A shouldered bottle is one of the harder forms to repeat. The belly, the turn of the shoulder and the neck all have to agree with each other, and each one is thrown at a different moment with wetter, softer clay than the last. Get the shoulder a centimetre too high and the whole pot reads wrong, and you won't be sure why until it's next to the one you made last week.

This rib carries the entire profile as a single curve. Throw your cylinder, open the belly out roughly, then bring the rib in against the turning wall and let it find the line. The belly, the shoulder and the neck arrive together, in the relationship they were drawn in, because they're cut into one piece of the tool. The working edge is bevelled at 45° on both faces, the two chamfers meeting at a single point, so it meets the clay along one defined line rather than a broad flat, compressing as it trues, clearing slurry and throwing rings, and leaving a surface ready for the rim. Both bevels are identical, so there's no right or wrong face to it.

Default Sizes:

▶ Micro – 45mm height
▶ Small – 80mm height
▶ Medium – 115mm height
▶ Large – 150mm height
▶ Extra Large – 185mm height

Backing width will vary depending on size. Use the Custom Rib Designer for adjusting heights in 5mm increments from 30mm to 200mm.

Which Shape Do I Need?

Five slightly different variations to choose from. They share a family resemblance, so a shelf of pots thrown with different ribs from this set still reads as a collection.

▶ Classic – The belly sits at mid-height with an even shoulder above it. The all-rounder: oil bottles, small vases, everyday bottle forms
▶ High Belly – Widest point carried high, so the shoulder turns tight and the form feels lifted and taut
▶ Low Belly – Weight settled low under a long, sweeping shoulder. Grounded and generous; good for squat bottles that want to feel planted
▶ Slim – The same silhouette drawn narrower, with the belly held back. Slender bottles and bud vases that keep the bottle line without the volume
▶ Tall Neck – An extended straight neck above the shoulder. Stem vases, single-flower bud vases, pourers and anything taking a cork or stopper

Need a Different Shape?

If none of these five is quite the bottle you have in your head — a fuller belly, a softer shoulder, a longer neck, a different foot — you can draw it yourself in our Custom Rib Designer and we'll print exactly what you draw.

A Note on Wear

These are working tools, and working tools wear. Clay is abrasive — grogged bodies especially — so the working edge will slowly grind down with use. It's gradual, but it's worth keeping an eye on: a profile rib lives or dies by its curve, and once the shoulder softens off, the form it gives you softens with it. That's the moment to replace it rather than fight it. Rinsing grit off after every session will buy you considerably longer. Replacing a preset shape takes seconds — and if you're replacing a custom rib, you'll need the design file you saved when you drew it, so keep hold of it.

A Note on Performance

We make countless variations of preset rib, and we haven't put every one of them to the test across every clay body and every form — there are simply too many, and potters work in ways we haven't thought of yet. A profile rib takes a few pots to get the feel of, more than a straight one does: how the shoulder comes out depends on how much clay you left there, how firmly you push and how wet the wall is. Give yourself some practice before you judge it.

If you end up with one that genuinely doesn't work for you, get in touch. We'll refund it, or give you store credit towards a different rib — whichever you'd rather. That goes for every preset rib we make. The only ones we can't take back are the ribs you draw yourself in the Custom Rib Designer, since those are made to your own file.

A Note on Our Photos

The images in this listing are AI-generated rather than studio photographs. The rib itself is shown as a basic silhouette — an outline of the profile, not a picture of the finished tool — and the pots alongside it are visualisations of how a piece might look when thrown with that shape. The silhouette gives you the profile accurately at 115mm high, which is the height shown. If you choose a different height, the image won't change with it — look at the diagram on this page instead to see how your rib will actually look. The tool in your hand will also differ from the image in colour, surface finish and small details.

Main Features

☑️ The whole profile in one tool – Belly, shoulder and neck cut as a single curve, so they always agree with each other.
☑️ 4mm thick – Enough body to stay rigid under pressure and sit solidly in the hand.
☑️ 45° double-bevelled edge – Both faces chamfered to meet at a single point, contacting the wall on one clean line rather than a broad flat.
☑️ Identical bevels – No right or wrong face; use whichever side falls to hand.
☑️ Five profiles in the family – Classic, High Belly, Low Belly, Slim and Tall Neck, all drawn from the same underlying form.
☑️ Designed & made in the UK – Modelled and printed by us.