Before we move on to the wheel, first we need to repair our clay and to repair our clay we need to wedge the clay and you're going to want to do this whether you make your own clay or you're buying pre made clay. Purpose of wedging is threefold. First is going to remove air bubbles which we talked about before there can be air bubbles in cause that will pop off during the firing. air bubbles can also make the clay very difficult or impossible to throw because it's going to bounce your fingers around so we need to work all of those out of the clay body. Secondly, it is going to homogenize the clay is going to create a nice even moisture content all the way through your wedge clay body. Again, even if you're buying pre made pre pug clay, you don't know how long that clay has been sitting on the shelf.

The surface of clay could be drier than that. Internal have that block. And so if you go to move code around the block, go to throw with it and you have a dry spot and a wet spot again, your finger is going to be bouncing around and your vessels going to be out of control rather quickly. The third reason for wedging is that it gets all those clay platelets moving in a circular motion. Right now even with a pre made pug, those pug Mills, those D heirs move all those clay platelets into a straight line. And then when we move to the wheel, we're working in this circular motion.

So if these playlists lined up here and we're moving here, they're going to fight you so by breaking up that rhythm, getting them moving in the right direction, and homogenizing that clay is going to give you a nice workable clay body. Okay, so I have two different colors of clay here. So you can do just to better illustrate the process. Now we're going to cover two wedging techniques during this book. The first one being the rounds head and the second one being the spiral technique. The spiral technique is geared for learning larger pieces of clay.

The Rams Head is a more direct approach and it is what I recommend starting off with to kind of learn the process and then we'll introduce these more advanced techniques as we go. The amount of clay starting off with this first wedging and with the first vessels, we're going to throw you want to grab a piece of clay somewhere around a orange to softball size depending on the size of your hand, something that you can hold comfortably in your hand. You don't want smaller than that you get too small a piece of clay and your hands are going to be fighting with each other but again get too big and it's going to be hard to work with. So right around that grapefruit size softball sizes good size. Okay, so I have my two pieces of clay here. Let me go ahead, throw them together and move into our wedging position.

Again. This first technique is called the Rams hit. Now proper technique, palms should be facing each other main contact point is going to be with the ball of your hand right here, you do not want to grip the clay, just simply hold it here compressed down in a way that is short stroke, roughly around three inches compression down in a way. It should look something like this compression down in a way. And that's all it takes just a short compression, pull it back towards your body, never forward, always back towards your body, stand it up on the head, move your hands up on top of the clay and compressed again, down in a way down in a way. And then once you find that rhythm, you can actually get this rocky motion and move through this fairly quickly.

And you can see already how that plays beginning to wrap around. We'll give it a couple more strokes. I'll show you what you're looking for. Now this is what you're looking for right here. And you can see that clay is starting to work itself around is becoming is becoming homogenized. But this is what will come forward This is why they call it a Rams hitting kind of starts to see that little bit of a ram look to the clay body right there.

Okay, depression down in a way down in a way. Now if you're working with recycled clay, generally you're going to want to give this about anywhere from 35 to 45 strokes. If you're working with a pre pug de Aird clay body as is something that you bought at a ceramics supply store. Then working with a you know, Clay body like that more 20 to 30 strokes should give you a nice workable clay body even if that moisture content and get all those clay platelets broken up. See where it's becoming a pretty unified clay body right here. Again, to give you a view from my position to see what my hands are doing.

Again, that main contact is right here with the ball in my hand. You can see the placement right there, pulling it up on his head on top compressed down in a way down in a way And once you get that rhythm down, you can move through these compressions fairly quickly. You should end up with something looking roughly like so a nice wedged piece of closure see of spirals here on the end where they were wrapping around, working those air bubbles out. Now the only way to tell if you have properly wedged the clay would be to cut that clay wedge ball in half and check it for air bubbles. And we are looking pretty good. Pretty even moisture content.

Everything has been worked together pretty well. Now the two most common mistakes I see with this technique is using too much pressure, too much strength. So again, remember it's just a short three or two to three inch compression. Again, the most most common mistake I see is that over compression Something like that. Again, that's going to begin to flatten that clay out and squish it into a slab. You can see right here how I'm starting to work air actually into the clay body so it is becoming counterproductive.

So again, short compressions if that starts to happen back it up, beat it back into shape. The second most common mistake I see with this is students that their hands begin to float up on top was palm should stay facing each other. Okay, if those palms begin to float up on top, you're wedging looks similar to this. You're essentially rolling out a coil, and again, that's going to be counterproductive. You have to smack it and beat it back into shape and start over. Beginning here, it is important that your clay is properly wedged because if you have those air bubbles again, that's going to bounce your fingers around and make the clay difficult to work with And we should end up with something like that.