The wheel reduces the problem
The simulator stores 72 inner and outer radii from foot to rim. It turns that profile around the wheel axis to build the mesh you see. This keeps pointer response fast on laptops and phones.
Material PhysicsThree.js · Viscoplastic process model
Pottery Wheel Simulator
Press, open, pull, and smooth a rotating body of wet clay. Pointer speed, wheel inertia, surface water, and wall geometry now determine how quickly it yields and when it buckles.
Centering the clay on the wheel.
Inside the model
A three-dimensional pot from one profile
Pressed clay has to go somewhere
Squeezing one band redistributes its cross-sectional area into neighbouring bands. Opening the cavity pushes material outward, while pulling upward makes the whole wall taller and thinner.
The same indentation can produce a different response
Pointer speed raises the modeled forming load. Surface water lowers the relative friction coefficient and increases plastic response, while the wheel approaches its target speed with finite inertia.
Thin, tall walls accumulate structural stress
The failure rule combines minimum wall thickness, height-to-width ratio, rotational shear, and surface condition. Crossing the limit produces a volume-preserving axisymmetric buckle, not a full 3D soft-body collapse.
One more perspective
Keep exploring the scale
Every toy changes one assumption. Try another and see what moves.
Educational axisymmetric model. Forming load, friction, and structural stress are relative quantities, not measurements from a force sensor or a calibrated clay body.