[Clayart] Wheel posture
Joseph Herbert via Clayart
My own experience has not been intense as some of yours, but I do have an
opinion (of course).
I think the very first wheel I threw on was a powered kick-wheel with a
tractor type metal seat. Later, I was exposed to wheels with stools,
standup lever treadle (lever? Wheel). And on and on.
At some point I sat on a Lockerbie kick wheel and I noticed the seat bench
tilted toward the wheel and at about the height of the wheel-head. I did
not use that wheel much but the feel of that posture stuck with me and I
wanted to have that all the time.
Since I was traveling for work, I ended doing clay in lots (17) of
different places, most of which had the standard fixed height stools that
non-potters buy for instruction. Did NOT have that feel.
My answer was to purchase a shower seat at a thrift store and carry my own
stool to the various places I threw over the years. I adjusted the legs to
be lower in the front, tilted toward the wheel and at the height of the
wheel head. Since I am relatively tall, when seated at a Shimpo or a Brent
, my thighs were available for arm bracing with my feet on the floor. I
found that posture, tilted with my body mass over the wheel, arms braced on
my legs, and my eye line very close to the center of rotation, comfortable
and advantageous.
Probably because I have never come close to throwing as much as many of you
have, I really don’t have back problems, other than occasional soreness.
Now, I am attending a facility (community college - the same one the long
gone Artimator attended) and they have about half Shimpo adjustable stools
and half standard too-short fixed stools. The students are mostly female
and small. There are exceptions but most of the women start off with one of
those fixed stools so they are depending only on their upper body strength
to do throwing. They have lots of trouble!
I would also note that at only one of the 17 places where I have
participated in clay said much about posture and body positioning as part
of their instruction.
Joe
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