potter's wheel

     

In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine use in the shaping of round ceramic wares. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess body from dried wares and for applying incised decoration or rings of colour. Use of the potter's wheel became widespread throughout the Old World, but was unknown in the Pre-Columbian New World, where pottery was hand-made by methods that included coiling and beating.

Trivia about potter's wheel

  • The Sumerians' pottery was the first made on this device
  • Turning tools are used to shape the clay on one of these