Speedball Plastic Bats

 


As a fairly new potter, I spend a lot of time taking in resources, looking for tools to improve my pieces. The number of hours I've spent watching other potters create beautiful things out of clay might shame some gamers, but I ain't sorry. There are potters who have perfected the technique of throwing on a wheel, and then gently picking the piece up and setting it on a ware board without jostling or misshaping the rim or whatever. I, am not one of those potters. There are also potters who use the smallest amount of water to create beautifully even pots with like 2 pulls. I am not one of those potters. I've also spent a great deal of time watching potters trim out lumps of clay into elaborate bottoms (aka feet). I am definitely not one of those potters!

Instead, I sleuthed on the internets to find these plastic bats from Speedball. These beauties are an asset. Resistant to warping from too much water and sturdy enough for me to pull my pieces off and onto my wheel without causing any drama, even if I loaded what feels like a lot of clay (to me) onto them. I do prefer the 7.5 square size, as I can cram more pots into more places and am not really at a place in my pottery journey where I feel limited by the diameter. These can easily do large mugs or standard bowls with no problems. I also enjoy how smooth the bottoms are when the pots are dry enough to come off. I can often finish pieces with very little trimming, which means fewer pieces back into my reclaim pile. Basically they tick all my boxes and now I just have to ask myself how many bats, are too many bats?



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