Handbuilding Techniques

Capturing the Exuberance of Nature in a Wheel Thrown and Altered Pottery Form

Today, Charlie Tefft explains how he throws and alters his “wren” pitchers.

Simple Sets: Making and Using Templates for Uniform Handbuilt Bowls

In today’s post, an excerpt from his book From a Slab of Clay, Daryl Baird explains how to make templates and use them to create slab-built bowls. A great benefit of this is that if you make them with a sturdy material like card stock or laminated paper, you can use them over and over.

How to Improve the Strength of Coil-Built Forms Using an Ancient Technique

In this clip, Joyce Michaud demonstrates the traditional east Asian coil technique, which combines coiling with potter’s wheel concepts. Joyce shows us how to “hand throw” with the grace and fliudity of someone who has been doing this for a long time. During this demonstration, she explains how this method can make work more structurally sound because it compresses and aligns the clay particles with the form, which can then open the doors for trying new and more-challenging forms. Along the way, she passes on great tips such as a cool way to establish a concave foot on a coil-built piece.

Blurring the Line: Larry Elardo’s Slab Coil Pottery

Refining a process often leads the way to artistic and financial success. For Larry Elardo, developing a more effective method for creating his highly-textured containers posed an interesting challenge. By experimenting with different methods, and using engineering tools to assist him, Larry found that handbuilding upside down, combining slab and coil methods, and beveling edges considerably reduced the time he spends making each creation.

Nifty Nests: Using Kitchen Gadgets and Textured Slabs to Create Square(ish) Nesting Bowls

Denver potter Annie Chrietzberg demonstrates her creative technique for making nesting pots from slab-built forms. This step-by-step how-to project illustrates how to use tart tins from a kitchen store as templates, how to cut darts in slabs to make square forms and how to work with textured surfaces to get truly unique dishes.

Handbuilding Video: How to Make a Handbuilt Textured Ceramic Hors D’oeuvres Tray Using Just, Your Hands, a Lump of Clay, a Spring and a Sponge

Today we have a cool little video from Mark Peters. Mark is so good at taking a simple idea and the most basic of tools – a lump of clay, a sponge, and a stretched-out spring – and turning it into a loose, yet elegant piece of pottery. Have a look and then give this one a try!

Pottery Video of the Week: How to Design and Make a Stiff Slab Vase

In today’s video clip, an excerpt from our latest DVD project, Clay Projects and Fundamentals: A Resource for Aspiring Clay Artists and Teachers, Neil Patterson demonstrates a stiff slab vase project. He also gives great tips for working with paper to come up with interesting designs.

Just Desserts: Thrown and Altered Pottery as Delicious as the Treats Inside

You might recall a recent CAD video in which Deb Schwartzkopf demonstrated one of her sweet little dessert bowls. In today’s post, an excerpt from the January/February 2012 Pottery Making Illustrated, Deb expands on that demonstration to show some variations on that form. If you find a little time to experiment, you’ll see that the possibilities are endless with this technique.

Pottery Video of the Week: How to Make Press-Molded Trays Using a Bisque Forming Plate

The Kachelofen: Its Time has Come, Again