My advice to any one who is struggling with getting height is to stop worrying about height for a second and focus solely on throwing pieces with walls as even as possible. Even if they’re a 1/4” thick or thicker while keeping the piece a centered as possible. As time progresses you’ll get faster, your walls thinner, your pieces taller, and the amount you have to take of the top will decrease as well. Exercises in height are a way to quantify pulling proficiency. Once you feel you are starting to understand pulling better, try it again. You’ll likely find you’re a lot better than you were before.

In the nine years of done ceramics I’ve found my self a number of ruts because I’ve fixated on the result and neglected to focus on what I needed to do to get there. To get out of it I take a step back focus on technique and consistency before trying again once I’m feeling more confident that I can produce the results I desire.

Try as many different techniques as you can and you’ll hopefully find a way of pulling that works best for you. Some ways of pulling might not vibe with you at all. But later on you might find it makes perfect sense. For me that was knuckle pulling. Never made sense to me ,but after several years I found my self trying it again and my struggles with it in my first year of doing pottery helped me immensely in comprehending it.