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Homemade Kick Wheel

In 1978 I had been taking pottery classes for a number of years, each time wishing I could set up a studio at home. The cost of a potters’ wheel, however, was beyond my budget. My parents, Cecil and Frances Nichols, very kindly volunteered to build one for me.

My dad had been a tool and die maker for 30 years and my mom had been a welder, having learned to weld during World War II and then she continued with her own welding shop. They had the skills and knowledge for putting things together and their creative spirits provided the means. As they researched the mechanics of potters’ wheels and taking pieces of “things lying around the farm” the project gradually took shape.

The heavy kick wheel base is a cast iron wheel from an old horse-drawn mowing machine. The wood on top of it was salvaged from my grandfather’s silo. Under the steel plate that tops the wheel head is an agitator out of an old washing machine…mounted upside down. The wooden seat is a piece of black walnut from my grandfather’s house that burned, and it still shows a bit of charred wood on the bottom. The shelf for tools is from a maple tree growing on the farm. The shaft that turns the whole mechanism rests and turns on a single steel ball only 3/8” in diameter.

I learned to throw on this kick wheel and even though I have since acquired several electric wheels, I treasure the love and generosity that went into its creation.

As a final note I must share a story that illustrates my mom’s genius for improvisation.

When I came to see the finished potters’ wheel it was wonderful…except that there was no drip pan to catch the watery slop clay that accumulates when you throw a pot. My mom said, “I could make one but I don’t have any sheet metal. Let me work on it.”

A couple of weeks later she called and said it was done. When I saw the added drip pan, it was perfect and I asked where she had found the sheet metal. Her response was, “Well, they didn’t need that old 40 mile an hour speed limit sign.”

Rita Nichols