Hello world!
Today I started throwing on the wheel after not throwing for years. I had two attempts; the second much better than the first. By the second throw, my hands were covered in mud and my arms were getting a work out.
To throw, you exercise your core and arms. You're steadying your arms by supporting them against your knees and applying pressure with both hands. The left is pressing on the side while the right hand is pressing on the top of the clay. You're bending over the wheel as you're pressing on the clay to form the base. Once the base is formed, you form a hole in the centre with both thumbs. Then, you pull the borders of the pot or vase or bowl up, and apply even pressure from both the inside and outside of the clay as you pull up, being careful to maintain a medium speed on the wheel. When you throw, through the whole process you should maintain a fast-to-medium speed. Do not go too slow. It's also important to keep the clay wet as well.
And as I was bending over the wheel, my hands covered in wet clay, I was thinking about the process, what the clay felt like as it formed under my fingers, and how God calls himself a potter, and us the clay. Jeremiah 18:1-6, "The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go down to the potter's shop, and I will speak to you there.' So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the LORD gave me this message: 'O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand'." And, Isaiah 64:8 says, "And yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand".
I love this so much. God took the time and labor to create each one of us.