So next we're going to talk about some basic techniques for using our ribs, both our wooden rib and our metal rib. Again, these are the two standard ribs that come in your, your toolkit. As we move along through this chapter, I'll start introducing some more specialized ribs and some homemade ribs. But first, we need to start off with our basic two right here and learn how to use them and some, again, just some fundamental techniques of using want to throw a couple pieces off the hump here and show you a couple different scenarios and where these ribs can come in handy. All right, let's talk about our wooden rib first. In generally, this is the rib that I would recommend that you start off using just to kind of get the feel of it in the use of it.

Again, because the metal rib can get a little sharp and if you're not careful With that, you know it can give you a little slice. So let's just start off with a little cylinder here and talk about a couple of scenarios. Okay, so we have our standard cylinder here. Well, let's say during the forming process, it gets knocked off thinner, it gets out of whack something happens to it. The wooden route can be very handy in straightening up those walls. When you take this rib flat side to the clay because I'm looking for a straight walled vessel here.

Nice firm grip with that rib leaning towards my right bracing that arm against my leg. And I'm going to leave that rib up against the surface of the vessel and then gently from the inside, I'm going to push that clay out against the rib starting at the base of the piece and working my way up through that throwing motion and we should be able to work out this undulation out of our piece of clay Okay, so let's straighten that up. Now have a nice straight wall again. You can also use this rib for supporting the outside to shaping. I'm going to use this to support the outside basically just an extension my outside hand while pushing out from the inside. And this is going to help to compress the clay and remove some of that moisture.

And that's really one of the key things about using ribs. First we started off working fingertip to fingertip which is good. Then we moved into using our sponge here which is better because we have that extra buffer of moisture between our hands in the clay that allows us to push that clay even farther. But I mentioned this word compression compression before this compression is so important because it strengthens the clay attack. At the clay particles, which allows you to push the clay farther, you can work thinner and create more extreme shapes, as long as the clay is compressed and tight. So again, this is better we have that layer of moisture but we're not necessarily compressing the clay.

As we start to introduce our ribs. Through the forming process, this is going to begin to compress that clay while also removing the moisture, which will allow you again to work thinner with your forms. So bigger to fit fingertip to fingertip is okay, fingertip and sponges better fingertip and been finger sorry, fingertip and rib is even better. And then eventually we're going to start moving into working with rib on rib which is best because that's going to be removing moisture on the inside and outside wall compressing the walls and that's when you're able to really achieve those those really thin walls are there's really exaggerated shapes. But first we need to get comfortable with this So we did some basic shaping on the outside using it as our outside hand to straighten up those walls. We can also use it on the inside.

I'm going to support the outside with my left hand while placing this rib on the inside and simply laid this wall over and that can start to create a nice flared out rim here for this nice little bowl here we're working on. I'm just simply going to lay that over and fine tune that shape. You can see how thin the walls are getting because as I stretched it, those walls are thinning, but using that rib again, it's removing that moisture and compressing the walls. So it allows me to take it a little bit farther. The corners of the ribs can be handed to for some small detail work, maybe some defining lines. Again, supporting the outside with my left, using the rib on the inside.

And just with that one single line There, it has created a separation line between the body and the lip of the piece. So now we know that this separates this decorated decorative area here which perhaps we can do some slip work or cut it away do some scallops and things like that. From the inside of the body, that piece, the more functional zone right in here and it's also going to give an area for the glaze to break over which is going to heighten your surface interest, give you a little more surface variety. Let's talk about a couple more scenarios with our wooden rib and then we'll move in to our metal rib. So up to this point, we use the flat edge on the outside and the rounded edge on the inside. Now let's talk about using that rounded edge on the outside a little bit and use it for creating a desired shape here.

So again, we're starting off with our basic cylinder. Everything starts are soft here. So we have this nice rounded edge here. This can work great for shaping the walls as well perhaps we want a more that hourglass shape referencing that human form. So I'm going to come in with this rounded edge and compress it in the center of the piece while supporting the inside with my left hand. so quickly that starts to clean up that shape a little bit.

And this can be a nice spot for a handle to come off. Clean, a little bit of a concave right there. To sort of fine tune these shapes pretty quickly. And I'm going to come in with this point in this area right here to clean up our foot a little bit. Go and now was taking that just straightforward cylinder and gave us some shape gave us some some answers. Give it a little bit of personality.

Again, we could come in here and get some detail lines if we wanted to with the corners or the edge of our piece. To pick a corner here will give a larger in size groove. Very varying that line quality there, it's creating some interest, some surface interest there. create more of a tactile experience to hold areas for the glaze to break over. Let's talk about our metal grip for a minute. Okay, now, as always, when we're using these reds, make sure you have a nice firm grip on them.

You don't want them getting away from you. Because if they slip out of your hand, again, that's going to distort your shape could alter your form. So you want to watch out for that. Okay, starting off our basic cylinder here. Let's see, maybe we want to turn this into kind of a rounded, like, say an ice cream bowl or small rounded, almost like a bourbon reference cup. Take this metal rib, thumb in the center of the rib, fingers on the outside and bend it to the desired shape that I want the vessel to take.

I'm going to hold this on the outside, rounded side to the clay and 90% of the time, you're going to want to go round and stick to the clay. If you use this flat side, the corners are going to dig in. And sometimes you may choose to do that for design purposes, but most of the time is going to be rounded side to the rounded side to the clay, bending my desired shape. Then I'm simply going to push clay out from the inside against the rib into the shape that I want the clay to take. And while I'm doing this, again, it's removing that moisture is compressing the surface of the vessel and is cleaning it up removing all those throwing lines We'll take this a little bit further. You can see how they can start to really create that nice polished finished, finished surface there.

Remove the moisture from the inside. He's also worked well for cleaning up the rim if you'd like to thin out that rim a little bit. Remember rims are so important, especially when you're talking like a functional cup that you're actually going to be sliding into your mouth say a tumbler something along those lines. We're right now my room may be a little thick. This would be a good thickness if this was a ice cream bowl or a cereal bowl because they have that spoon bouncing around in there. But for drinking out of it, it may be a little thick, it may feel a little uncomfortable.

So you want to be thinking about what this piece is going to be used for. So say I wanted to be able to drink out of this, you wanted to have a little bit of a sharper rib to it. I'm going to brace the inside with my fingers, the outside of my thumb is similar to the position of compressing that rim. But now I'm going to go down with that rib and lay it on the inside. And by thinning that inside, it should slide really comfortably into my mouth and have a very natural feel to it. And soften up those edges.

Okay, and there's a nice, clean, pull. Okay, let's take a look at a couple more scenarios with this. And we'll we'll move on Okay, maybe we'll do something a little bit taller with this last one. Open this up. Again starting off with our basic cylinder shape. Now that we have our cylinder shape established, now we can come back in here and start working it and fine tuning our shape.

Independent on the shape we're going to four we could use this straight edge on the outside and really clean up this outside surface. removing all those throwing lines and straightening up those walls. Or we come in and use this to begin to belly the inside. And to do this, I'm going to be using the rounded side on the inside of the wall. while supporting the outside with a sponge, it's my positioning is going to look something like so when you begin to shape the walls like that. Let me show you an example right here.

So if I were to take this piece the position is going to look something like so. Moving through that shaping process, and again, this is going to help to remove that moisture and compress those walls and allow us to push it a little bit farther and take a little you know, little thinner form. Let me hold this firmly with my hands starting at the base of the piece. Now I'm pushing outward with the rib or bracing the outside with my sponge. slowly moving up shaping the walls. We'll talk more about this technique when we move into the bottles evenly that can begin to shape that piece.

Or perhaps we use it in combination. rounded side on the inside to bellied out, rounded side to the outside to fine tune the shape. Rip, find too much shape, maybe some detail lines at the corner of our rib. Thanks See, these are all pretty straightforward, basic techniques. But again it's taking this piece standard piece and making it unique making it an individual. Clean up the bottom.

Remove the excess clay so we can fine tune our shape to the church trimming process. Remove the excess moisture and we give it a little detail there. Press will then clear it out a little bit and just have some fun with it. But play around with the ribs have some fun with them experiment because they are very handy tools. Then as a ceramicist is pretty much all artists we are really tool junkies we all have 100 brushes and 20 different ribs because they all make different marks and can start to really personalize and make your work unique depending on how you use them.