308. Making Small Tea/Sake Cups with Hsin-Chuen Lin 林新春 小茶杯/清酒杯示範

Okay, before my demonstration, I have an announcement. This coming Friday and Saturday, December 15 and 16, we have a sale at Sunnyvale Community Center, and you are welcome to come and take a look. And also on Saturday from 11 to 1 p.m., I will do a demo, and I hope you will be there to see the demo. Since this is very small, so I'm just going to use a small amount of clay. For small pieces, usually it's just the fingertips work. You can see that I'm just lifting the clay wall with my fingertips. I usually, for a very small one, I usually use a small rubber rib so that I can bend it. A small one versus the metal one, because the metal one is hard to bend, and also it's very big, so I cannot cover the hole. It's going to be hitting the base, so I use the smaller one. People ask me, what is this? This is a little material. Usually, if you have a bed and the bed is loose, people usually use the material to go underneath the bed so that it creates more friction, so your bed doesn't move. People call it a bed gripper, so your bed will be stable while you're throwing. It's the same material, so you can just cut a portion of it. I got this free from the clay conference, so I don't know if they might sell it. It's Weezy Wig Tools, so you might want to check it out. It's a very good material. You just compress here, wrap around the rim, and it's easy to get your rim smooth. It's a very useful tool for making the rim a little bit nicer. After that, I'm ready to cut it off. I usually put my finger there to draw a small indent, or if you are worried about not having it straight, you can use a wooden knife. You cut a small indent there so that it will help when you are using the string. This is the cutting string. You can insert right there. Insert so you insert it while the wheel is spinning. You can just pull with your right hand. It's very easy to do. The wheel is spinning, let go of your left hand and just pull. Make sure that after you cut it, you can stop the wheel if you are worried about it falling off from the hum. So you can stop the wheel right away. Let's cut. Let me make another one real quick. I squeezed out a small amount of clay. Just focus on the very top. This part is centered versus the other part. The base is not centered, so it doesn't matter. Just focus on here. I'm just using my thumb and finger to pinch it. While I'm pinching it up, I put my finger there to compress the rim. So the rim stays controlled. I first poured it tall and then later I just lightly stretched it. I'm using the rubber ring to make the surface smoother and make the shape look nicer. Pinch up the inside. And again, the final finishing using the chamois. Compress the rim. And again, the cotton string. You don't want to use the string that is too thick. So I use the thinner one. It's easier. After you cut, the surface will be more flat. Versus if you use a thicker one. I just basically tie it here and hold it. And then I insert my string right there, right by the mark. And then let go of my left hand and I pull. And once it's off, I stop the wheel. And I can pick it up easily. So that's the throw of the hump. And then I will wait until it gets the leather hot and then show you how I trim it. After it's dried, I'm ready to trim. I usually use water to stick my little objects on the wheel head. For the little one, I use my No. 2 trimming tool, which is smaller. So all my tools, all the edges have been beveled and sharp. So for the little one here, this part here is very small. So I can use the tip of my trimming tool to cut through. And then I'm just using my stamp to put my name on the foot. This is a very small stamp so it just fits right there. Even the foot is very small. This is the small cup. It could be a tea cup or Chinese tea or a sake cup. It's all one. Thanks for watching.