How to Make Pottery Cups & Vases

Series Summary

People have been making pottery bowls, figures and other clay ware for centuries. Pottery vessels created to carry food or water date back as far as 10,000 BCE in Japan and North Africa, and were originally hand built and fired in bonfires. The potter's wheel was developed around 6,000 BCE in Mesopotamia and completely revolutionized pottery production. Made from sand, grit, crushed shell or other crushed vessels, pottery clay could be be molded by adding water. Clay bowls, cups, plates and vases are then fired in a kiln to create a permanent change in the clay, increasing strength and hardness.

In this free video series our expert will demonstrate how to make pottery cups and vases. Pottery cylinders can range in size and shape, but are quite useful and beautiful. Our expert will demonstrate how to wedge, center and form clay into cups and vases. You will also learn how to trim the foot and decorate your cup or vase using a variety of pottery techniques. Whether you are just a beginner on the pottery wheel, or a seasoned potter, let our expert give you some great tips and advice on making pottery cups and vases.

Video Transcript

"Today we are going to be talking about how to make a cylinder. Now cylinder can be anything from a tiny little posy vase where you just have a little bit of those tiny jump up in the spring and put them in there. To a very large vase which is somewhere around twelve inches. This type of vase is good for holding sunflowers and then the medium vase which is good for a bouquet of flowers. There are many different things that I do to this shapes by you know making the bottom bowl jot to hold the steam of the flower bedder. This one I make a top square cause it just holds a bouquet nice. Sometimes I would add handles to it or carve feet into it just to make it a little bit more interesting. The little tiny vases I have carved like a zig zag type of line into just to pick that nice glaze and this one I put some texture into it. Now these cylinder are the base of making cups and mugs. So I have a few different mugs and cups here this particular cup is just really nice to hold in your hand for tea or a cold drink and it is decorated with my leaf pattern and it has a ring foot. I will be demonstrating that how to make that type of foot. This one has a nice vine pattern on it and on this I made these lines with a lemon zestier. Carved that in and I will also will be showing that at some point during my series today. This one is with a glaze pencil and copper oxide and the edge I'm just rolling the edge which I would show you how to do that very simple for a mug. Then I get to the fancier tea cup which has a handle that is pulled on it that is pulled very differently then these handles. I make a foot that is very detailed and it picks up the glazes and the glazes kind of run throw the details. So there are many different things you can make with cylinders but this is about where we are going to work to on just the mugs and the cups I should say mugs, cups, and vases. "