Throwing off the hump

In this article we’ll tell you the benefits of throwing ‘off the hump’. Mainly this method will save you a lot of time.
Picture of Nele Ostyn
Nele Ostyn

Forever learning.

Want to throw a set of small items such as mugs, cups or egg cups? Then you can save yourself a lot of work by learning how to throw them off the hump. Because once you’ve mastered this technique, you can make them much quicker.

  • Take enough clay to create each piece in the set you want to make, and put all of it in one big chunck on your wheel.
  • Create a cone like shape with the clay and then use the top part of that cone to create your first mug, cup or egg cup.
  • Ready? Then cut off the finished piece and use the new top part of the clay to make your next piece.

With this method, called throwing off the hump, you can wedge all the clay at once, instead of having to wedge many small pieces of clay. You also only need to centre the clay once and it’s not even a bit problem if it’s not a 100% centred. (Because you’re only working with the top part). And because you have so much clay ready to use underneath the part that you’re working on, it’s easy to make small corrections by bringing up a little bit of extra clay. Plenty of benefits!

throwing off the hump
throwing off the hump
throwing off the hump

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