Recently I went on a visit to a few early childhood centers with my work, at one centre they had lots of children's pottery on display, it was glazed and fired and looked amazing.
Latter I remembered using my granddads pottery wheel as a kid. Thought there must be some free plans to build one on the net somewhere, so the search began and a few hours latter I found these plans for a Portable Pottery Wheel by John Atkeson and with a few modifacations and $20 latter I had a child sized working pottery wheel.
This is my Three year old son having a turn spinning the wheel. |
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First we tried felt pens on paper, it was a good way to get them familiar with kicking the wheel |
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Spin the wheel as fast as you can, then using a pipette squirt some paint. This made for some cool art. |
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We watched some YouTube videos too see how it all works. |
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Then got our hands dirty |
And made some beautiful pots |
Some scaffolding was needed but each pot came out unique. |
Now to find some were to glaze and fire them.
If you would like the final measurements I used please ask.
Ps I used recycled timber for the build and the $20 cost was for the lazy Susan bearing and half of the bolts.
If new materials were used it would cost a lot more.