Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is a wedging table and it is constructed out of three to four inches of plaster with
a wood frame around it and on top of that plaster is a canvas cover. The reason for
the canvas is that we do not want any chips or plaster entering the moist clay as at a
later stage they will cause a crack in the clay. The table is absorbent and the function
of that is so that the clay will not stick to the table as we are wedging the clay. Wedging
the clay distributes the moisture content throughout the clay evenly and it also removes
any air bubbles in the clay itself. What you can do is pat the clay into a cone shape with
a slightly rounded bottom and then placing it on its side, on the wedging table you are
going to stand directly over the clay and press it down and roll back, press it down
and roll back and by repeating this procedure you are distributing the moisture content
throughout the clay and aligning the clay platelets in the proper direction. If you
are doing it correctly there should be pleats of clay butted up against each other and you
are not overlapping the clay which would introduce more air into the clay so press down, roll
back, press down, roll back. The clay should wind up in the original form, cone shaped
with a slightly rounded bottom.