It is only by checking up one's work in some such way as this that real power can be acquired. The skilled worker can think in the clay and create forms at will upon the moving wheel, but for the beginner to attempt this is like an endeavor to paint pictures before one has learned to draw. Shape after shape should be designed, drawn to scale and thrown to measure; in fact, for elaborate pieces no other course is possible.
It is not possible to finish work to perfection in the operation of throwing. The clay is too soft to handle and for proper finishing the piece must be turned over to get at the bottom. An experienced thrower reduces the final work to a minimum and this, of course, is the ideal plan but even in factory practice every thrown piece is passed on to the turner so that the phrase "thrown and turned" is used as of a single operation, though it, in fact, expresses not only two processes but the work of two men.
The artist-potter must needs, therefore, learn to turn, though this process should not be worked to death as it is liable to be. Many persons in the pride of having produced some sort of a form on the wheel will leave it in the crudest possible condition and trust to the turning tool to remove defects. If the lessons on throwing have been conscientiously carried out, this error will not be committed.
A half dozen cylinders of convenient size should be thrown on separate bats and set aside in a cool place to harden. They must not be dried but should be in the condition known as "leather hard." If thrown one day they will be ready for turning the next morning. Pieces thus hardened are no longer flexible. They can be handled freely and the clay can be easily cut with a knife.
[Illustration: Fig. 19. Turning tools bent and sharpened.]
The equipment for turning consists of a board support, a turning stick and a set of tools. The board is of soft pine, eight or ten inches wide and two feet high and is set upright at the back of the wheel frame opposite the workman. It may be screwed in position if it does not interfere with the throwing, or it may be set in a socket so as to be removed when not in use. Its purpose is to support the end of the turning stick. The stick is an ordinary broomstick in the end of which is a sharpened nail. In use the end of the stick is held in the left hand and the point is pressed into the board at any required height. The right hand, holding the tool, is rested on the stick just as the hand of a painter rests on the mahl-stick.