Glazing · Glazing on the wheel
Let the wheel do the moving while your hand stays still.
An even coat wants an even hand, and nobody has one. 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 practised.
Four steps with a tick list at each: waxing and centring 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, centre and the splash pan, and five videos.
This is the short version: wax, bat, centre, 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.
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, centring 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 centred 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.
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, a bat, a ring of soft clay, a needle tool, wax and a loaded brush and a damp sponge, and a bisque cup to practise on.
Step one
Wax the foot, put a bat on the head, and centre the pot on a ring of clay.
Wax first, bat second, centre 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. 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 centring, 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-centring video below is the same skill for trimming; learn it once and it works for both.
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 centred on the bat, does what the ring does.
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 until it drips and touched once to the jar, 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. Steve Booton’s video below is four minutes of exactly this pace.
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, the same as at a still table, 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 minute or two on bisque, 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 out fast 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.
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 razor edge, wax or tape either side of where the band will go before the band goes on, per our resists lesson. For a second colour, 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 go on the same way, at greenware or bisque, and a needle held still against a turning underglaze band is a sgraffito line in one revolution. 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.
Watch it done
Now watch five people hold still at the wheel.
Watch this one, then go sit at a wheel with a bat.
None of these potters work here or know we exist. Between them they cover a pot glazed on the wheel head, one coat in ninety seconds, bands at speed, centring a finished pot on the head, and the glazing session around it. Nothing but the still frame loads until you press play.
Four minutes of a bisque pot centred on a potter’s wheel and glazed with a still brush at a slow pedal. The other four videos are in the comprehensive version.
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 centre, hand and pedal. The last three are the inside, the splash pan and the foot.
The bands wobble up and down
The pot is not centred on the wheel head, or the clay ring let it creep, or your hand followed the pot instead of holding still. A band is only as true as the centre of the wheel and the stillness of the hand.
Centre the pot first: pedal slow, a needle held still just off the rim, nudge the pot away wherever the rim swings toward it, then press the clay ring down firmly. Brace the elbow on the splash pan rim or your knee and let the wheel bring the pot to the brush.
While the glaze is wet, a damp brush held still against the turning pot takes a wobbly band off in one revolution. Recentre and go again.
The coat is streaky, thin in places and thick in others
A brush that ran dry mid-revolution, a hand that moved up the pot faster than the wheel could turn under it, or pressure that changed part way round. On a turning pot the brush should never be doing the work.
Load the brush fully. Hold it still against the pot for one complete revolution before moving by one brush width. Same pressure the whole way round; the pedal, not the hand, sets the pace.
Let the coat dry, then a second coat with the brush offset by half a width so the overlaps land on the thin places.
Glaze flew off the pot and into the splash pan
Too fast. Throwing speed throws wet glaze off the rim and the belly, and a potter’s wheel will go that fast if the pedal is asked.
The slowest turn the pedal will hold, one revolution every second or two. Fast enough to be even, slow enough that nothing leaves the pot.
Wipe the splash pan and the wheel head down wet before anything else. Flung glaze in a shared splash pan is somebody else’s reclaim.
Glaze ran down the inside in drips
The inside was brushed on the turning wheel and pooled at the bottom, or too much was poured in and swirled too slowly. The inside of a pot on a wheel is a bowl of wet glaze that wants to collect.
For the inside, stop the wheel: pour glaze in, swirl once with the pot tilted, pour out fast in one motion, and set it rim-down on two sticks for a minute. Then the wheel for the outside.
A wet drip smooths with a damp finger or a soft brush. A dry one can be shaved level with a fettling knife before firing.
Glaze got into the splash pan slurry
The pot was glazed straight on the wheel head, drips ran into the pan, and the pan’s slurry is what gets scooped into reclaim. Glaze in reclaim is glaze in somebody’s next pot.
Glaze on a bat, not on the bare head. Drips land on the bat, the bat goes to the sink, and the splash pan stays clay. Wipe the head and pan down wet regardless when you finish.
Scoop the contaminated slurry out and bin it rather than reclaiming it, wipe the pan wet, and tell the studio team if any went into a reclaim bucket.
Glaze got on the foot
The bottom band was laid too low, or the brush touched the foot on the way past, or a drip ran down while the wheel turned.
Wax the foot first, every time, and let it go matte. A waxed foot sheds a low band and a drip both. Sponge the beads off the wax while the glaze is wet.
Sponge it off with a barely damp sponge before it dries; a dry foot scrapes clean with a rib. Every pot goes into our kilns with a naked bottom, so this gets fixed one way or another.
How it works here
At The Clay Hole, any of the 29 wheels 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, needles and 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
Any of the 29 throwing wheels, at any Level, on any class night or open studio. Bring the pots, the jar and a bat, 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, 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. 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 five cents a cubic inch, $4.80 minimum. Every piece goes in on a cookie with a naked bottom, which the waxed foot and a sponge held against the turning pot deliver.
Questions people actually ask
The ones that come up every week.
Why glaze on the potter’s wheel?
Because an even coat wants an even hand, and nobody has one. 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 takes half the time.
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 the 29 throwing wheels can be a glazing wheel for an evening; the only rule is that it is wiped down wet afterwards.
How do I centre 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-centring video is the same skill for trimming, and it transfers.
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 three-coat method in full.
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 out 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 centring in front of it. These are the pages on either side.
That is the whole technique
Wax. Bat. Centre. Slow pedal. Brace. One revolution. Three coats. Bands last. Wipe it wet.
Your first band will wobble because the pot was not centred, 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 centring 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.
Written for potters everywhere. Where our studio does things differently, the page says so.
Which version would you like to print?
Both print clean, with the videos turned into labelled boxes you can search for later.