I spent a few hours in the studio yesterday which meant that today was trimming day. This week I was throwing a bunch of tea caddies that will be coming with me on an upcoming trip to Kyoto. Unfortunately I can’t show them until they are done. But I can show some of the tea bowls that I threw this week and what my wheel and bench look like towards the end of a trimming session.
With my tea bowls, I tend to focus on getting the inside of the bowl perfect during throwing, and on getting the rough shape of the exterior in place. I refine the exterior in trimming, which results in a lot of material being removed. (It all gets recycled!). I use a custom throwing chuck to hold the rim of the bowl, and a @monkeystuff_co spinner to apply pressure through the foot of the bowl so that it can’t move. I use quite a lot of pressure and take relatively large cuts with very sharp trimming tools to quickly get to a finished shape. I begin trimming with a @mudtools Do-All to get the foot roughed in. I then use my beloved @tortugatools tungsten carbide “7” trimmer to refine the shape. And then I use several @diamondcoretools trimmers to shape the foot ring interior.
The short video shows 9 chawan I threw yesterday. (There were 10, but I got a little too aggro trimming one.). I’m experimenting with form here, trying to figure out where to take things next. These will get glazed and fired this week, so hopefully pictures coming next weekend!
We are big fans of smart design—and this potter’s bag from @monkeystuff_co delivers! 💥 Our tools tuck right into the side pockets, making it a perfect match for your studio or travel setup.
Loved meeting the Monkey Stuff crew at NCECA and grabbing a few new goodies. Can’t wait to see more from them! 🐵
#PotteryLife #TortugaTools #MonkeyStuff #CeramicsTools #NCECA2025
Trimming a tea bowl with some of my favorite tools from @mudtools , @diamondcoretools , our own Monkey Stuff trimming spinner and a custom chawan trimming chuck. Love this workflow.
We had a great experience at NCECA in Salt Lake City. So many great people and such amazing inspiration. We will be restocking some of the products that we sold out of soon, and bringing a couple of new things to the website based on feedback that we got from some amazing potters!
