Articles that demonstrate or explain how to use, create or do something related to pottery or ceramics. Learn how to do something new!
How do you make an amazing pot instead of just a ‘good’ pot? Maybe a new pottery decorating technique or tip will help!
Below you will find some amazing tips and techniques that some of the top pottery bloggers posted in the past year. Including carving, resists, glazing, slip and more.
Are you looking for pottery tips, techniques and advice about making pots? You are in the right place!
Read on to see some of the best pottery bloggers on the internet share their tips and advice for making pots.
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.
You can also sign up for the Pottery Making Newsletter to get some great pottery tips every month or two delivered to your inbox.
Below is a small sample of the pottery tips, videos and techniques from the pottery blogs in the past 12 months.
You can recycle clay, or reclaim clay, so it can be used again. Many potters keep their non contaminated (21) clay scraps from trimming, broken greenware, or old throwing slurry (3) to recycle and reuse. As long as clay has not been fired it can be recycled (10, 21). It can be a time consuming process (2), physically demanding and take up a lot of space (14) but it doesn’t have to be an unreasonable amount of work (3). Plus, recycled clay is clay that you don’t have to buy! As the old saying goes, there are about as many ways to recycle clay as there are potters. Many variations are presented below. Find the process that suits your situation the best. Of course, if you have a pugmill, recycling clay can be a lot easier (20).
The most notable hazard with recycling clay is breathing clay dust from dry clay (11). To be safe, wear a good quality respirator mask and eye protection (14).
Mixing a glaze powder with water allows you to apply the glaze to bisque ware quickly and easily. It is a relatively simple process. The main steps, in more detail below, include: measuring water, mixing the glaze powder with the water, sieving, adjusting viscosity or density and letting the glaze sit for a while before it is applied. There are many variations and some people execute these steps in a different order.
First of all, follow the instructions that came with the glaze if you are using a premixed powder. Many commercially prepared glazes can now be purchased as dry powder in 10, 25, or 50lb increments. Generally, dry glaze powder is formulated for dipping and pouring, while premixed liquid glazes are formulated for brushing (3,20). The following instructions assume that you have a glaze in dry powder form which is mixed well and ready to be mixed with water. If you are not using a whole batch of premixed powder make sure it is mixed well before taking part of the powder to mix with water. Some of the glaze ingredients might settle to the bottom of the container during transport (20). There are also many suggestions for keeping the glaze suspended in water or improving brushability. These suggestions include Flocs (7), bentonite (3,11), epsom salt (13), brushing medium (10), CMC (11) and Macaloid (13).
