A Beginner’s Guide to Making Pottery

Danielle Kurin is a former assistant professor and tenured associate professor of bioarchaeology in the department of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A member of multiple archaeological and anthropological associations, she studies mummies, skulls, and bones to develop new insights into how past societies lived and died. In her leisure time, Danielle Kurin enjoys making pottery, a process that involves several steps.

The first step in creating handmade pottery, or pottery not thrown on a wheel, is deciding what to make. Options include a decorative piece or a functional piece, such as a bowl or plate.

The next step is choosing the method of molding the clay into the shape it will take. The potter can choose to slab the clay, a method in which the clay is rolled, pressed flat, stretched, or cut to create slabs. These can further be cut into shapes, altered, or joined together to form sculptural pieces or vessels.

The potter also can coil the clay. During this process, it can be rolled, cut, or forced out (extruded) into long rope-like coils. These coils are linked (pressed into) to each other to create a ceramic wall or attractive surface designs.

Pinching is the most direct approach to molding clay. The potter develops kinetic awareness of the ceramic’s form through pinching, including the thickness of the piece’s floors and walls.

After forming the clay, place the object into a kiln. Generally, pottery is baked for around 12 hours at about 850 degrees, then left to cool for 48 hours.

Finally, paint the fired pottery with colored glazes and reheat. For this stage, the temperature should be around 2,500 degrees.