Upside Down and Spinning
To trim a pot, you flip it upside down and spin it on the wheel. The challenge: leather-hard clay does not stick to the wheel head the way wet clay does. You need a method to hold the pot firmly in place while the wheel spins, without damaging the rim or distorting the shape.
The Three Main Methods
Method 1: Clay Lugs The traditional approach. You press three or four small balls of soft clay ("lugs") onto the wheel head in a ring, then press the inverted pot snugly against them. The lugs grip the outside wall and hold the pot still.
- Pros: Free, works on any pot, uses only clay you already have.
- Cons: Takes a few minutes to set up, and if the lugs are too soft or too hard, they do not grip well.
Method 2: Coil Ring A variation of lugs: roll a thin coil and press it in a ring on the wheel head. Set the pot inside the coil ring. Works well for bowls and forms with a flared rim.
Method 3: The Giffin Grip A commercial plastic tool that mounts on the wheel head. It has three adjustable arms with rubber grippers that centre and hold the pot mechanically.
- Pros: Fast, reliable, centres the pot automatically.
- Cons: Costs money. Pots with very irregular rims do not always seat well in it.
Method Selection Guide
Pick by context:
- Clay lugs for odd shapes and low-cost flexibility
- Coil ring for broad bowls and flared rims
- Giffin Grip for speed and repeated forms
Using the right hold method reduces setup errors.
Go Deeper
The challenge of holding a spinning workpiece is not unique to pottery; the lathe, one of the oldest machine tools, uses chucks and faceplates to solve the same problem in wood and metalworking. The principle of using soft material to grip without damage echoes across crafts. Bernard Leach and his contemporaries relied entirely on clay lugs, and many studio potters still prefer them for the direct connection they provide to the work.
