Making a pinch pot mug is simple, and like anything the more you practice the easier it will become. Once you have mastered the pinching technique you can get creative and find your style. In this article, I will show you my two favorite ways to make a pinch pot mug. This is a…
Making pinch pottery is very tactile. As you pinch your pot you will feel the thickness of the clay between your fingers and thumb. But just how thick should a pinch pot be? Exactly how thick you want your pinch pot to be is a matter of personal choice and taste. However, there are a…
Pinch pots are one of the easiest and fastest ways of hand building pottery. Once you have mastered the basic pinch pot technique you can use it to make a lot of clay projects. So, I thought I’d write a step-by-step guide on how to make a pinch pot. In this article, I start off…
Pottery for beginners can be very exciting. It can also feel a bit overwhelming. It can seem like there is a lot to learn. And like most hobbies, the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. But pottery is really just about making things out of mud! All you really need to…
Coil pottery is a diverse technique that has been adapted to suit the styles of a wide range of ceramic artists. This article takes a look at some famous coil pottery artists and their own individual way of hand-building pottery. You will see that the methods used and the ceramics produced vary widely between each…
When making smooth coil pots, the coiling method is used to construct the pot. However, the coils themselves are smoothed away, rather than left as part of the decorative design of the pot. You can make smooth coil pots either with a template or without. This article will give you a step-by-step guide for each…
If you are reading this article, you probably want to know how to smooth the surface of your pottery. So, you may be surprised to hear that sanding pottery is actually a source of disagreement amongst some potters. The reason for this is that when you sand pottery, you inevitably create clay dust, which contains…
This article is a step-by-step guide on how to make easy coil pots. The basic coil pottery technique is versatile. Once you have got the hang of coiling you use these skills to make all sorts of hand-built pottery. However simple coil pots can in themselves look great, especially if they are well made. So,…
Before it is fired, clay goes through three distinct stages. The first stage is when it is soft, plastic, and workable. The second stage is when it is leather hard. And the third stage is when it is bone dry. This article is all about leather hard clay. So, what is leather hard clay and…
Coil pottery is a great way to hand-build pots. You can make lovely, strong pots with character and individuality using simple coiling methods. This article is a step-by-step guide on how to make coil pots. I will look at 5 different coil pottery techniques so you can experiment and decide which one you enjoy most. …
This article is all about how to make slip for clay. There are different kinds of slip, used for different purposes. And there are some variations in how to make slip for clay depending on how you want to use it. I will cover these differences and outline a step-by-step guide for making different kinds…
I recently made my first pot with a lid on it. I was at pains to make sure the lid was a perfect fit. But I know that clay shrinks when it dries and can warp when it’s fired. And I didn’t want my perfect lidded pot to be ruined. So, before I let it…