Going back to pottery 101: rolled coils

 Spoiler alert: I’ve never taken a pottery class in hand building, so there’s a whole lotta basics in hand building that just flummox me.... like the beginners skill of making a simple rolled coil. My coils were alway horribly uneven, flat in places, and got really dry really fast.

I own a book on hand building, and it had some great tips on making a coil. Here’s what I learned:

• Use the thickly padded palm of your hand (not the fingers, they make it go thin and flat in parts, thick in others). 
• Roll it in one direction in longer movements, not short back and forth rolls
• Work from center of the coil out to the ends
• If it does get uneven, twist both ends , make it into a twizzler shape, and keep rolling
• Use non absorbent surface to roll so the coil doesn’t dry out while rolling

Use the friggin books that you own, instead of letting them gather dust on the shelf. I had a decent book on handbuilding right under my nose.