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The Clay Hole guide to production throwing
One big mound of clay. A dozen little pots off the top of it, one after another, without recentering a single time. It is the oldest speed trick on the wheel, and the part that trips everyone up is not the throwing. It is the four seconds where the wire goes through.
Videos come out as a labelled box with the title and channel to search for, since paper does not play them.
Start here
You mound eight to fifteen pounds of clay into a tall dome and never center all of it. You center the top three inches, throw one small pot up there, undercut it, wire it free, and true the top again. The bottom two thirds of that mound never gets touched.
Can you throw this pot with a pound and a half of clay or less? Cups, teabowls, tumblers, sake cups, spoon rests, lids, knobs and test tiles all pass. If the answer is no, throw it on a bat instead. Anything wide, tall or heavy wants the leverage of a low centered mass, not a tall tower. Reaching for a bat is not cheating and never was.
The tradeoff, once: every pot comes off a hump with a domed bottom and a base thicker than you meant, because you are cutting a pot off a cone. You save time at the wheel and spend some of it back at trimming.
Want six that match? That is a measurement, not concentration. Set calipers to the rim width you want, check every pot right after the last pull, and use the same number of pulls every time.
01 · Why this page exists in this shape
There are hundreds of videos about throwing off the hump, and some of them are excellent. We put four of the best ones further down this page. So why write all of this out too?
Speed. Pressure. The exact moment a hand lets go. How fast the wheel is actually turning, which nobody can describe in words that mean anything. What a wire looks like going through clay at the correct angle, which is over in about two seconds and would take three paragraphs to explain badly.
Order and reason. A video hides the steps inside one continuous motion, so it can be genuinely hard to tell where step four ended and step five began. Written steps are already separated, numbered, and in order. And you can jump straight back to step nine without scrubbing a timeline with a muddy thumb.
The other reason is pace. A video decides how fast you learn. You decide how fast you read. If a sentence does not land, you read it again in two seconds, and nobody has to scrub backward four times and overshoot it every time.
So here is the honest version of what we think works, and it is not one or the other:
And none of the three is a substitute for the fourth thing, which is doing it eleven times badly. Reading is how you get to your reps faster. It is not a shortcut around them.
02 · The idea in one paragraph
You mound eight to fifteen pounds of clay into a tall dome on the wheel head. You do not center all of it. You center the top few inches, throw one small pot up there, cut it free with a wire, and true the top again. Then you do it again. The bottom two thirds of that mound never gets touched, and never needs to.
Centering is the slowest and most tiring part of throwing small things. Off the hump you pay that cost once instead of twelve times. No bats, no reballing, no wedging between pots. A set of shot glasses that takes an hour of one-at-a-time work takes about twenty minutes this way.
Small forms, and only small forms. Cups, teabowls, tumblers, sake cups, small vases, spoon rests, tiny planters, sauce dishes, lids, knobs, and test tiles for glaze. Anything you can throw with a quarter pound to a pound and a half of clay.
Anything wide, tall, or heavy. Plates and platters need a bat. Big bowls need the leverage of a low centered mass, not a wobbly tower. And any form that wants a genuinely flat, wide bottom is easier straight on a bat.
Off the hump, almost every pot comes off with a slightly rounded or domed bottom and a base thicker than you meant. That is not a mistake you are making, it is the geometry: you are cutting a pot off a cone, and the cut has to clear the pot. So you save time at the wheel and you spend some of it back at the trimming stage. If you hate trimming, this technique will not fix that. If you like trimming, or you want a nice foot ring anyway, this is a gift.
Worth saying out loud: throwing off the hump, throwing on a bat, and throwing straight on the wheel head are all just preferences. None of them is the advanced one. Plenty of very good potters never throw off a hump, and plenty of very good potters do almost nothing else.
03 · Before you sit down
Before you sit down
The whole point of this technique is rhythm. Every time you stand up to go find something, you lose the rhythm and the hump gets a little wetter. Set up once, then stay put.
A dry, clean wheel head. Wipe it. Slip under a hump is how the whole mound lets go halfway through the session and takes your afternoon with it. Slam the clay down hard, then press the bottom inch outward all the way around to lock the base to the wheel.
Water discipline from pot one. Every drop you use runs down the outside of the hump and stays there. Use less water than you think, wipe the sides of the mound with a dry hand or a barely damp sponge every few pots, and never let a puddle stand in the pan and splash back up.
The clay. Eight to fifteen pounds, on the stiff side of normal, wedged as one mass. Smooth and plastic is far easier to learn on than heavily grogged.
The tools. Wire, needle tool, small rib, chamois, a sponge on a stick, calipers, and a ware board beside you. The sponge on a stick is not optional, because you cannot tip water out of a pot that is still attached to a hump.
A bone dry wheel head. Wipe it, slam the clay down hard, then press the bottom inch outward onto the metal. Slip under a hump is how the whole mound lets go halfway through the session.
Less water than you think. Every drop runs down the outside of the mound and stays there.
04 · The method
The method
Five phases. The first one you do once per session. The other four you repeat for every single pot, and after about six pots they stop feeling like separate things and turn into one motion.
Eleven steps. The first one you do once a session, the rest for every pot. The last four are in the next section, because that is where the pots are lost.
Phases four and five are the undercut and the wire, and they get their own section, because that is where the pots are actually lost.
05 · The four seconds that matter
The four seconds that matter
Almost nobody loses a pot while throwing it. They lose it here. The good news is that the cut is not a skill that takes months, it is a short list of things to do in order, and once you have them the failure rate drops off a cliff.
Almost nobody loses a pot while throwing it. They lose it here. The cut is not a skill that takes months, it is four things done in order.
Cuts a clean flat bottom and releases easily. This is the default, and it is what you want if you plan to trim a foot afterward, because a smooth surface is easier to read on the trimming wheel.
Leaves a rippled shell pattern on the bottom, which a lot of people love and leave as the finish. The texture also breaks the suction slightly, so pots can lift a hair easier. The tradeoff is that a twisted wire wanders more, so leave a deeper undercut when you use one.
Two dry hands around the lower wall is the standard and works for anything with a wall you can touch. A small metal spatula or a lifting tool slid under the pot keeps you from touching the walls at all, which is the move for very thin or very wide-rimmed pieces. Onto a small tile or wooden disc is the safest of all: cut, slide the disc under, lift the disc. If a form keeps distorting, stop trying harder and switch methods.
06 · Watch four people do it
Watch two people do it
Every one of these is free, and every one is from a potter who has thrown off a hump more times than we have had hot dinners. Watch at least two, because seeing two people do the same thing differently is what teaches you which parts are physics and which parts are just their hands.
Under each one is the part we would actually pay attention to. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
The two we would pick if you only had time for two: one for the shape of the whole technique, one for the cut itself. Neither is ours, both are free, and nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
Titles and channel names are shown exactly as their creators wrote them. We did not make any of these videos, we do not earn anything from them, and nothing loads from YouTube until you press a play button.
07 · Diagnosis
Diagnosis
Find your symptom. Almost every one of these has a single cause, and almost none of them is "you need more talent."
These are the three that stop a first session. Each one has a single cause, and each one is fixable on the very next pot.
Your undercut was too shallow, or your wire was angled upward, or it was slack, in that order of likelihood. Cut the groove deeper than feels sensible and enter dead level.
Wet hands, or lifting by the rim instead of the lower third, or a pot that was simply too soft. Dry your hands completely, move them down, and wait thirty seconds after the cut.
You are skipping the re-true. It feels like an interruption when you are in a rhythm, and it is the one step that makes the rhythm possible. Top trued, dome restored, knuckle check, every single pot.
Your undercut was too shallow, or your wire was angled upward, or it was slack. In that order of likelihood. Cut the groove deeper than feels sensible, hold the wire genuinely tight, and enter dead level. If it keeps happening, exaggerate the undercut for ten pots until your eye recalibrates.
You are opening too shallow and cutting too low. Measure the floor with a needle tool on every pot for a full session. The floor should be about a quarter inch of clay, and the wire should pass just under that, not an inch below it. Thick bases are the tax on this technique, but they should be a small tax.
Three suspects. Wet hands gripping wet clay, so dry them completely. Lifting by the rim instead of the lower third, so move your hands down. Or the pot was simply too soft, in which case wait thirty seconds after the cut, or sponge out the inside more thoroughly next time. If a shape keeps failing, slide a small tile under it instead of touching it at all.
You are truing the top but drifting off the true center of the wheel a little each time, and it compounds. Every four or five pots, stop and recone the whole top half properly instead of just squeezing the crown. Ten seconds, and it resets the drift.
Water. It always runs down and it never leaves. Wipe the outside of the mound with a dry hand every few pots, keep the splash pan from pooling, and use noticeably less water than you would on a normal pot. If it is already too far gone, skim the saturated outer skin off the mound with a rib and keep going on the firmer clay underneath.
The wheel head was damp when you started, or you never pressed the base outward to lock it. Start over on a wiped, dry head, slam hard, and flare the bottom inch out onto the metal. This one is unrecoverable mid-session, which is why it is worth thirty seconds of setup.
That is the default outcome, not a fault. Fixing it takes a measurement, not more concentration. Set calipers to the rim width you want and check every pot before you cut. For height, clamp a needle tool or a stick to the splash pan at the right height and throw until the rim touches it.
Almost always compression. All that coning aligns the clay particles vertically, and an uncompressed floor on top of that is a textbook S-crack. Two or three firm passes from the center outward, every pot, no exceptions. Standing water left inside makes it worse, which is the other reason to sponge it dry.
Water left in the bottom softened the floor, or the walls were thinner than they looked and the rim was heavy. Sponge the inside dry before cutting, and stop pulling at three pulls. A small pot with a heavy rim and thin walls is a pot that is going to sit down eventually.
Clay crumbs in the groove, a wheel spun too fast, or you are sawing. Clear the groove, slow the wheel, and hold the wire still while the clay comes to it. Twisted wires judder more than straight ones by design, so if you are learning the cut, learn it with a straight wire first.
You are skipping the re-true. It feels like an interruption when you are in a rhythm, and it is the single step that makes the rhythm possible. Top gets trued, dome gets restored, knuckle check, then open. Every pot, including the ones where you are sure it is still fine.
You are holding your arms in the air instead of bracing them. Elbows into your thighs, ribs against the splash pan, hands locked to each other. The top of a hump is higher than you are used to, so people float their arms up to reach it and then hold that position for an hour. Sit up higher or raise your stool instead.
08 · Consistency
This technique is the fastest way to make a set and also the fastest way to make six pots that are almost a set, which is worse than making one nice cup. The difference is entirely measurement. Nobody eyeballs a matching set, including the people who look like they are eyeballing it.
Open them to the rim diameter you want, lock them, and check every pot at the same moment in the process, right after the last pull. Adjust the rim while the wheel is still turning, before you finish it.
Clamp anything rigid to the splash pan or a nearby upright so a pointer sits exactly at your target rim height. Throw until the rim just brushes it. This is worth more than any amount of concentration.
Two pulls or three, and the same number every time. Consistency in the process is what produces consistency in the pots. A pot that took five pulls will not match a pot that took two, even if the calipers agree.
Throw the first pot of the session, cut it off, and then cut that pot straight down the middle with your wire. Look at the wall thickness top to bottom and the floor thickness. It costs you one pot and it tells you more than the next ten will. Do it at the start of every session with a new clay body, and once more any time your pots start feeling heavy.
One more thing that sounds fussy and is not: keep the set on one board and finish the whole set before you go home. Clay dries at whatever rate the room decides, and a cup thrown today next to a cup thrown next Tuesday will trim differently, dry differently, and quite often end up a different size after firing.
09 · The part to keep open at the wheel
The part to keep open at the wheel
Twenty-two lines, no paragraphs, built to be read at arm’s length with clay on your hands. Tap a line to cross it off. It remembers where you were, so you can lock your phone, throw a pot, and come back to it.
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10 · Getting good at it
Do not try to make anything you care about on day one. Give yourself three deliberately unambitious sessions and you will come out the other side able to do this without thinking, which is the whole point of the technique.
Build a hump. True the top. Open a hole, pull one wall, do not care what it looks like. Then undercut it and wire it off. Do that fifteen times. You are not making cups, you are learning where the wire goes and how deep the groove has to be. Squash every one of them back into the mound.
One form, one size, twelve attempts, calipers set. Keep them all, line them up on the board, and look down the row. The row will tell you exactly which step you are rushing, and it will be a different step than you thought.
Now go for rhythm. Time yourself on six pots and try to shave a minute off without dropping any step from the checklist. This is where the technique starts to pay you back, and where it starts being genuinely fun.
Ten in a row, no failures. Not ten good pots, ten pots that survive the cut and the lift. When you can do that, the cut has stopped being a gamble, and every small form you ever make gets faster for the rest of your life in clay.
11 · Next
Next
Throwing off the hump sits on top of the ordinary wheel skills. If any part of the list above assumed something you have not nailed down yet, these two pages are where it lives.
If anything above assumed a skill you have not nailed down yet, it lives on one of these.
The full guide underneath this one. Ten fundamentals that are true for everyone, twenty-one things that go wrong, and the skill levels spelled out with real cutoffs. Written out in text, for the same reason this page is.
The full guide underneath this one. Ten fundamentals, and the skill levels with real cutoffs.
Every pot you cut off a hump lands with a rounded bottom, which means most of them want trimming, which means getting a pot true on the wheel again. Four techniques, plus a practice wheel that runs in your browser.
Every pot off a hump lands rounded, so most want trimming. Four techniques and a practice wheel.
Cut fifteen pots off a hump and squash every one back into the mound. You are not making cups tonight. You are learning where the wire goes.
That was the short version. Comprehensive has all twenty-six steps with the reasoning, twelve symptoms and their causes, and four videos.
Written by the crew at The Clay Hole in Draper, Utah, for anybody who wants it, member or not. If something on this page is wrong, or you have a trick that beats one of ours, we would honestly like to hear it.
Written by the crew at The Clay Hole in Draper, Utah, member or not.
