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Published Mar 1, 2010

Thumbtack Tick Trick! A Great Way to Gauge Thickness When Trimming
Learning to trim pots can be a nerve-wracking endeavor. Trim too little, and your pots are heavy and clunky. Trim too much and you can cut right through a wall. And, for beginners especially, removing a pot from the wheel to check the thickness after you worked hard to get it centered for trimming in the first place is frustrating.

But today we have a fantastic tip that will help you avoid all of the above! In this excerpt from the May 2026 issue of Ceramics Monthly, Tony Ferguson shares how he uses thumbtacks to achieve the correct thickness when trimming pots. –Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

PS. Don't forget to view all the incredible articles, including this year’s Emerging Artists, in the May 2026 issue of Ceramics Monthly. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today!

 

This is a trimming technique I like to introduce to beginning students as they learn to throw and trim. It uses a modified thumbtack to establish a predetermined wall thickness. As clay is trimmed away, the trimming tool will lightly “tick” against the thumbtack head once the desired thickness is reached, providing both an audible and tactile cue.

1 Using a bowl as an example, take a thumbtack and clip the pointy end shorter with pliers or scissors so the remaining shaft matches your desired wall thickness. 2 Insert the thumbtack into the interior wall of the bowl at the area to be trimmed

Using a bowl as an example, take a thumbtack and clip the pointy end shorter with pliers or scissors so the remaining shaft matches your desired wall thickness (1). Insert the thumbtack into the interior wall of the bowl at the area to be trimmed (2). Multiple tacks can be used if you want to check thickness in more than one location.

Continue to trim as usual. When the trimming tool contacts the head of the tack, you’ll feel and hear a subtle tick—signaling that the target thickness has been reached (3). You will also see the head of the tack. Once this happens, remove the tack and compress clay into the hole from both sides of the wall to seal it.

3 When the trimming tool contacts the head of the tack, you’ll feel and hear a subtle tick—signaling that the target thickness has been reached.

The real magic of this trick? It builds confidence in beginners by giving instant feedback and eliminating blind guessing. Pair it with gently tapping the wall to listen to the sound, and students quickly tune their ears and eyes to its thickness. Flipping the pot for a visual check reinforces the feel in their hands and memory. Before long, they’ll throw evenly more consistently from the start, trim less overall, and phase out the tacks entirely as proficiency takes over.

I can’t remember who first taught me this trick. It could have been any one of the many inspirational potters I’ve encountered along my journey in clay. Whoever it was—thank you. 

Follow Tony Ferguson on Instagram @aw_ferg. 

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Topics: Making Clay Tools

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