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23 Amazing Pottery Tips from A Year of Perusing Pottery Blogs

July 25, 2016 by Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz 16 Comments

23 Pottery Tips

Are you always searching for pottery tips and inspiration? Me to! In fact I regularly scan a few hundred pottery blogs to learn more about pottery. You can see the best stuff that I find each month in the Clay Blog Review.

Below is a small sample of the pottery tips, videos and techniques from the pottery blogs in the past 12 months.

Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking on one of the links, I get a small percent of the sale with no extra cost to you.

1. Advanced Throwing Techniques

Are you looking to build your wheel throwing skills? Or maybe you are just beginning to throw pottery on the wheel? Here are some great ideas to try once you have mastered the basics of wheel throwing.

How To Throw Advanced Shapes – Bottles

Or maybe you want to add some interest to some basic forms?

Bowl Demo : Part Two

2. Ben Carter’s New Book is Fantastic

Speaking of the pottery wheel, get Ben Carter’s new book to accelerate your progress. It is full of great information and pottery tips about throwing on the wheel. You can see a review here:

Mastering the Potter’s Wheel by Ben Carter – Book Review

Or purchase it here.

3. Dart Techniques

Have you ever tried taking out some clay to alter a form? Try your hand at this technique to enhance forms.

Darts For Aesthetics

More is More: A Step-by-Step

4. Pottery is Architecture

A summary of great thoughts from Chris Gustin.

Chris Gustin Workshop at Notre Dame

pottery is architecture

5. Making a Bowl with no Wheel

Don’t have a pottery wheel? Do you want to try hand building with slabs? Linda shows you how to do it.

Making a Drape Bowl

6. Make a Mold on the Wheel

Did you know you can make a mold right on the wheel?

Throwing Molds on the Wheel

throwing molds on the pottery wheel

7. What’s the Volume?

Lori shows us how to start with the desired capacity and figure out the needed dimensions of a mug.

Do the Math

8. Handles!

Handles are tough to master. Lucy, Doug and Barb offer some tips.

10 Practical Considerations when Pulling Handles for Mugs

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lucy Fagella (@lucyfagella)

Thoughts on Handles

Those thrown handles

9. To Bisque or Not to Bisque

That is the question. Luckily, there are a lot of articles about bisque firing.

Great article on bisque

Bye, Bye, Bisque

Resourcefulness – bisque in a raku kiln

10. Firing and Cooling Kilns

Some really great information, firing techniques, and don’t forget the importance of the kiln cooling.

Reducing confusion about Reduction

Saggar Firing in Metal Containers

Tip toeing to the cliff – cooling kilns

11. Tips for Pottery Tools

Take care of those clay tools and keep your studio organized.

How To Sharpen Ribbon-Trim-Sculpting Tools

Go Vertical

Gauges

12. Latex Resist

Latex can be quite useful in the pottery studio.

Latex Resist: A Surface Tool

Liquid Latex For Design and Protection

13. Glaze Application Techniques

Here are a few ideas for applying glazes on pottery.

How to glaze the whole ceramic spoon

Pouring Glaze with a Ladle for Decoration

14. Glaze Recipes

You can never have too many glazes right?

Val Cushing’s Glaze Handouts

BEADS – glaze recipes

Crystalline Glaze with Nickel Blue

Water Color Green (Steven Hill)

Copper Ash Glaze Recipe ( Steven Hill)

Time for a Christmas Eve Toast cone 6 watercolor green

PB (Plastic Bitrox) Liner for Cone 5 Cassius Clay

15. Glaze Tests

So many ingredients and combinations to test, so little time.

Basalt as Colorant in Celadon Glazes

Leaching Test for New Studio Glazes

Triaxial Blend

The quest for a matt grey glaze continues

16. Glaze Tips

Glaze tips from some glaze experts.

You always need a little Chemistry- How’s your Glaze?

Converting a glaze recipe from PARTS to WEIGHT

What is in your store bought glaze or additive?

Complete guide to glazing pottery

17. Kaolin Comparisons

How many types of Kaolin do YOU have?

Kaolin Tests

Campana Clear /Grey tests with variations in kaolin

18. Teach Them Our Language

Carter has a lot of great thoughts. No exception here.

Making our pots understood

19. Cool Projects to Try

Do you need a little break from cranking out pots? Take a look at these ideas.

Pulling Spoons

Tessellating Puzzle

tessellation puzzle

20. Pottery Tips for the Studio

A variety of studio tips.

Making Kiln Stilts

Turn Your Waste into Want

Rehydrating Hard Clay the Easy Way

S-Cracks

Use of Ferric Chloride – Safety Precautions

21. Studio Recipes

Magic Water Rocks My World

Magic Water plus 5 Bonus Recipes

See more / buy at Amazon (affiliate links).

Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water, 128 Fl Oz Bottles (Pack of 6), Total: 768 Fl Oz
Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water, 128 Fl Oz Bottles (Pack of 6), Total: 768 Fl Oz
Penguin Pottery - Sodium Silicate Solution - Deflocculant - 16 oz
Penguin Pottery – Sodium Silicate Solution – Deflocculant – 16 oz
Organic Cotton Plus Soda Ash - 1 Pound
Organic Cotton Plus Soda Ash – 1 Pound

Better Kiln Wash and Wadding Recipe

The Best Kiln Wash

22. Art for Fun AND Profit

We all love tips for making pottery. What about SELLING pottery?

Yes, You Can Make a Living as an Artist

The Art Festival Plan, Part 1

The Art Festival Plan, Part 2

The Art Festival Plan, Part 3

23. How to Start a Pottery Blog

Now that you’ve seen some great pottery blogging, maybe you’re feeling inspired to start your own? I’ve started a series about planning, setting up and growing a pottery blog!

Pottery Blog Series

The Pottery Blog Series – An Introduction to Blogs

Share your own Pottery Tips!

Have YOU learned anything from the pottery blogs lately? Or do you have some pottery tips that are worth sharing? Don’t keep it to yourself! Post a link below.

And be sure to subscribe to the blogs above and get to know some of our fellow pottery bloggers.

Thanks for reading and sharing!

More Great Content

Pottery Tools Guide

A guide to over 70 pottery tools and how they are used.

clay tools for making pottery

Ceramics and Pottery Magazines

Magazines for every potter or ceramic artist.

pottery magazines

13 Tips to Decorate Pottery

Tips and techniques for adding unique surfaces to your pots.

tips to decorate pottery

18 More Pottery Tips

More pottery tips and techniques for making pottery.

more pottery tips

The Best Kiln Wash Recipe

Plenty of options and how to pick.

kiln wash recipe
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Filed Under: Lists, Articles, How To, Links Tagged With: 2016, blogs, ceramic artists, ceramics, clay community, links, making pottery, potters, pottery, pottery blogs, techniques, tips

About Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Brandon is a potter and teacher interested in making websites, videos, and articles about pottery and ceramics. Expert Clay, YouTube, Art by Fuzzy
Patreon + Ko-Fi

Comments

  1. Dawn Whitehand says

    July 26, 2016 at 4:56 am

    Great collection – shall be browsing through these links – thanks 🙂

    Reply
  2. Linda Starr says

    July 26, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    what a great resource, I have learned so much from blogs over the years, and thanks for including my post on making drape bowls

    Reply
  3. Tammy Schoppet says

    July 27, 2016 at 2:17 pm

    Awesome, awesome resources…just bookmarked and will take it bite size pieces so I can absorb all this information! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  4. Beautifullyinspiredlife says

    August 28, 2016 at 11:31 pm

    Thank you so much for this great resource! I have bookmarked and will be back many times over. You have done such a great job of listing all these great blog posts. I would love to learn more about the different types of clay and what they are best suited for.

    Reply
  5. Saartjie Gerber says

    December 27, 2016 at 2:28 pm

    I would like to know more about how to make pottery animals

    Reply
  6. Saartjie Gerber says

    December 27, 2016 at 2:33 pm

    Can’t wait to learn for your books and videos

    Reply
  7. Meredith says

    January 18, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    I am teaching these days along with making pots and tiles- I send my students link to blogs all the time. The one we have used the most is the tip on wetting down that dry out clay. I tried it first with a bag that was very dry. It worked like a charm.

    Reply
  8. Rosalie mcdonald says

    February 22, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    Can I use very very old liquid porcelain

    Reply
  9. Karen says

    March 30, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    Have you ever heard of holy water for potters? I think it helps with attaching handles. What is it made of? Thanks

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Week in Clay: Best of Round-up 7/29/16 - ClayGeek says:
    July 29, 2016 at 9:09 pm

    […] DIY Electric Pottery Wheels (that you can make yourself. Megapost: 23 Pottery Tips from A Year of Reading Pottery Blogs An introduction to slip casting with multi-piece molds Pinched Pitchers- A fundamental potter […]

    Reply
  2. The Week in Clay: Best of Round Up 7/29/16 - ClayGeek says:
    August 11, 2016 at 6:54 pm

    […] DIY Electric Pottery Wheels (that you can make yourself. Megapost: 23 Pottery Tips from A Year of Reading Pottery Blogs An introduction to slip casting with multi-piece molds Pinched Pitchers- A fundamental potter […]

    Reply
  3. Top Pottery Blogs of 2016 - Pottery Making Info says:
    January 16, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    […] you read a blog lately? If not, you may be missing out! About 6 months ago, I shared 23 pottery tips that I discovered on pottery blogs. It was one of the most popular posts on this blog. So go check […]

    Reply
  4. technical tuesday: 23 Pottery Tips from A Year of Reading Pottery Blogs | Musing About Mud says:
    January 18, 2017 at 7:01 pm

    […] week so I’m just gonna send you straight over there rather then wasting your time here : ) brandons36.sg-host.com/23-pottery-tips-reading-pottery-blogs/ blogceramicsclaypottery making infotechnical informationtechnical tuesdaytutorialsvideos […]

    Reply
  5. technical tuesday: 23 Pottery Tips from A Year of Reading Pottery Blogs | Musing About Mud says:
    March 21, 2017 at 12:40 pm

    […] umm there is no way to beat the wonderful compilation of links that the ever amazing Pottery Making Info put together this week so I'm just gonna send you straight over there rather then wasting your time here : ) brandons36.sg-host.com/23-pottery-tips-reading-pottery-blogs/ […]

    Reply
  6. 12 Tips for Making Pots - Pottery Making Info says:
    July 24, 2017 at 2:55 pm

    […] you missed it, you can see the original 23 Pottery Tips article. Hard to believe it’s already a year old! This year there were so many great tips, […]

    Reply
  7. 18 (More) Pottery Tips - Pottery Making Info says:
    November 24, 2017 at 6:46 am

    […] you remember 23 Pottery Tips from A Year of Pottery Blogs? Or recent tips for Making Pots and Decorating Pots? Below you will find 18 more pottery tips […]

    Reply

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