Throwing Off the Hump: An Advanced Pottery Technique

Once you're feeling confident with centering and throwing individual pieces, there's another technique that's well worth experimenting with: throwing off the hump.

I've been throwing off the hump for quite some time now, and it's become a really useful part of how I work. I originally learnt the technique by watching potters on YouTube, then sitting down at the wheel and trying it myself — quite a few times!

It's a slightly more advanced technique, but once you get the hang of it, it opens up a completely different way of working on the wheel.

What Is Throwing Off the Hump?

Instead of weighing out and centering an individual ball of clay for every pot, throwing off the hump starts with one larger amount of clay centered on the wheel.

You then work with just the clay at the very top of that larger mass, centering enough for the piece you want to make, throwing your form, cutting it away and then moving straight onto the next one.

This means you can make a large number of smaller pieces without stopping to weigh, wedge and centre a new ball of clay every single time.

It's fast, fluid and, once you become comfortable with it, incredibly satisfying.

And another big advantage: it's great for your back!

Because you're working higher up on the wheel, you don't necessarily have to spend quite as much time hunched over the wheel head while working on small forms.

A Different Way of Production Throwing

One of the things I particularly enjoy about throwing off the hump is that it can feel much more free-flowing than traditional production throwing.

If you're trying to make a matching set using individually weighed balls of clay, it can become quite regimented: weigh the clay, centre it, throw the piece, remove it, repeat.

Throwing off the hump gives you a little more freedom.

You can still develop an incredible amount of control and consistency — particularly with practice — but there's also room to work more intuitively. You might make a series of similar cups or bowls without necessarily trying to make every single one identical.

It's a really lovely balance between repetition and spontaneity.

Where Does Throwing Off the Hump Come From?

You'll see variations of throwing off the hump used extensively by potters across East Asia, with long traditions of highly skilled production pottery using this approach.

It's also certainly not limited to one region or tradition. Potters all over the world use variations of the technique today.

In European and Western pottery, you may also see potters working off the hump when making smaller components for larger pieces, such as teapot spouts, lids, knobs and other small forms. It can be an incredibly efficient way to make components where weighing and centering a tiny individual piece of clay each time would be unnecessarily fiddly.

Like most things in pottery, there isn't just one correct way to do it.

Step 1: Centering & Throwing Off the Hump

The first skill to learn is how to centre only the top section of the hump.

This feels quite different from centering a normal ball of clay. You don't necessarily need the entire mass beneath your hands to be perfectly centered. Instead, you're establishing and controlling the relatively small amount of clay at the top that will become your next piece.

From there, you can open the clay, establish your base and throw the form much as you normally would.

The video below is one of the resources I used when I was first learning the technique. Watching it gave me an understanding of what was happening, but actually learning it came from sitting at the wheel and trying it over and over again.

Step 2: Cutting Your Pots Off the Hump

Throwing the piece is only half of the technique. The next challenge is figuring out how to get it off the hump.

There are many different approaches to this, and it's another great example of how pottery techniques can vary enormously between individual potters and pottery traditions.

The next video demonstrates a technique used by a well-known Korean potter for separating freshly thrown pieces from the hump.

It's a fascinating process to watch and quite different from simply running a wire underneath a pot sitting directly on the wheel head.

As with the throwing itself, it can take some practice to understand exactly where and when to make the cut without damaging your piece.

Give It a Try

Throwing off the hump probably isn't something I'd recommend tackling on your very first day at the wheel. Having a good understanding of centering, opening and pulling walls will make learning the technique considerably easier.

But once you're comfortable with those fundamentals, give it a try.

Start with simple, small forms and don't worry too much about making everything identical. The freedom is part of what makes this technique so enjoyable.

Watch how different potters do it, experiment with their techniques and then find the approach that works for you.

That's essentially how I learnt — YouTube, clay, a pottery wheel and quite a lot of trying again.