Some questions about the pottery wheel?

Question

First...How does spinning a wheel on the pottery wheel create pottery?


2nd. How does speed of the wheel affect building what you are making?


and last...What is the history of the pottery wheel? How was the connection between spinning and making pots made?


Any info. on these questions would be great. OR websites or books that you can reccomend are just as helpful...thanks!

Answer 1

The simplist way to make pots, in terms of minimal equipment, is to push pieces of clay together and smooth them out. This can be tedious and sloppy and it is hard to make all those uneven joints tight.
So the next step is to take the pieces and roll them into uniform rods/coils which are wrapped around and around and then smoothed. Now the seams are horizontal and a force that makes one tighter does the same for the other.
If the piece is built on a stone, it is easy to move it while it is soft, so it can dry and harden.
If the stone is flat on top but has a boss (lump) one the bottom, then it is easy to turn to a new position to get at the work.
It is not much of a step to imagine that if the stone is mounted on an axle, it will be easier to turn and if another wheel is mounted on the bottom, then the feet can turn it, leaving the hands free to work.
Smoothing the coil constructed piece on a turning wheel, it doesn't take much to recognize that a lump of clay might be worked up while spinning instead of rolling and adding all those coils.
A turning wheel almost automatically results in the thickness of the walls being uniform as long as the clay is uniform and the artist is practiced. The risks are that the clay can get too thin and not support its own weight.

Answer 2

google-make one