Pottery wheel

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.

First we tried felt pens on paper,
it was a good way to get them  familiar with kicking the wheel

Spin the wheel as fast as you can, then using a pipette squirt some paint.
This made for some cool art.

We watched some YouTube videos too see how it all works.

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.

Things I've found on Pinterest and other web sites

I've found myself spending to much time on pinterest lately, its just a great source of  inspiration.

Here's my pin board. http://pinterest.com/godfreynz/
Another site I spend a lot of time on is instructables, its a great source of plans to make and build all manner of things.

About me

I'm a Kiwi Bloke who got into early childhood education after spending six months volunteering at Mt Hope, a boarding school/orphanage in Indonesia. I found the experience to be the most rewarding six months of my life. My wife had been working in the ECE industry for some years and when a position opened up at her work I began my new life as a man in a child's world.

My son Silas, The guinea pig for all my inventions.

I'm a maker by nature and love to re-purpose old bits and pieces of wood and household flotsam and jetsam to make things to extend the learning of the children I work with. I love open source technology and design and have been using Linux for many years now. I started this blog to share my experiences, the things I've made and the inspiration I have found elsewhere on the net. I hope it maybe of some use to someone.