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Published — 16 August 2026 ⏭ Florian Gadsby pottery

An Urn For Sarah

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This week I’m taking you through the making of one of my larger urns, made as a commission for Sarah, a longtime follower who I’ve exchanged emails with over the years. I don’t often take on commissions, but occasionally something comes along that feels particularly meaningful, and this was one of those pieces.

The form grew naturally from my existing lidded pots, with its narrow base, wider body and prominent lid giving it an almost figurative, ceremonial quality. Alongside throwing and trimming the urn, I’m also talking about something I’m asked about surprisingly often: chattering, particularly when using tungsten carbide tools. What causes it, why does it happen, and how do I deal with it?

Despite having tens of thousands of hours of trimming behind me, chattering still happens. I’ve learned that rather than trying to eliminate it completely, it’s more useful to understand how to correct it. Tungsten carbide tools do most of my shaping, with steel tools and scrapers used for that final refinement and removing any remaining chatter marks. And if you actually like the texture, I think it can be beautiful when used deliberately.

More than anything, making this urn reminded me that behind all the photographs and videos are real people who have followed along for many years. It was a real honour to make this for Sarah, and I’m very grateful to have been trusted with something so meaningful.
I hope you enjoy the video, and as always, thank you for watching.

⚙️ • How to attach pots onto the wheel: https://youtu.be/mfTZU3lQsLY

⚪️ • How to make and use wadding: https://youtu.be/KCI_LQL3JIs

📚 • You'll find many more guides on how to centre and pull up the walls of clay here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2WJhtTF0eGhQwf8g2LHcom_KrvJpH_JT

📖 • ORDER MY BOOK: https://geni.us/bymyhands

📢 • Find out much more about my work here: https://linktr.ee/floriangadsby

⏱ • Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:49 - Talking about the urn I'm planning on making, (and throwing it)
2:30 - Throwing the lid
5:24 - Trimming the lid to fit the body
6:55 - How to fix a slight wobble in the rim
7:37 - Some information about tungsten carbide trimming tools
10:28 - Trimming the lid to be in-line with the body
13:55 - The infamous chin-trimming technique
17:13 - Packing the electric kiln for a biscuit firing
17:50 - Waxing the urn
18:09 - Glazing the urn
20:05 - Tidying up the glazed surface
22:10 - Wadding the lid for the reduction firing
22:42 - Loading & reduction firing the gas kiln
24:38 - Unpacking the kiln
26:04 - Grinding the lid smooth
27:53 - The finished urn
29:30 - Clean up

*I throw using both a Rohde HMT 500 & 600 potter's wheel and fire using Rohde kilns too, the electric is a TE-200 and the gas kiln is a KG-340.
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Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/floriangadsby/
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@floriangadsby
Website – http://www.floriangadsby.com

A Beautiful Mistake, Did I Make the Right Choice?

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I’ve been on the fence about fixing this coffee dripper.
 
Stylistically, it was my favourite from my second batch of these, it was thrown and trimmed with a sharper funnel, to direct the coffee into the cup this time instead of all over the table like those from my first batch… Likewise, the steps on the outside lend it character and the mossy green glaze coated the vessel in quite a beautiful way, although due to how much this particular glaze moves at top temperatures during the reduction firing, it plugged the drainage hole.
 
The result being perhaps the most useless coffee dripper that has ever been made, so, in this short video I demonstrate how I fix the issue.
 
The key is to keep the area drilled covered in water, this keeps dusts to a minimum and helps the diamond drill-bits to glide more smoothly. I started by piercing a hole right through the centre of the thick pane of glaze, then I carefully, and slowly, worked my way outward, widening then hole until it was almost back to its original width. Lastly, the ground area is polished smooth using very fine wet and dry sandpaper; to remove any sharp scratchiness and finally, the V60 style coffee dripper can be taken for its maiden voyage.
 
I do wonder though, whether I should have kept it as is, as a one-off anomaly, you’ll have to let me know what you think.
 
#v60 #coffee #pottery #filtercoffee #ceramics
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