Ceramic Arts Daily – Wheel Throwing Video: How to Throw a Lamp with Wiggle Wire Decoration on the Pottery Wheel

Past Potters Council president and potter extraordinaire Nan Rothwell returns to CAD today with another fantabulous video. In this one, she creates a beautiful wheel-thrown base for a lamp and gives it a super fun textured surface with a “wiggle wire.” Not only is the finished product inspiring, but Nan is an excellent teacher and shares some great tips along the way, such as a nifty way to center large amounts of clay. – Jennifer Harnetty, editor.

P.S. Wiggle wires can be made from stretching out the spring from a ball point pen or any other small spring. Experiment with different sizes! Or you can buy wiggly or textured faceting tools at most ceramics suppliers.

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42 Comments on "Wheel Throwing Video: How to Throw a Lamp with Wiggle Wire Decoration on the Pottery Wheel"

Nan February 14, 2012 at 8:38 pm -

Hi Linda, My favorite wiggle wires come from Dirty Girls Clay Tools at Kentucky Mudworks. I think that a number of suppliers sell their tools, or you can buy them online directly from the source. They make a number of different shapes. The ones I use most frequently are their “Baby” and Gap Tooth. You can see examples using both of them at these two Ceramic Arts Daily links – ceramicartsdaily.org/pottery-making-techniques/wheel-throwing-techniques/how-to-make-a-textured-sushi-plate-using-a-wiggle-wire/ and http://ceramicartsdaily.org/pottery-making-techniques/wheel-throwing-techniques/pottery-video-of-the-week-how-to-make-a-wiggle-wire-mug/ Nan
linda February 14, 2012 at 7:08 pm -

I thought this was an especially good demonstration. Smooth and well done. Thank you.. I am looking for a cut off wire with a fine spring wire. I do not know if the wiggle tool is a fine spring wire. I think I have seen you use one of these fine spring type cut off wires. Do you know where I can purchase. one. I had one but cannot put my hands on it.
gaby August 13, 2010 at 7:28 pm -

Very interesting technique with the wire! I’ll try to do something with this. Thanks for share!
susan June 20, 2010 at 1:25 am -

I have been experimenting with faceting and now see how to get the effect I want. I love the texture she created! Can’t wait to try it!
yunpeng April 29, 2010 at 2:32 am -

thank you
Gail April 5, 2010 at 2:56 pm -

Thank you for a great video and wonderful ideas. Your throwing technique is so peaceful and your suggestions for older potters and centering in sections is quite helpful. I so very much enjoyed watching you throw! your post video comments were very helpful and kind to us novice potters
Genevieve April 1, 2010 at 9:42 pm -

This lady is simply GREAT! I love the way she does everything, her explanations and comments and her style. thank you so much. I want to see more of her work.
halema March 31, 2010 at 2:12 am -

great video.Thank you halema
Brigitta March 29, 2010 at 4:48 pm -

Wheel Throwing Video: How to Throw a Lamp with Wiggle Wire Decoration on the Pottery Wheel by Nan Rothwell: Hi, I unfortunately could not get the video to work at all, even after installation a Flashplayer. Also the picture that you usually are supposed to click on to get the video to play, did not have one of those white triangles to click on. Help???! Please. Thanks, Brigitta
Nan March 29, 2010 at 2:40 pm -

Thanks for all the great comments! Some quick responses to questions posed above: Kathleen – I threw standing up for many years and found a couple of things helped for making larger pots. First, I backed my wheel up close to a wall, with just enough room for me to slip into the space. Then when I was centering larger pieces, I could brace my back into the wall and use it to steady things. Second, I learned to center big amounts in sections, as in the lamp video, and also to work on a piece, let it firm up, and then add another ring. (You can see an example of that in the pitcher video on my website.) Karen & Jeff - The Lamp video music is Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola K364. It is available as Collective Commons source material at The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum website – http://www.gardnermuseum.org/music/composer/mozart.asp That’s a great source for music that you can use in public forums without violating copyright laws. Mary – I do my wiggle wire cutting right away, but usually suggest to my students that they set work aside for a little while (without undercutting it) before they try it. The difference being that I can make things more quickly and without adding as much water as they typically use. You need to avoid having the wall be too wet or the slices will stick to it instead of peeling away.
Mary March 29, 2010 at 10:46 am -

Thanks so much, Nan, for a wonderful instructional video. I am wondering if you do the wiring on the wet pot or if you let it dry a little before wiring?
Jeff March 29, 2010 at 8:24 am -

Very good video and I loved the music too… very appropriate choice. What music piece is this? I have the same general complaint as others about potter’s videos. You see a potter throw a nice form and then see no glazed result. Nan is right that the image of the pot is at the beginning which is good. Logically a picture of the finished pot would be at the end of video. The link to a similar finished lamp: http://www.nanrothwellpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/faceted-lamp.jpg
Karen March 28, 2010 at 9:43 pm -

Really liked the video. Will use the technique on functional pots but I LOVED the music!
Suzy March 28, 2010 at 12:16 pm -

Nan! I feel as though I know you after enjoying your throwing video and then touring your studio and online store via your website. The comments you write about each piece make them appropriately personal. Wish I lived closer! Lovely work… -Suzy
Anja March 28, 2010 at 8:24 am -

Thank you for the great video! Anja
Nan March 28, 2010 at 7:25 am -

Hi Claudio, You’re right, of course, that showing that pot in a finished state would be ideal. But we couldn’t include it in the video because my son shot the film for this video over a long weekend and then took it home (500+ miles from here) to produce it. The lamp made during the filming didn’t make it into a firing until several months later and I have neither the equipment nor the expertise to take a photo that could be inserted in the film. I didn’t happen to have a lamp just like it when we were filming, so we opened the video with a similar lamp (faceted with a wiggle wire, but moving down the side without wiggling) and I posted photos of some lamps with similar textures on my website. Thanks everyone for the kind comments! Nan
Kathleen March 27, 2010 at 11:18 pm -

Claudio, if you look at her web site, you’ll see her finished work.
Claudio March 27, 2010 at 7:09 pm -

Same comment as before, WHY DON’T YOU SHOW THE FINISHED POT!!!!!!!!
Robin March 27, 2010 at 3:53 pm -

Really enjoyed all the information that was shared. What a great look for a lamp as well. Thank you for the additional information on your lamp parts supplier and wiring info!
Kathleen March 27, 2010 at 12:31 pm -

The centering piece is significant for me. My wheel is raised so I can throw standing up, but I’m needing to learn alot of techniques differently. I don’t have the ability to brace my arm with my left leg the way I used to. When I tried to center more clay, it was much harder to control it. I’m going to try centering in stages and see if I can do it this way! Thanks again for posting your video! I enjoyed your web site too!
Pamela March 27, 2010 at 9:16 am -

Thank you for making a video that is clear, precise and easy to follow. I’ve always wanted to make a lamp, just haven’t taken the time. Love the design, can’t wait to try this. Will check out your site for the final product. Happy Potting.
Nan March 27, 2010 at 8:31 am -

Hi Sharon, (again) Posted that response just now and then noticed your second question. Salt glaze is a vapor glaze that happens during the firing, not a glaze you can purchase or mix in a bucket. For salt glaze, you make pots in a stoneware clay (I find low-iron ones work best) glaze them on the inside, decorate the outside with colored clay slips, and then load them into a special kiln, putting everything up on salt-resistant wadding. You then take the kiln up to around 2000 degrees and introduce salt. You can do that by dumping it into the firebox or suspending it in water and spraying it in — in either case, you don’t aim directly at the pots. At that temperature, the salt separates into its component elements (sodium and chlorine) and the sodium vapor travels around the kiln, combining with the silica in the surface of the clay, to form a thin glaze. Typically, salt glaze surfaces have a slight orange-peel texture, but not all salt pots do. You can use other sodium-bearing compounds like Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) or Soda Ash instead of salt. Each of them has a different look and responds to different slips and glazes. Vapor glazing requires a special kiln. You can’t salt glaze in an electric kiln, as you need to use a fuel that moves through the kiln (like gas or wood). The fumes are quite corrosive, it’s best to build salt kilns out of high duty or super duty hardbrick. They need to be in a shed or area where there is good ventilation, and we always wear respirators when salting the kiln. (In my firing cycle, salting happens over about three hours, between cones 6-8, then I take the kiln up to about cone 10) Hope that is not a lot more than you really wanted to know about salt glaze! Good potting, Nan
Nan March 27, 2010 at 8:15 am -

Thanks Sharon! Once I am done wiring them, I cover the base with felt. My lamp parts supplier (W N DeSherbinin in Connecticut) sells circles of felt that have adhesive already on them, so it is easy to trim them to the right size and stick them on. I used to glue regular felt on, but found it was really hard to remove if the lamp ever needed rewiring. A couple of people have asked, so I am going to post directions for wiring lamps on my website. It may take a few days to get them up, but eventually they will be on NanRothwellPottery.com… Nan
adi March 27, 2010 at 4:14 am -

great video. will def try it.
Barbara March 27, 2010 at 1:45 am -

Brilliant.
Sharon March 26, 2010 at 11:15 pm -

I was curious how do you finish the bottom once you have wired it? Do you make your own salt glaze or can it be purchased commercially? Thanks!
Barbara March 26, 2010 at 8:35 pm -

Great. I think I’ll give it a try.
Carolyn March 26, 2010 at 6:40 pm -

I’m excited to try your technique and a first lamp. I also do my vases bottom heavy. One reason is to keep the flowers from tipping it over but the most important reason is that I have had 2 cats who loved to eat flowers and their leaves. Sort of a way to cat-proof the vase.
M. A. March 26, 2010 at 5:51 pm -

What a clearly described process…thank you Nan for this. I am encouraged to “stack” clay to throw large amounts of clay. I want to use your method on a raku fired lamp base…!
janet March 26, 2010 at 5:07 pm -

I have been doing pottery for years and i really liked the video very much. Good job i think i’m going to make some myself. Thanks it was awesome!
Jacques March 26, 2010 at 5:05 pm -

SUPER SUPER EXTRA COOL. Will def try this.
Kristin March 26, 2010 at 4:13 pm -

Liked the technique. Thanks for wearing the PFP t-shirt.
Joe March 26, 2010 at 2:48 pm -

Although perhaps it is obvious, you might have mentioned that in the particular application of the lamp base that the wiggle wire facets will cause the light from the lamp to bounce off of these facets that you have created with the texture pattern you have chosen.
Elinor March 26, 2010 at 2:40 pm -

Loved the fact that Nan was wearing a Potters for Peace T-Shirt! Also she knows how to center with body weight – left elbow on left hip bone. Many wheel throwers – and pottery teachers – never get this! And when centering one lump of clay on top of another it helps to clean off all the slip with a metal rib before throwing the second lump on top – and “slap centering” to combine the two before lubricating is very important here. Well done, Nan! Thanks. Elinor Maroney Nicaragua with PFP in 1988
Karen March 26, 2010 at 2:27 pm -

Thank you for the great video;-) I’m learning as I go, look forward to trying this;-)
Nan March 26, 2010 at 2:23 pm -

Thanks for the comments! Two quick responses. First to Gennie — you can see some finished lamps with similar decorative marks on the home page of my website – part way down the page. The round lamp in the middle was done with the same technique and wire size. Second to Kathleen — we have not made a wiring video, but that is a great suggestion. I will post it on my website and on ClayArt if we do. (We make videos when my son Alan comes for a visit and he doesn’t live nearby…) I’m teaching a lamp-making workshop this summer and we are going to cover that part of the process during it. Thanks! Nan
Maggie March 26, 2010 at 2:03 pm -

Thanks very much for a great video. Have been away from pottery a few years and this is just what I needed to inspire me. Merci
Mercedes March 26, 2010 at 2:01 pm -

Great video!… Thanks for sharing it with us.
Tammy March 26, 2010 at 1:50 pm -

This was excellent! I really enjoyed the way she described everything she was doing and gave helpful tips along the way. Went to her website and am having a great time going through her links of “admired potters”.
Richard March 26, 2010 at 1:47 pm -

Your teaching points are excellent. Can’t wait to try this technique.
Kathleen March 26, 2010 at 1:15 pm -

Loved your video and all the great suggestions! Do you have a clip where we can see you wire the lamp and explain the type of parts you use? Thank You!!
Gennie March 26, 2010 at 12:33 pm -

Wish I could have seen the finished lamp.
Fred March 26, 2010 at 12:28 pm -

Thanks! What a wonderful technique. I don’t throw on a wheel these days but I can see applications for the wiggle wire in my hand built projects.
Susan March 26, 2010 at 12:04 pm -

great look! also like the idea of a heavy bottom form for a change. i make my vases a bit bottom heavy also for the same reason…many flowers make it top heavy. thank you.