It all Starts with a Whisper

It’s the blog you all have been waiting for. I have finally assembled a pottery wheel, not a treadle wheel this time but a Shimpo VL Whisper Wheel (which was much easier to assemble). Here is my first view of the wheel as it arrived.




It’s a nice box but as my Dad said it might be tough to work in such a small space, so I opened it to see how much space I had to work with.



And you can imagine my dismay when I saw that it was made of wood just like my treadle wheel was. But it was just a packing layer; needless to say I was relieved.



Now here was the actual wheel and all the bits that came with it.



As you can see in this picture the wheel was very short, almost comically so.



Luckily it came with these leg extensions, so I wouldn’t have to lie down while I was throwing.



And after a little finagling (and at one point realizing that one leg was shorter than the rest) the wheel was finally put together and ready to get to work. But I didn’t have any clay so I couldn’t get to throwing just yet.



So instead I admired the foot peddle, which was quite a nice shape, and sat there listening to how quiet it was (they don’t call it the whisper wheel for nothing you know).

Next I will start setting up my studio so that I will have the space (well as much as you can get out of a one car garage) to actually work in. Here is a picture of our garage and soon to come will be a picture of the studio in this garage.