Now that we're moving on to the intermediate section, we're going to start to introduce a couple new tools and a couple, you know, some more advanced techniques obviously, first thing I want to talk about are sponges. If you haven't been using your sponge to throw with, you're going to want to start making that transition into using it, it is going to give you an extra buffer moisture between you and the clay and allow you to push that clay farther and we less aggressively and create less friction that you do when you're throwing with your bare hands which should can cause forms to distort and, you know, lose some of that shaping. But along with the sponges, this is the standard sponge that comes in your toolkit. Now generally speaking, this bunch is too thick for most of our needs. Because it is so thick, you're going to lose a lot of that tactile experience, you're going to lose some of that fine tuned There's fine tuning skills right there.

So what I recommend is taking that sponge, folding it in half and cutting it down the center with a pair of scissors. So you end up with a sponge about half that thickness. Now this will give you this is thick enough to give you that extra layer of moisture and that buffer between you and the clay, but it's thin enough that you don't lose all that tactile information, all that tactile detail work. Next we're going to talk about our ribs. We're going to be introducing ribs, we have both our wooden rib and our metal rib. And again, these ribs aren't interchangeable they both are designed for very specific uses that will go over during the forming process.

Generally speaking, I'm going to discourage you from ever using the metal rib on the inside of your forms. Say like so because these pieces are going to get covered with moisture with there's gonna be come a layer slip on them. And if this rib does get away from you, you don't want it flying around in there with your hand inside. The vessel for the most part is going to be using the wooden rib on the inside or on the outside either way, but the metal rib, let's just try to keep that one on the outside of the piece for now. And we can use that for shaping, bending it cleaning up the outside clean up the surface. Now, we've already talked about bats, whether you're using commercial or homemade, you're going to again want to make that transition to using them if you're not already using them, because of the pieces now that we're going to start working on are going to need to stay on the wheel for extended period of time.

So you need to be able to take them off, put them back on. When we start talking about sectionals, we're going to be taking pieces and flipping them upside down and things along that line. The bath that you use are very important. And as we go through these forming techniques, I may recommend using specific kinds, maybe they don't absorb the moisture or perhaps they do depending on the technique that we're wanting to go over at that time. We also are going to be talking about Liz during this section, bids in sectionals, and for those, you're going to need a pair of calibers. And just like all the tools we're talking about right now, there's a number of different styles of calibers a number of different styles of ribs and things along this line.

Probably the most common style of calibers is something like so. Now, you can use this to either measure the inside of a piece, or excuse me, measure the outside of the piece, or you can cross them over to measure the inside. Now this will give you a much more accurate reading than if you were to try to measure the inside of the outside with a ruler. That doesn't work very well and accuracy is so important when you're talking about lids or sectionals because you know, sectionals you're going to get one shot put them together and if your measurements off, you're going to ruin your form with lids. If you have a lid that has a loose fit, people are going to notice especially other Potter's The first thing they do when they come up to a piece that has a lid is they grab the piece they grab the lid and they give a little jiggle and if it's loose if it wiggles They're gonna give you that luck and give you that little grant and you're bulking to know what the issue is.

Okay, so measurements are so important. We also have our wooden calibers that can be used to measure the outside or the inside. Or, this is a little more of an advanced style of calibers, what we have here is you can move use this and to measure the inside. And what that do is going to give you the exact same measurement at this opposite section. So how this works, we can measure our inside here. Then when we go over to throw our lid to create the flange, we can use this and measure our flange and you know some of the terminology may sound a little form in the flange and the major in this and that when we get into the live section.

It'll all come together but you will need a pair of calibers when we move to that section. here shortly within this section, we'll start talking about bottles and jar shapes, taller forms, vases and often think pieces that are going to have more of a higher shoulder on them. It helps tool with that can be your throwing stick. And again, there's a number of different styles out there throwing sticks, but this is the kind of general two basic shapes right here. And the way this works is they were throwing a bottle or a form with the tighter top, you may not necessarily be able to get your hands in there to work the inside, especially if your shoulders are the piece may start to slump or want to collapse on you. So the way this works, the throwing stick is just an extension of your inside hand and you can use that to work the from the inside while you finish fine tuning that shape or popping that shoulder out or addressing some of those areas that might be giving you a little trouble with out you know having to reopen the form or cut it back down.

Alright, so the next thing we're gonna take a look at is our foam bats.