Sometimes a great notion
Mar. 11th, 2015 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrSometimes the best ideas are the simplest. Things that make you slap your forehead and say Why didn't I think of that?
I struggled literally years with placing handles. I'd eyeball, I'd measure, I'd attach the lug handles… and they never lined up properly. Always closer on one side of the pot than the other. Pitcher handles ended up twisted to one side or the other of the midline. Teapot handles never lined up with the spout. Drove me nuts.
Then I took a workshop from veteran potter Ellen Currans. She'd been a full-time potter for longer than I'd been alive, and had dozens of clever tips and shortcuts. The one that I use most often is her handle placement guides. She was making handled platters, press-molded from thrift-store platters (using WD-40 as a mold release--another clever notion), thus had to measure and place dozens of handles in an ordinary production run.
So she cut out a circle the diameter of her platter. Folded it in half, and marked where the fold hit the circumference. Flattened it out, folded again rotated about 15°, marked the edges. Made a little handle in the middle from sticky tape. Then all she had to do was drop it on the platter, transfer the marks to the rim, and lift it off again.
Like I said, brilliantly simple.
I've probably got a dozen of them by now, sized from honey-jar top (also used on large pitchers and teapots) up to large-covered casseroles. I make them up on the computer, print them on card stock, cut them out and attach a tab handle from box tape.
And I don't have to squint across the top of the pot anymore.
I struggled literally years with placing handles. I'd eyeball, I'd measure, I'd attach the lug handles… and they never lined up properly. Always closer on one side of the pot than the other. Pitcher handles ended up twisted to one side or the other of the midline. Teapot handles never lined up with the spout. Drove me nuts.
Then I took a workshop from veteran potter Ellen Currans. She'd been a full-time potter for longer than I'd been alive, and had dozens of clever tips and shortcuts. The one that I use most often is her handle placement guides. She was making handled platters, press-molded from thrift-store platters (using WD-40 as a mold release--another clever notion), thus had to measure and place dozens of handles in an ordinary production run.
So she cut out a circle the diameter of her platter. Folded it in half, and marked where the fold hit the circumference. Flattened it out, folded again rotated about 15°, marked the edges. Made a little handle in the middle from sticky tape. Then all she had to do was drop it on the platter, transfer the marks to the rim, and lift it off again.
Like I said, brilliantly simple.
I've probably got a dozen of them by now, sized from honey-jar top (also used on large pitchers and teapots) up to large-covered casseroles. I make them up on the computer, print them on card stock, cut them out and attach a tab handle from box tape.
And I don't have to squint across the top of the pot anymore.