The elusive 10" cylinder

The elusive 10" cylinder 

2015 was the year I was supposed to be practicing throwing tall - 10" cylinders.   I can throw bowls of many shapes and sizes, and I'm pretty good at throwing platters.  But tall pots - even tall mugs elude me.  Right now I'm lucky if I can get over 7", and in my mind, the sign of a good potter is being able to throw tall - hence my quest.   

This finished pot is about 13" tall - impressive, no?  Well, here's how it happened.  

I started with a lot of clay - about 6 or 7 lbs - and threw a cylinder - my usual of about 7 1/2".  I left a thick rim thinking that after I opened it up to create a wide, full shoulder, I would cone in and throw a tall, narrow neck.  But when I tried to cone it in, I lost it and had to cut off all the clay I had left to throw the neck. That left me with a 7 1/2" pot - not tall enough.  Grrrrrr.

So, I coiled a neck onto the pot, which gave me the shape I was going for. 

At that point, I liked the contrast between the volume of the shoulder of the pot and the narrowness of the neck, but thought that the pot was too squat - it was bottom heavy and really needed some lift.  So I threw a base/foot and attached it to the bottom of the pot.   That added the lift I wanted and some height - about 2" - 2 1/2" and gave the piece more of a lightness and little more elegance at the bottom of the pot.  

But then the straight neck piece looked way too flimsy and prissy for the rest of the piece.  So I threw a thick rim - about 1" or so tall -  that curved out to balance the foot.

And voila - a 13 1/2" pot - 10 1/2" of which were thrown - OK in pieces but I'll take it ; ).