Tips on Stoneware Pottery

Series Summary

Making pottery is the art of creating earthenware vessels from clay. The process involves shaping a vessel, by hand or with tools, and cooking it in a kiln. Mankind has been making pottery since the times we first learned about fire. Ancient civilizations used pottery for all sorts of things, from storing oil, wine, and other foodstuffs, to holding papyrus scrolls, the organs of dead god-kings, perfumes, and various religious offerings. Because pottery is durable and lasts long after its creator is gone, it has helped us to learn about entire groups of people that we might have otherwise never known; these hand-crafted objects tell stories, not only from their complex structural designs, but also the carefully wrought stories painted on their surfaces, a sort of iconography of a time and place in history.

In this free video clip series this clay expert will be addressing the art of slab pottery using slabs of clay instead of forming it with your hands. She will include several examples of natural hand movements you can use to create life in your pieces as well as several creative ideas for new and interesting designs no one has thought of yet. This will make each piece you make special and unique. You will learn tricks for scoring edges of clay, attaching them and even how to apply handles to a pouring bowl. Take a look at these great videos and go play in the mud!

Video Transcript

"When you're making things in stoneware pottery, like I do, they're actually sturdy enough and temperature sensitive, lack of temperature sensitive enough to be baked in. So one of the items that I make is a casserole. This is something that you can put your stuff into the bottom, put the lid on it in the oven, and then bake it. It's got handles, so it's easy to take out of the oven, and it's a pretty way to display your covered dish at the table. So, in order to do that, we're going to have to do several steps. We're going to have to make the body, the lid, the knob, the handles. There's quite a bit involved in making a casserole. But the first thing we're going to do is make the body. And we're going to start with about, I'll do one that's four pounds, since that's what I've got there. That one's a little bit smaller, but that's okay. So we'll start with a four pound ball of clay, and make the body of the casserole. And we're ready to throw."