Pottery wheel explainers
How to cone clay up and down
Coning looks like a flourish. Like the potter is showing off a little before the real work starts.
It is not. It is the least glamorous thing that happens at a wheel, and skipping it is a big part of why some people cannot get their clay to hold still no matter how hard they lean on it.
I have watched a lot of people fight a lump for twenty minutes, and almost every time the fight was already lost before their hands went up. If your cone mushrooms, twists into a screw, snaps off in your hands, or just sits there refusing to rise, every one of those comes off a short list. Nothing on the list is that you are bad at this.
The least glamorous thing at the wheel, and skipping it is a big part of why clay will not hold still. Here is the whole move and the four ways it goes wrong.
Why bother
Coning is wedging you do on the wheel
Squeeze inward low so the clay climbs. Lay a hand flat on top and lean your weight down through it. Twice up, twice down.
That is the short version, and it is close enough to true to run with. The longer answer is that forcing clay up through a narrow shape and pressing it back down does three separate jobs at once, and only one of them is the one people notice.
It finds the air your wedging missed. To get up there, every part of the lump has to funnel through a smaller cross section than it started in. Pockets that survived the wedging table do not survive that.
It evens out the moisture. Clay comes out of a bag harder at the edges and softer in the middle, or the other way around. A hard patch and a soft patch in the same lump will center at two different speeds, which feels exactly like being bad at centering. Coning kneads them into one consistency.
It lines the particles up. Clay particles are flat little plates. Send them up a spiral and press them back down and they end up all facing the same way, running with the direction of the wheel. That alignment is what lets a wall stretch upward later instead of tearing.
You can skip it. People do.
Their pots come out shorter and they usually cannot say why.
Read it, then watch it
Every section here has a list you can prop your phone against, and a video from somebody a good deal better at this than I am. Both, on purpose.
Reading gives you words for what your hands are doing. That running commentary in your head is most of what turns a motion into a habit, and it is the part you can take to the wheel with you. Video gives you timing and pressure, which no sentence has ever managed to carry.
Read the list. Watch the hands. Then go do it badly a few times, which is the only part that has ever actually worked.
The short version
Six lines, then go do it
Coning is wedging you do on the wheel. It finds the air your wedging missed, evens out the hard and soft spots, and lines the clay particles up so a wall will stretch later instead of tearing.
- 1 Wedged clay, bottom patted round, slapped down as close to the middle as you can eyeball.
- 2 Seal the base to the wheel head with a fingertip while it turns slowly.
- 3 Wheel fast. Hands wet. Elbows braced on your thighs.
- 4 Heels of your palms at the very bottom, squeeze inward, ride up with the clay. Wide base, blunt top.
- 5 One hand flat across the top, the other bracing the side, both moving as one tool. Lean your body weight down through it.
- 6 Twice up, twice down. Then release over about three full turns instead of lifting off.
Everything below is what to do when one of those six goes sideways.
Setup
Half of coning happens before you touch the clay
Set up first
Almost every coning problem I get asked about at the wheels was decided in the ninety seconds before the wheel started turning. This is the boring list, and it is the one that pays.
- 1 Wedge it, and mean it Coning finds what wedging missed. It does not rescue clay that was never wedged at all. Dry seams and hard patches will fight you the entire way up, and no amount of coning will talk them out of it.
- 2 Round the bottom Pat the underside into a dome before it goes anywhere near the wheel. A flat bottom lands on a flat wheel head and traps a disc of air under the middle of your lump, which you will meet again later as a bubble in a wall.
- 3 2 Slap it down like you mean it One committed throw, as close to the center as you can eyeball. A timid placement is a lump you have to walk sideways later, and walking clay sideways is far harder than starting near the middle.
- 4 3 Seal the base Wheel turning slowly, run a fingertip all the way around where the clay meets the wheel head and press that edge down. Thirty seconds. That seal is what stops water working underneath and floating the whole lump off mid session.
- 5 4 Wheel faster than feels comfortable Coning up runs on your squeeze plus the force the wheel is already putting into the clay. On a slow wheel you are supplying all of it with your arms, and your arms are going to lose that argument.
- 6 Wet hands, not a wet lump Enough water that your hands slide. Dry hands grab the clay and drag it off center in a single stroke. A flooded lump goes soft and stops holding a wall. Once there is slip in the pan, slip is better than more water.
- 7 Elbows down and locked Elbows planted on your thighs, or one elbow buried in your hip. Elbows floating in the air is the single most common reason somebody cannot make clay move, and it is the fastest thing on this list to fix.
- 8 Sit high enough to lean Your shoulders want to be above the clay, not level with it. If you are looking at your lump from the side you cannot get your weight over the top of it, and coning down is all weight.
Going up
The elevator
Going up is the half that looks impressive and it is the easier one. You are not lifting anything. You are closing every door except the one at the top.
-
1
Get low. Lower than that.
Heels of your palms on the clay at the very bottom, one on each side, roughly four and eight o’clock. This is the step people skip without knowing it. If your hands start even an inch up the lump, the base never narrows, and a cone with a fat base and a squeezed middle tears off the wheel head about halfway up.
Heels of your palms at the very bottom of the clay, one each side. Start above the base and the cone tears off partway up.
-
2
Squeeze in. Not up.
Push toward the middle of the wheel, both hands equally hard. The clay is looking for somewhere to go and the only direction still open to it is up, so up it goes. Your hands travel along with it. They never lift it.
Push toward the middle of the wheel, both hands equally. The only direction left open is up.
-
3
Ride it, do not drag it
Move your hands up at the speed the clay is actually rising, which is slower than you expect. Get ahead of it and you thin out the neck. Fall behind and you squeeze the same inch twice and undo your own work.
Move up at the speed the clay is rising, not faster.
-
4
Ease off near the top
The last few inches cannot take the grip the wide part could. Let the pressure out gradually as you climb. Hold the same squeeze all the way to the peak and it twists off in your hands, usually about four seconds later, usually while you are feeling good about it.
Let the pressure out over the last few inches or the top twists off.
-
5
Keep the top blunt and closed
You want a wide base and a flat, slightly domed top. Not a needle. And watch for a dip opening in the middle of the top, which means the outside edge is getting more pressure than the center. Push that dip back down and you fold air straight into the middle of the lump, which is the exact thing coning was supposed to prevent.
Wide base, blunt closed top. No needle, and no dip in the middle.
-
6
Stop lower than you think
Around twice the height of the lump you started with is plenty. A taller cone is not a better cone. It is a thinner neck with more places to go wrong, and the photogenic three foot spires you have seen are somebody with twenty years of hands showing off, which is allowed but is not the exercise.
About twice the height of the lump you started with. Taller is not better.
- Where his hands start. The very bottom of the clay, every single pass.
- How little his hands actually move compared to how much the clay does.
- The moment the pressure comes off, near the top, before anything gets thin.
Coming down
This is the half that centers the clay
Going up got the clay ready. Coming down is the part that actually centers it, which surprises people, because it is the part that looks like nothing is happening.
-
1
One hand flat across the top
The side of your non dominant hand, or the heel of that palm, laid flat across the top of the cone. Not fingertips. You want as much surface on that clay as you can get, because everything you are about to do gets spread across it.
The side of your non dominant hand laid flat across the top. Not fingertips.
-
2
The other hand braces the side
Fingers wrapped around the outside, squeezing gently inward, sitting at the height where the clay is about to want to bulge. That hand is not decoration. It is the only thing standing between you and a mushroom.
Other hand wrapped around the outside, squeezing gently inward.
-
3
Both hands are one tool
Whatever the top hand presses down, the side hand has to stop from escaping sideways. If the two act independently you get a mushroom, every time, without exception. Think of it as one clamp rather than two hands.
Whatever the top hand pushes down, the side hand keeps from escaping sideways. Independent hands make a mushroom.
-
4
Lean. Do not push.
Bring your shoulder out over the wheel and let your body weight travel down through the cone. Pushing with your arm is a wrestling match you will lose in about ninety seconds. Leaning is something you could hold all afternoon.
Bring your shoulder over the wheel and let your weight travel down through the cone. Do not push with your arm.
-
5
Slower than feels productive
Somewhere on the way down your hands will stop buzzing. That is the clay locking into the middle, and it is one of the better feelings in the whole craft. Come down fast and you drive straight past it without ever noticing it was there.
Go slow. Somewhere on the way down your hands stop buzzing. That is the clay locking into the middle.
-
6
Let go over three full turns
Do not lift your hands off. Release the pressure gradually while the wheel goes around about three times, then slide your hands away sideways rather than pulling them straight off. Yanking off is how a perfectly centered lump goes crooked in the last half second, and it is the most annoying way to lose one.
Release the pressure over about three turns, then slide your hands away sideways. Never pull them straight off.
- Her top hand and side hand arriving and leaving together, never one before the other.
- How much of the work is her body moving and how little is her hands.
- The finish: pressure coming off slowly, over several rotations.
Methods
Four ways people do this, and when each one earns its keep
There is no single correct way to cone. There is the one that suits the amount of clay in front of you, the length of your arms, and how much is left in them. These are the four worth knowing about.
The two hand squeeze
Heels of both palms low on the clay, opposite each other, squeezing straight toward the middle. Hands rise together. Coming down, one hand goes flat on top and the other braces the side.
This is what almost every video shows and it is what you should learn first, because every other method on this list is a modification of it.
Best for one to four pounds, and for building the habit.The anchored arm
Bury your non dominant elbow in your hip and lock that forearm straight out. It stops being an arm and becomes a post. Your dominant hand does all the pushing, and the post is what the clay has to move against.
It is much less tiring than two active arms, and it takes the shake out of your hands on a long session. A lot of production potters center this way permanently.
Best for tired arms, shaky hands, and anybody who feels like they are wrestling.Pushing and pulling
Instead of two hands opposite each other squeezing in, one hand pulls the clay toward you while the other pushes away, slightly offset. The lump gets sheared into line rather than crushed into line.
On a big lump a straight two hand squeeze needs more grip than most people have. This one trades grip for angle, and it will move clay that will not budge any other way.
Best for roughly six pounds and up.Leaning it over
Rather than pressing the cone straight down from the top, you press it from the upper side and lean the whole cone over as it comes down. The clay travels back to the middle on its way.
This is the fix when a mushroom has already started, because pushing straight down on a mushroom only makes a wider mushroom. Some potters center this way every time and never press from directly above at all.
Best for undoing a mushroom mid pass, and for anybody who cannot sit high enough to get over the top.
Neither of these is ours. They are the two demonstrations I keep sending people to, because between them they cover more ground than anything else I have found.
Shapes
Six silhouettes, and what each one is telling you
Three silhouettes worth knowing
You can diagnose almost all coning trouble without touching anything. Look at the outline of your clay against whatever is behind the wheel. If the shape has gone wrong, the fix is already decided for you.
Look at the outline of your clay against whatever is behind the wheel. If the shape has gone wrong, the fix is already decided.
The blunt cone
Wide at the base, narrowing evenly, flat and slightly domed across the top. It stands there on its own without leaning, wobbling or thinning anywhere.
Do nothing. Take it down and go again.The mushroom
The top has spread out wider than the base. Your top hand kept pressing while the side hand went soft, so the clay escaped sideways because sideways was available.
It is worse than it looks. A cap that wide traps slip and air underneath itself, and the next trip up tears open right there.
Fix squeeze the side hand in harder, or stop pressing from directly above and lean it over from the side instead.The screw
The cone has twisted into a spiral and feels unstable under your hands. Your hands climbed faster than the wheel could bring fresh clay around, so it sheared instead of rising.
Fix speed the wheel up, slow your hands down. Give yourself a slow count of three from base to top.The needle
A thin spike where the top of the cone should be. You held the same squeeze all the way to the peak, and the narrow part cannot take what the wide part could.
This one is about four seconds from twisting off in your hands.
Fix ease the pressure out gradually over the last few inches of the climb.The crater
A dip has opened in the middle of the top. The outside edge of your grip is getting more pressure than the center, so the rim of the cone is rising and the middle is not.
Press that down and you fold air into the middle of the lump, which is precisely what you started coning to avoid.
Fix keep your hands lower and let the pressure off before the very top, so the peak closes over instead of opening up.The lean
The whole cone is upright but tilted, like a tower going over. Your hands are not directly opposite each other, or one is sitting higher on the clay than the other.
Fix reset both hands level and directly across from each other, then take it down and start the pass again.Troubleshooting
Nine things that go wrong, and what to change
Three that go wrong on a first night
These are the ones I get asked about at the wheels, roughly in order of how often. Open the one that matches what your clay is doing.
It mushrooms out at the top
Your bracing hand relaxed while the top hand kept working. Clay goes wherever you are not, and you stopped being on the side of it.
Squeeze the outside in harder as you press down, and keep both hands in contact for the whole descent rather than resetting halfway. If the mushroom has already formed, do not press straight down on it, because that just makes a wider mushroom. Lean the cone over from the upper side and bring it home that way.
It twists into a screw
You are climbing faster than the wheel can bring fresh clay around under your hands, so the clay shears instead of rising evenly.
Speed the wheel up first, then slow your hands down. A slow count of three from the base to the top is about right for a normal lump.
It will not rise at all
Two causes, and they are usually both present. The wheel is too slow, and you are pressing up rather than in.
Coning up runs on your inward squeeze plus the force the wheel is already putting into the clay. If the wheel is loafing along there is nothing pushing outward for you to redirect. Speed it up first, then squeeze harder, in that order. And check where your hands are: if they are anywhere above the very bottom of the lump, the base is holding everything down.
The top snaps off in my hands
Pressure has to come off as you approach the top. The narrow part cannot take the squeeze the wide part could, and there is a lot less clay up there to spread it across.
Ease out gradually over the last few inches instead of holding the same grip all the way up. If it has already come off in your hand, put it back on, take the whole thing down, and go again. Nothing is ruined.
It goes soft and floppy after a few passes
Every trip up and down works more water into the clay. Do it six times and you have a lump that is beautifully centered and cannot hold a wall, which is the most demoralizing possible outcome because it looks like success right up until you open it.
Two passes. Use slip rather than fresh water once there is slip available, and wet your hands rather than the clay.
The whole lump lifts off the wheel head
Water got underneath it, or the base was never sealed, or your hands were sitting above the bottom of the cone so the base stayed wide while everything above it got narrow.
Take it off, dry the wheel head, slap it down again and seal the base with a fingertip while the wheel turns slowly. Then start your squeeze at the actual bottom of the clay rather than an inch up.
The cone leans to one side
Your hands are not directly across from each other, or one is higher up the clay than the other. One side of the lump is getting more pressure and the cone is walking away from it.
Reset both hands level and opposite, take the cone all the way down, and start the pass again rather than trying to straighten it on the way up.
My hands stick and drag it off center
Not enough lubrication. Dry hands grab clay, and a grab pulls the whole lump sideways in a single rotation.
Keep your hands slick the entire time, and pay attention to the end of a pass in particular, because that is when people run dry and then pull off. If your hands squeak, stop and wet them before you do anything else.
It looks centered, then wobbles when I open it
Usually one of two things. Either you pulled your hands away rather than releasing over several rotations, and the last half second knocked it out. Or the top was centered and the base never was, which happens when your hands only ever worked the upper half of the lump.
Release slowly, slide your hands away sideways, and on your last pass down make sure you are pressing all the way to where the clay meets the wheel head.
How many
Twice up, twice down. Then stop.
Not once, and not six.
Once usually misses something. Six has been quietly working water into your clay the entire time, and soft clay will not hold a wall no matter how beautifully centered it is. Two is where I land almost every time.
Once usually misses something. Six works so much water into the clay that it will not hold a wall.
If it takes three, take three. Nobody is counting but you.
How to know you are actually done
- 1 Still hands Rest a fingertip lightly against the side of the spinning clay and close your eyes. Centered clay feels like touching something that is not moving at all. Off center clay bumps against your finger, or pushes it away once a rotation.
- 2 The needle tool line Hold a needle tool steady against the side of the clay and let the wheel go around once. A line that runs the whole way around means you are centered. A line on one side only means you are not, and the gap tells you how far off.
- 3 The buzzing stopped The one you will learn to trust. On the way down, the vibration in your palms fades out and the clay goes quiet under your hands. That is it locking in, and once you have felt it a few times you will stop needing the other two tests.
Worth saying plainly: centered is not a thing you achieve once and keep. You can lose it opening, you can lose it on a pull, and you can lose it by leaning on the rim while you think. Coning is where you start from, not where you finish.
The honest part
Sometimes the problem is behind you
If you are on your fifth trip up and it still will not settle, stop. Something is wrong that your hands are not going to fix, and grinding away at it just softens the clay and wears you out.
Cut the lump in half with a wire and look at the cut face. A swirl of light and dark means moisture that never mixed. A dry seam means a fold that trapped a layer. A run of little holes means air. Any of those and the answer was decided at the wedging table, before the wheel was ever switched on.
It was never your hands.
Wedge it properly and start over. It is genuinely faster than the twenty minutes you were about to spend fighting it, and it is a much better twenty minutes.
- The rhythm. It is a rocking motion from the legs, not a shoulder workout.
- How the spiral forms on its own once the rhythm is right.
- The cut check at the end, which is the same test described above.
Last thing
Nobody is watching you cone
Go and do it badly a few times
It is a private, slightly ugly ninety seconds that happens before anything anybody will ever see. Which means you are free to be terrible at it for a few weeks without it costing you anything.
Get the wheel fast, get your elbows down, get your hands to the very bottom of the clay, and squeeze in rather than up. Then lean your weight through it on the way down and let go slowly. Twice. That is the whole thing.
The rest is just repetitions, and there is no shortcut around those, which I say as somebody who spent a long time looking for one.
Wheel fast, elbows down, hands at the very bottom, squeeze in rather than up. Lean your weight through it on the way down and let go slowly. Twice.
There is a longer version of this page with four methods, six shapes to read, nine faults and six more videos. The toggle for it is at the top.
Keep going
Which version would you like to print?
Videos come out as a labelled box with the title and channel to search for, since paper does not play them.