Making the Perfect Pottery Tools with the Tools at Hand
Clay tools are a potter's best friend - especially homemade tools designed to be perfect for specific tasks. Just by doing some creative searching, it’s amazing how many useful tools can be gleaned...
View ArticleA Potter Shares the Lessons She has Learned from Tracking Her Hourly Earnings
Wondering how much money you actually make selling pots—after accounting for labor, materials, show fees, marketing, selling, packing, shipping, travel, general paperwork, etc? Mea Rhee tracked and...
View ArticleGuidelines for Using Commercial Stains in Glazes
It’s really pretty hard to find a bad thing to say about commercial stains. They produce brilliant colors, are safe to use, and are very reliable. I suppose the only negative is that they can be...
View ArticleHow to Dress up a Wheel Thrown Bowl with Curves
The cereal bowl selection at my house consists mainly of all of my reject bowls from over the years. It's a motley crew of old, wonky pieces that make me want to reach for the nearest sledgehammer...
View ArticleHandbuilding Nesting Bowls with Hump and Slump Molds
Nesting bowls are a project I have been meaning to take on for a while. I've always wanted to make a set of bowls that fit nicely together like Matryoshka nesting dolls. So, I've been trying to figure...
View ArticleHow to Use Slip Inlay with Wax to Create Thin Lined Decoration on Pottery
Making thin lines on pottery is a challenge with a slip trailer, but there are a couple other options that can get the job done: mishima, slip inlay with wax, and maybe some others. In today's post,...
View ArticleScreen Printing and Mono Printing Techniques on a Simple Handbuilt Plate
Screen printing on pots is definitely a trend these days and one of the main trend setters in this area is Jason Bige Burnett. Jason draws on his background in screen printing and graphic design to...
View ArticleBowl Making Turned Upside-Down
Throwing large bowls has been something that has dogged me for quite some time. There's a certain size bowl that I just cannot seem to get past and while it's ample, it is not necessarily what I would...
View Article3 Cone 6 Glaze Recipes for the Lichen Look
As we all know, glaze defects are not all bad. Ceramic artists can use them to great effect on both pots and sculptures. Most are not safe for surfaces that come in contact with food, but as long as...
View ArticleHow to Press Mold a Large Bowl in Sections
Those of you who are avid CAD readers may remember the work of Belgian artist Ann Van Hoey from a couple of years ago when she won the CAD Peoples Choice Emerging Artist award. I was immediately...
View ArticleSketching in Space: How to Get a Quick Start on Sculpting the Hand
Figure is not an area of ceramics that I have explored much probably because it seems like such an overwhelming endeavor. But watching Melisa Cadell’s new video Figure Sculpting in Clay, made me want...
View ArticleMaking the Perfect Pottery Tools with the Tools at Hand
Clay tools are a potter's best friend - especially homemade tools designed to be perfect for specific tasks. Just by doing some creative searching, it’s amazing how many useful tools can be gleaned...
View ArticleHow to Make a Square Baking Dish and Fill it with Rhubarb Crisp
In my neck of the woods, it's the time of year when rhubarb starts peeking up through the cold ground. So when I saw Sumi von Dassow's article on how to make a baker for rhubarb crisp going into the...
View ArticleGuidelines for Using Commercial Stains in Glazes
It’s really pretty hard to find a bad thing to say about commercial stains. They produce brilliant colors, are safe to use, and are very reliable. I suppose the only negative is that they can be...
View ArticleHow to Dress Up a Tray with Custom Extruded Trim
There's a lot more to the extruder than making strap handles. With a multitude of commercial dies or custom homemade dies, the only limit is the imagination. In today's post, an excerpt from his brand...
View ArticleCoil Building Expressive Ceramic Sculpture
Ceramic sculptor Arthur Gonzalez was trained as a photorealist painter, but grew to dislike the control and predictability of that genre. So it is no surprise that when he discovered ceramics (not...
View ArticleHow to Combine Patterns for Beautiful All-Over Decoration
Inspired by cast glassware and vintage textiles, Colleen McCall decorates her stoneware pots from top to bottom using layers of porcelain slip, underglaze colors, and white, breaking tin glaze. She...
View ArticleTwo Ways to Sculpt Eyes on a Ceramic Figure
When sculpting the human head, Melisa Cadell starts with a thick cylinder so she is able to add volume and life both from the inside and outside. In today’s post, an excerpt from her new video Figure...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....