Tools for Making Clay Pottery by Hand

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, or letting it dry and harden. 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 clay pottery video series, learn how to make handmade pots of different types, specifically a pinch pot and a traditional coil pot. Our expert will give you step-by-step instructions to make your own pottery, including what tools you’ll need, what type of clay to choose, how to form the base of the pot and add coils, smoothing and finishing techniques, and how to add a glaze to the pot at the end. These beginner pottery videos will help you discover the art that people have been practicing since time immemorial.

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Roy Stringfellow for expertvillage.com. Today what we’re going to do is be working on building clay vessels by hand. What we’ll need to begin with is a few pieces of equipment; very simple stuff. First of all, you’re going to need some clay. Secondly, you’re going to need some of these little items, couple boards to put your clay in between, and a rolling pin or something like that can roll the clay out. You’re going to need a few items like clay smoothers, just a couple sticks, some needle point objects to scribe the clay and to cut it, this to put the clay together and bond it with clay slip. A banding wheel and a turntable to help move your clay object around. A couple of little pans; one will be used to forming the clay and the other one just simply for water. Today we’re going to be using a clay extruder to make our coils or our rope; it makes the job a little bit easier than by doing it by hand. I also need a little vinegar, a little bit of water, and I use WD40 to grease the tube on the extruder. Finally, we’re going to be using a clay slip made out of the same clay body that will bond the clay ropes together. At the very end we’re going to use for glazing, and under glaze and then a clear glaze to color the object that we make. Of course, we’ll have to have a brush to help do that. Finally, the thing that we’ll need that makes this all happen will be kiln or some way or some means to fire the object that we’re going to be making. "