest turn it will hold, one revolution every second or two; heel on the floor with the toes just touching is the easiest way to keep it there. Elbow braced on the rim of the splash pan or on your knee, brush loaded from your cup of glaze and touched once to the rim of the cup, the brush touched to the pot at the top and held there while the pot makes one full turn under it. Lift straight off, move down one brush width, again.

The hand does nothing but hold still, and the pedal does nothing but hold slow. That is the whole advantage of a powered wheel: a banding wheel slows down as you go, and your flicking hand is not free; a potter’s wheel holds the same speed for the third coat as the first, with both of your hands free, one to brace and one to paint. The moment the hand starts moving round the pot, the coat gets streaky, because a moving hand changes pressure and speed at every point and a wheel does not. Reload every revolution or two. Wait for the turn.

Speed is the thing to watch. A potter’s wheel will go far faster than glaze can stay on a pot, and throwing speed flings wet glaze off the rim and the belly into the pan. If anything is leaving the pot, the pedal is too far down.

Tick list, the coat0 of 4
3

Step three

Three coats, each dried, the second offset. The inside off the wheel.

The wheel does not change the count. Three coats of a brush-on glaze, as at the glaze table, except that every coat here goes round the pot, so the half width offset does the job that crossing the coats does there, per our glaze brushing lesson. What changes is that each coat is even, and the overlaps between brush widths are the only places it is not.

So the second coat is offset: start it half a brush width lower than the first, so its overlaps land on the first coat’s thin places. The third goes back to the first position. Stop the wheel between coats and let each lose its shine, a few minutes on the first coat and longer on each one after, because a brush on a still-wet coat pulls it along the pot instead of adding to it. On a batch of mugs, glaze the first coat on all of them, then the second on all of them, and the drying takes care of itself.

The inside is not a wheel job. Stop the wheel, lift the pot off the ring, pour glaze in, swirl once with the pot tilted, pour it back into your cup in one motion, and set it rim-down on two sticks for a minute. Then back on the ring for the outside. An inside coat brushed on a turning pot pools at the bottom every time.

Tick list, coats0 of 4
4

Step four

Bands last, onto dry glaze. Then the head, the bat and the pan, wiped down wet.

A band is one revolution with a loaded brush. Dry glaze underneath. A round or flat brush loaded, the elbow braced, the pedal at a crawl, the brush touched to the pot at one height and held there for one full turn, then lifted straight off. The line is as crisp as the hand is still, and on a powered wheel the hand has nothing else to do.

For a crisp edge, tape or latex either side of where the band will go before the band goes on, and peel it once the band has gone matte, per our resists lesson. For a second color, wait for the first band to lose its shine. For a wide band, two adjacent turns with the brush moved down a width; for a thin one, the edge of a flat brush. Underglaze bands use the same still hand, but they go on raw clay (leather hard or bone dry) before the bisque firing, never on bisque here and never over glaze, and a needle held still against a turning underglaze band at leather hard is a sgraffito line in one revolution, since bone dry clay chips and makes dust. The wheel also cleans: a damp sponge held still against the turning foot takes a stray bead off in a single turn.

Then the wheel. Lift the pot off, peel the clay ring off the bat and bin it rather than reclaim it, take the bat to the sink and rinse it, and wipe the wheel head and the inside of the splash pan down wet. The splash pan slurry on a shared wheel is what gets scooped into reclaim, and glaze in reclaim is glaze in the next person’s pot. A glazing wheel is a throwing wheel again the moment someone else sits down, and it should look like one.

Tick list, bands and after0 of 4

Watch it done

Now watch four potters at the wheel.

One video, and what it shows.

None of these potters work here. Between them they cover glaze poured onto a pot, a plate brushed on the wheel, a different way to add glaze to thrown pottery, tap centering for trimming, and a long glazing session with one chapter at the wheel. Nothing but the still frame loads until you press play.

Four minutes of a potter glazing pots on the wheel, according to the description. It looks like glaze is poured over a round pot rather than brushed, so it shows the wheel used as a turntable, not the still brush method. The other four videos are in the comprehensive version.

A potter glazing on the wheel glazing pots using the wheel Steve Bootonceramics
Four minutes of a potter glazing pots on the wheel, according to their description. It looks like glaze is poured over a round pot rather than brushed, so think of it as the wheel used as a turntable, not the still brush method. Watch on YouTube
A plate brushed in under a minute and a half Brushing Glazes On The Potter's Wheel createniks
One minute and twenty-three seconds of Scott Reed of Symmetrical Pottery brushing a glaze onto a plate on the potter's wheel, according to the description. Watch on YouTube
A different way to add glaze Spin Glaze Ron Ward
Six minutes of Ron Ward adding glaze to thrown pottery a different way; the description calls it something different. It is not the still brush method. Watch on YouTube
Tap centering, for trimming How to Tap Center Pots on the Wheel Florian Gadsby
Ten minutes of Florian Gadsby on tap centering: the rhythm, the pressure, where the hand goes and how to teach yourself the technique. Our tap centering lesson teaches the skill for leather hard pots before trimming, not for glazing. Watch on YouTube
The glazing session around it How I Glaze and Tidy up my Pots, Ready for Firing in the Kiln Florian Gadsby
Twenty minutes of Florian Gadsby waxing, glazing and sponge cleaning pots, with chapters for a vase, a bowl and mugs. The wheel comes in at 18:11, to sponge clean pots. The scraping chapter at 4:20 goes past what we allow here: our touch ups are a finger rub and a barely damp sponge, never scraping or sanding. Watch on YouTube

When it goes wrong

Six ways it goes wrong, and what to do about each.

The three failures that happen on the first pot.

Pick the one that looks like your pot. The first three are center, hand and pedal. The last three are the inside, the splash pan and the foot.

How it works here

At The Clay Hole, any electric wheel can be a glazing wheel.

This page is written for potters everywhere. A few things are specific to our building, so you know before you start.

Three things to know here

Glazing on the throwing wheels is welcome, and that is what this page is for; put a bat on the head so drips never reach the splash pan. Bats are free on the racks at every Level. Needles and most brushes are studio tools from Yellow up, Green Level Members bring their own, and the glaze wall needs the free brush-on certification. Wipe the head and the pan down wet and rinse the bat before you leave, because the pan’s slurry is somebody’s reclaim.

The wheels

Every Level can use the electric wheels, first come, first served, on any class night or open studio. The kick wheel opens at Purple Level and has no pedal, so this page is for the electric wheels. Bring the pots, a cup of glaze spooned from the jar, and a bat from the rack, sit down like you would to throw, and hold the pedal at a crawl. A batch of mugs is faster here than at the glaze table, and the speed stays where you put it.

Tools and glaze by Level

Bats are free on the racks and open to every Level. Needle tools and most brushes are studio tools for Yellow, Purple and Black Level Members; Green Level Members bring their own. Hake and fan brushes and the wax stations are Purple and Black for brush-on work, with wax open to every Level when dipping. Green and Yellow Level Members have no wax station for brush-on work, so sponge the foot bare instead and leave an eighth to a quarter of an inch of bare clay above it. The glaze wall needs the free brush-on glaze and underglaze certification.

Leaving the wheel

A bat under everything, so drips never reach the pan. Clay ring binned. Bat rinsed at the sink. Head and splash pan wiped down wet. Brushes washed by hand and back in the same bin. Glaze in the splash pan is glaze in the reclaim, and a contaminated jar is on whoever did it.

Firing

Bisque is cone 05 and free. The glaze firing is cone 5½ at 5 cents a cubic inch, $4.80 minimum. Every piece goes in on a cookie with a naked bottom, which the wax, or a sponge held against the turning pot, gives you.

Questions people actually ask

The ones that come up every week.

Why glaze on the potter’s wheel?

Because an even coat wants a steady hand, and many of us struggle with that. A pot turning under a still brush gets the same pressure and speed all the way round, which a brush moving round a still pot cannot do. The potter’s wheel adds three things a hand-spun wheel cannot: a pedal that holds one slow speed for as long as you like, a wheel head big enough for any pot in the building, and both hands free, one to brace and one to hold the brush. Coats come out even, bands come out level, and a batch of mugs goes faster.

Potter’s wheel or banding wheel?

Either works; this page is the powered one. A banding wheel sits on the glaze table, spins with a fingertip and puts the pot at chest height, and it is the right tool for one small pot at the glaze wall. The potter’s wheel is the right tool for a batch, a big piece, or any time you want the speed held for you. At The Clay Hole any of our electric wheels can be a glazing wheel for an evening; the only rule is that it is wiped down wet afterwards.

How do I center a bisque pot on the wheel head?

Put a bat on the head first, so drips land on the bat and not in the splash pan. Press a ring of soft clay onto the bat a little smaller than the foot, set the pot on it, and run the wheel slowly. Hold a needle tool perfectly still just outside the rim: wherever the rim swings toward the needle, nudge the pot away from that side. Two or three nudges and it runs true. Then press the clay ring firmly against the foot so it cannot creep. Florian Gadsby’s tap-centering video is for leather hard pots before trimming; a bisque pot gets the clay ring and the needle, but watching the rim for the wobble is the same eye.

How fast?

The slowest turn the pedal will hold, about one revolution every second or two. That is far slower than throwing speed, and a potter’s wheel will happily go faster than glaze can stay on a pot. If glaze is leaving the rim, it is too fast. Some potters find the pedal easier to hold at a crawl with a heel on the floor and the toes just touching.

How many coats?

Three, for a brush-on glaze, each laid as full revolutions with the brush moved by one width at a time, each allowed to lose its shine before the next. The wheel does not change the number; it changes how even each one is. Our glaze brushing lesson is the table version of the three-coat method.

Can I do the inside on the wheel?

Stop the wheel for the inside. Pour glaze in, swirl once with the pot tilted, pour it back into your cup in one motion, and let it drain rim-down for a minute. An inside brushed on a turning pot pools at the bottom every time. Then back on the wheel for the outside.

What do I do with the wheel afterwards?

Wipe the head, the bat and the splash pan down wet before you leave it, and rinse the bat at the sink. The splash pan slurry on a shared wheel is what gets scooped into reclaim, and glaze in reclaim is glaze in somebody else’s next pot. A glazing wheel is a throwing wheel again the moment the next person sits down, and it should look like one.

Related lessons

Six lessons that sit next to this one.

Three to read next.

Glazing on the wheel is the brushing lesson with a pedal under it and the trimming lesson’s centering in front of it. These are the pages on either side.

GlazingGlaze Brushing TechniquesThe three-coat method, and how the wheel changes it. Surface and decorationUsing ResistsTape and latex for a crisp edge. Trimming, handles and dryingHow to Tap Center a PotTap centering for leather hard pots before trimming, the same watchful eye this page uses with a needle. Surface and decorationHow to Use UnderglazeUnderglaze bands use the same still hand, on raw clay only. Graduation dayBrush-On Glaze CertificationThe free certification that opens the glaze wall. GlazingGlaze Problems, Causes and FixesFor the coat that went wrong in the kiln.

That is the whole technique

Wax. Bat. Center. Slow pedal. Brace. One revolution. Three coats. Bands last. Wipe it wet.

Your first band will wobble because the pot was not centered, and your second will be level because you held a needle off the rim for ten seconds first. That is the whole lesson, and it takes one evening at a wheel you already know how to sit at. A batch of mugs glazed this way looks like someone else’s work, in the good way.

If you want the reasoning, the centering detail for odd shapes, the sgraffito trick and the answers to the questions everybody asks, switch to the comprehensive version at the top. Otherwise, go wax a foot and find a bat.

Back to Clay Hole University The three-coat method underneath

Written for potters everywhere. Where our studio does things differently, the page says so.