The Studio Manager

Shop 14" Wooden Salad Bowl at Amazon

Press-molded Pasta Bowl from a Clay Slab — Pottery Tutorial

September 21, 2023 Matt M-H

Pressing a slab into a woven wood salad bowl is a fun and easy way to make a plate, bowl, or pasta plate.

Using a woven wood salad bowl as a pottery slump mold is a great way to easily make plates, bowls, or pasta plates. This tutorial will cover how to use this technique, including rolling out the slab, cutting, and shaping the pasta plate

For this process, you will need a wooden salad bowl. A plaster form will also work, but do not use plastic or metal bowls as clay will stick to them. This tutorial uses a 14-inch wide wooden bowl which costs around $15, but you can do this technique with any size or shape wooden bowl.

You will also need a canvas or slab mat, and a large rolling pin (or a slab roller).

Shop Solid Maple Rolling Pin at Blick

Shop Slab Mat at Blick

Here’s a video of the process and a full tutorial with pictures is below.

Step 1: Make a Slab

Pounding the wedged clay to begin making a slab.

To make a slab, either use a slab roller and roll out a slab about 3/8 of an inch thick, or roll it by hand as shown here.

To roll a slab by hand, I first start by pounding or punching the wedged clay down on a canvas mat. A double layer of yardsticks is already set up to be ready to roll.

Pounding the clay roughly into a circle.

As I continue pounding it down using the bottom of a fist, I try to work the clay into a roughly circular shape.

Next, I throw the clay from the side at an angle, to stretch and thin the slab even more.

Throwing the slab at an angle to thin and stretch it.

When the clay is about an inch thick, then I will start rolling. I will first roll it evenly with the double layer of yardsticks. Then, to get the slab thinner, I will take away one yardstick on each side and roll the slab again until it is even.

Rolling the slab with a large rolling pin.

Step 2: Cut Slab Using Bowl as Template

Using the woven wood salad bowl as a template to cut a circle of clay.

After preparing your slab, invert the bowl and use it as a template to cut a circular slab. I cut right along the edge of the bowl, but you could cut it bigger if you want to make a taller bowl.

Step 3: Flip Slab and Shape Into the Mold

Preparing to flip the slab and bowl using the canvas.

After cutting your circular slab and removing excess clay, fold up the canvas on top of the bowl and use the canvas to help flip the slab and bowl right side up.

If done correctly, the slab should sit on top of the bowl or begin to drop in to the bowl. It may be a little bit uneven, but this is ok because you are going to cut off extra clay later.

Using the canvas to flip the slab into the bowl.

After flipping the slab, press it gently into the bowl form. You can use a sponge to aid in this process, or even tap the bowl against the table so that the slab drops in against the sides.

Gently forming the slab into the bowl shape. Don’t press too hard or you will make a bunch of fingerprint marks.

To tap the slab into place, hold both sides of the bowl and tap it against the table a few times. The slab will drop in and take on the shape of the wooden bowl.

Step 4: Refine and Smooth

After your slab is in, you can use a sponge or a rib to smooth the inside, make sure everything is even, and make any adjustments to the slab.

Smoothing the inside of the bowl with a sponge.

Step 5: Cut Off Excess Clay and Smooth Rim

After smoothing and organizing the inside of the bowl, you can cut off excess clay and clean the rim. For a plate, cut close to the base. For a pasta plate, leave about an inch for the wall. For a shallow bowl, leave about 2 inches for the wall. But it’s totally up to you! Make a shape that looks good to you.

After cutting off the extra clay, clean and smooth the rim with a sponge.

Step 6: Dry Overnight, then Flip Bowl Out of Mold

Flipping the pasta plate out of the wooden bowl.

After drying a few hours or overnight (you can leave it uncovered) you should be able to flip the pasta plate out of the woven wood bowl. Take care! Leather hard and bone dry ware can be fragile.

Smoothing the rim and removing tool marks.

Then, you can further refine the rim by using a clay shredder tool, a loop tool, or a rib.

After shaping the rim, it’s a good idea to smooth the rim with a damp sponge. But don’t work it so much that you “sand” away the finest particles. Just try to smooth it out.

All done!

The pasta plate immediately after being removed from the kiln.

After cleaning the bowl, you can let it dry fully, bisque fire, and then glaze.

This pasta plate was glazed in a satin white glaze.

Tutorial Recap

If you need a wooden bowl for this process, here are links to a single bowl ($15) or a 4 pack of the 14” bowls. These bowls are actually about 13.5 inches wide, but work great for making a plate that is around 11 to 11.5 inches wide.

You may also need a canvas, slab mat, and large rolling pin. I prefer a solid maple rolling pin.

Shop 14" Wooden Bowl at Amazon

Shop Slab Mat at Blick

Shop 4 Pack of 14" Wooden Bowls at Amazon

Shop Rolling Pin at Blick

You might also enjoy:

Best Small Slab Rollers for Personal Studios

Best Loop Tools for Trimming Pottery

Best Loop Tools for Trimming Pottery

Turn a Bottle into an Oval Flask — Pottery Tutorial

September 20, 2023 Matt M-H

Adding a base to a wheel-thrown bottle that has been altered and shaped into an oval flask.

Turning a bottle into an oval flask is a fun way to modify and personalize your pottery. This tutorial will cover every step of modifying a round bottle to make an oval vessel on the pottery wheel.

Here’s a video of the process and a full tutorial with pictures is below.

Step 1: Center and Open

In this tutorial, four pounds of red stoneware clay was used, but you can vary the amounts based on the size of flask you want to make.

Remember that you will be cutting the form off the base, and then re-attaching a slab base in the new oval shape.

Opening the clay to throw a cylindrical form.

After wedging, join the clay to the wheel head and begin centering. Then, open the mass of clay and organize the clay into a base and walls.

For a bottle, you want a flat bottom, about 1/2 inch from the wheel head. But we will be cutting this off the bottom so the thickness of your base is not of great concern at this point, but you still want the walls to be even.

Pull the walls as high and thin as you can, but keep a good amount of clay at the top as the next step will be collaring in to make the neck.

Step 2: Collar In to Make the Bottle Neck and Mouth

Begin collaring by using wet hands and slowly move the clay in.

After pulling the walls, beging to collar in the top to make the shoulders, neck, and mouth of the pot. This should be done slowly with multiple passes.

Bring the clay in to the desired width of your neck. You will be able to make adjustments later too.

Before putting the finishing touches on the neck and mouth, I clean up the walls as shown in the next step.

Step 3: Cleaning the Walls and Shaping

Removing excess clay from the lower half of the form.

After collaring in the top, I like to do a quick step where I remove some excess clay from the base of the walls. You may throw perfectly thin, but I usually need this trimming to get rid of extra clay on the bottom half. I use a large trimming tool to remove clay.

Shaping the shoulder and neck with a rib.

Then, I use a rib to refine the shape of the neck and shoulder. This will also remove slip, making our next step easier.

Step 4: Removing the Base and Pressing Into an Oval

After throwing and shaping your round bottle, use a needle tool to cut the form from the base. Pick the bottle up and set it aside. Place a rolled-out slab on your work area and return the bottle form. Then, with equal pressure from both sides, press the bottle into an oval form.

Place a slab in your work area, the press the bottle into an oval shape.

Step 5: Adding a Slab Base and Cleaning Up

When you have your bottle top and base shaped just how you want them, score both sides, add slip and join.

It can be helpful to press the slab base up into the wall by running a wooden tool underneath the slab.

Then, cut off excess clay and smooth the base and wall together.

Pressing the base up into the wall with a wooden tool.

Cleaning up the base after removing excess clay.

All done! After cleaning up, it’s time to let your oval flask dry and get it bisque fired. The wide sides of this form can provide a great canvas for decoration. Good luck!

You might also enjoy:

Best Loop Tools for Trimming Pottery

Make a Wide Salad Bowl Pottery Tutorial

June 26, 2023 Matt M-H

Pottery salad bowl being smoothed with a red rubber Mudtools rib on the pottery wheel — The salad bowl form being smoothed with a red Mudtools rib at the end of the throwing process, but before being trimmed and glazed.

A salad bowl is one of my favorite things to make on the pottery wheel. This tutorial will cover every step of making a salad bowl including centering, opening, pulling the walls, trimming, and glazing.

When making this shape, keep in mind that the key to this form is to make the walls more vertical, around a 45 degree angle when pulling up, and then gradually open and lower the walls in the shaping stage.

Here’s a video of the process and a full tutorial with pictures is below.

Step 1: Center and Open

Two hands centering five pounds of brown clay on the pottery wheel with a black splash pan and a red towel draped over a knee — Beginning to center the clay.

In this tutorial, five pounds of brown speckled clay was used, but this style of bowl could be made in any range of weights and clay bodies.

Two hands pushing a cone of clay forward in the centering process on the pottery wheel also known as wedging on the wheel — Pushing forward and down after bringing up a cone of clay.

Recommended weights for this style:
Small bowl — 2 to 4 pounds
“Normal” serving bowl — 4 to 7 pounds
Large bowl — 8 pounds or more.

Thumb pinching open clay on the pottery wheel — The first opening move.

After wedging, join the clay to the wheel head and begin centering.

I usually bring the clay up into a cone and then push it forward and back down at least three times, until the clay feels even, organized, and workable. This process is called “wedging on the wheel” but you should always wedge your clay before joining on the wheel head too!

Two hands overlapping pinching the clay open in the centering process on the pottery wheel — The second opening “pinch” inwards.

Then, open the mass of clay. I first put my right thumb in and squeeze towards my left hand, then I do a second open where I pinch the clay in towards my torso. As this will be a bowl, it’s best to have a curved bottom rather than the flat bottom you would want for a cylinder.

Step 2: Pull Up and Out

Two hands throwing a bowl on the pottery wheel with the right hand knuckle pressed into the clay to start the first pull to thin and raise the walls of the vessel — The first pull using an index finger wrapped around a thumb in a semi-fist position.

After centering and opening the clay, the next step is to pull the clay.

For my first pull, I use the knuckle / side of my index finger with my hand in a fist position. I find this to be stronger and results in less strain on my wrist.

The index finger on the right hand compressing the rim of a bowl being thrown on the pottery wheel. — Remember to ompress the rim after each pull.

Usually, I will make a bowl like this in three to four pulls, but do as many pulls as you need without overly softening the clay. After each pull, it’s important to compress the rim. Also, focus on bring the clay up more than out. In the next step, the bowl will be lowered and widened using a rib.

Step 3: Opening, Shaping, and Lowering the Walls

Beginning to shape and lower the walls with a large rib.

After pulling the walls up and somewhat out, the next step is to shape and lower the walls. You may be happy with a more upright shape, and those can be great bowls! But these photos show how a large rib can be used to gently shape and lower the walls of the bowl into an almost platter-like form.

A large metal rib being used to open and shape the walls of a salad bowl on the pottery wheel — The second pass with the rib, bringing the walls even lower.

You should not be adding any water in this stage and as you are removing slip and starting to dry the bowl a bit, you can be somewhat adventurous in shaping the walls.

A large metal rib being pressed into a clay bowl form on the pottery wheel to turn a bowl into almost a platter like shape — You can make numerous passes to really get the wall the shape that you want. You may need to find or make a rib that is your desired profile for the inside of a bowl.

The best tool for this is a large rib made out of metal, wood, or plastic. In this tutorial, I’m using a homemade metal rib that you can make following this tutorial.

A red plastic rib being used to smooth and shape a bowl on the pottery wheel — The final step is to smooth the inside and remove any throwing marks.

The final step is to really smooth and refine the inside of the bowl (We’ll deal with the outside in the trimming stage.) For this, I use a red Mudtools brand rib, but you can use any flexible rib to compress and smooth the inside of the bowl.

Shop Mudtools rib at Amazon

If you want to watch the centering, opening, pulling, and shaping process in one continuous shot, here’s a video of just that:

Step 4: Trimming

Attaching the leather-hard bowl to a bat for trimming.

Trimming is the time to take care of the bottom of the bottom of the bowl.

First, center the upside down bowl and then anchor it in place with at least 4 lugs of clay.

A hand holding a loop tool beginning to trim the foot ring on a salad bowl being made on the pottery wheel with the other hand holding the bowl steady — Establishing the foot ring.

Next, lightly trim the outside of the foot ring, until you are at the outside diameter that you want. Then, make a shallow cut to establish the inside of the foot ring.

An avocado-shaped loop tool being used to trim the foot of a salad bowl being made on the pottery wheel — Trimming inside the foot ring.

After you have established your foot ring, you can trim clay from the inside of the foot ring. A few taps or gentle “pushes” will help you figure out if the clay is still stiff and therefore a bit too thick. Or, if it has a slight give when you push on it, you have trimmed enough.

The index finger of a left hand tapping the center of a pottery bowl being made on the wheel to test the thickness of the clay while trimming — Testing if the piece has any “give” to see if enough clay has been removed or not.

After trimming the inside of your foot ring, turn your attention to the outside walls. I usually start with a large loop tool and then switch to a detail tool to finish everything.

Beginning to trim the walls of a bowl after trimming the foot ring with a large loop tool — Trimming the walls of the bowl.

To complete the trimming process, lightly smooth the piece with a sponge, and then finish with a flexible rib to remove any trimming marks.

When you are done trimming, cover the bowl with plastic so it will dry slowly. Bowls and wide forms are especially prone to S-cracks that can be caused by uneven drying.

Using a detail loop tool to trim the foot ring of a salad bowl on the pottery wheel — Final detail trimming with a small, detail loop tool.

Light clean up with a sponge of a freshly trimmed clay bowl being made on the pottery wheel — Lightly cleaning / compressing with a damp sponge.

Two hands using a soft red rib to smooth the outside walls of a bowl being made on the pottery wheel — Using a rib to smooth out the bowl and remove any trimming marks.

A recently thrown and trimmed pottery bowl covered in plastic so that it will dry slowly and not crack or warp. — Covering the bowl with plastic wrap for slow drying.

Step 5: Glazing

A hand holding a measuring cup and pouring a white glaze on the inside of a bisque fired salad bowl — Pouring glaze on the inside of the bowl.

After the bisque firing, it’s time for glazing. This bowl was finished in a matte white glaze and because it was made with a speckled clay, the black speckles from the granular manganese add to the glaze.

A hand holding a measuring cup pouring a glaze on the outside of a bisque fired salad bowl — Pouring glaze on the outside of the bowl.

To glaze a pot, first clean it with a wrung-out, damp sponge to remove any dust or debris.

Then, you can paint, dip, or pour glaze. For this bowl, I poured the glaze, first on the inside, then on the outside.

Using a sponge to wipe and clean up the foot ring of a salad bowl after applying the glaze — Cleaning the foot ring with a sponge.

After applying the glaze, use a sponge to clean the footring and you are ready to glaze fire.

All done! After glaze firing, it’s time to enjoy your bowl. There’s nothing better than eating off of hand made bowls and plates!

A wide salad bowl with a white glaze and black speckles being held by two hands after the glaze firing

You might also enjoy:

Make a Pineapple Vase — pottery tutorial inspired by Shozo Michikawa

March 25, 2023 Matt M-H

A Pineapple Vase is a very distinctive style of wheelthrown pottery invented by Japanese potter Shozo Michikawa. You can find Michikawa’s work in galleries and museums worldwide, and there are a number of online videos of Michikawa demonstrating this technique and others.

For this tutorial, I made my own version of the Pineapple Vase, and at the end of the video, I show how I alter it to make it more my own.

The main way to approach this technique is to make a narrow cylinder with a thick wall, around 1 inch or about 2 cm thick. Then, score and alter the sides of the cylinder. Finally, you open the cylinder with one hand, stretching out the decoration into a helix pattern as you open and widen the vase. It’s really fun and worth trying. Check out this video, or keep scrolling for a complete tutorial with pictures.

If you would like to learn more about Shozo Michikawa, check out this catalog of his ceramic art at Amazon.

Make a Pineapple Vase Pottery Tutorial

Step 1: Center, open, and pull

Wedge, center, open, and pull the walls up.

To get started, wedge and center around 8 to 10 lbs of clay. Open and pull the walls. Be sure to keep the walls as thick as possible, around 1 inch thick.

Step 2: Collar In

After raising your walls, collar the cylinder in to make it as narrow as possible.

The more narrow your cylinder, the more the pattern will “travel” when you open it up.

Step 3: Clean Slip From Sides

After collaring in your cylinder, remove any slip from the outside with a rib. This will help you get a crisp design.

Step 4: Add Design

After creating your narrow cylinder and removing slip, it’s time to add your design. Using an angled tool — a sharp metal tool is best — add horizontal lines. If desired, you can undercut these a bit.

Step 5: Cut Vertical Lines

Next, use a needle tool to lightly score vertical lines from top to bottom. Unlike what is shown in this image, keave the rim unscored, or you may have to recompress and join the rim back together.

Step 6: Open

After adding your horizontal design and vertical scoring, work your hand back in to the cylinder and begin to open up. If you can do this with very little water, it’s best, as the added friction will help you twist the design into a helix pattern.

Step 7: Clean Up and Done!

After opening your vessel, the next step is to lightly remove material from the base, cut off, and dry.

Congratulations! You’ve mastered a new technique.

You might also enjoy:

Making a Wide Rim Bowl tutorial

View all How To posts

Make a "Phil" Mug — pottery tutorial

February 25, 2023 Matt M-H

Pottery mug wheelthrown and altered inspired by potter Phil Cornelius — The finished “Phil” mug, a quick and fun style of making a mug on the pottery wheel.

This is a style of handmade mug I learned many years ago from Phil Cornelius at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. Phil was a great potter and artist, and his demos often involved small moves that really highlight the handmade quality of pottery made on the wheel. (One of his popular demos was making a teapot in 5 minutes.)

For this style of mug, which I’m calling the Phil Mug, you throw a cylinder with about one pound of clay and after cleaning it up, give it a slight pull to take it off center. Then cut it off the wheel head, attach a handle, and it is ready for decorating and firing.

The complete steps are below, and here is a video of the entire process:

Making a “Phil” Mug Pottery Tutorial

Step 1: Wedge and Center

One hand beginning to center speckled buff clay on a pottery wheel in a cone shape

Start with one pound of clay. Attach it to the bat or wheelhead, and center.

two hands centering one pound of clay on a pottery wheel with a cone of clay

Step 2: Open and Throw a Cylinder

two hands pulling the walls up of a 1 lb ball of clay on the pottery wheel — Pull the walls.

After getting your clay centered and organized, open the clay and create a flat bottom. It can help to compress the bottom with a wooden rib.

As this mug will be slightly off center, generally the plan is no trimming later. So you want to take care to make your bottom even and about the thickness that you want it.

After getting your bottom set, pull the walls up.

Step 3: Clean Up

Shape and clean the walls with a metal rib.

With this style of mug, it’s important to remove all the slip. After you finish your pulls, use a metal rib to shape and clean up the cylinder.

After finishing the walls, use a wooden knife to remove excess clay at the bottom of the cylinder. You can also give the bottom a small bevel.

cleaning the base of a cylinder on the pottery wheel with a wooden tool — Remove excess clay from the bottom of the cylinder with a wooden knife.

Step 4: Give the Cylinder a Small Pull

pulling the side of 1 pound mug to make it slightly off center, a technique and style inspired by potter Phil Cornelius — Giving the cup a small pull

After throwing and cleaning up your cylinder, leave it attached to the wheelhead. Then, with clean dry hands, give the cylinder a little pull to take it slightly off center.

This is your chance to personalize and really make this process work for the style you want. And if the rim is a bit off center, that’s ok. You can easily work it back into a circle as it is drying.

Step 5: Cut Off

Cutting a 1 pound cylindrical mug off the bat to make a wheel thrown pottery mug — Cut off the cup with one pass of the wire.

After shaping your cup, cut it off the wheel head. Then, you can either leave it on the bat or move it to a board. Because it is a small vessel, I usually just move it to a board.

Step 6: Make and Attach Handle

Next, it’s time to make and attach a handle. I usually do this right away after making the cup. You can do any style—pulled, extruded, etc—but for this style of mug I usually make a quick coil handle.

To make this handle roll out a coil about 1/2 inch thick. Then, slowly tap it downwards on a clean work surface. This is similar to a whip motion, but I think of it as guiding the coil down to flatten it out. Alternate the sides of the coil as you flatten it. Within 3 or 4 taps, you will probably have a nice flattened coil. If these instructions are confusing, be sure to watch the video to see it happen live.

Adding a flattened coil handle to 1 pound pottery mug to make an off center mug inspired by potter Phil Cornelius — Attach the handle.

After making the handle, cut it into the shape that works for you, score the coil and mug, and join with a bit of slip or water. Join the top first, then the bottom.

If your mug goes a bit off center in this process, that’s fine. The fun part with this style of mug is just being loose and letting the clay find the way it wants to be.

Step 7: Clean Up and Done

After attaching the handle, the rim may need a bit of an adjustment or clean up. You can also make adjustments as the mug becomes leather hard.

That’s it! The Phil Mug, inspired by Phil Cornelius, who was a long-time professor of ceramics at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. Enjoy trying out this style.

Here’s the ASMR version of this process with just ambient studio sounds:

You might also enjoy:

View all How To posts

Making a Wide Rim Bowl — pottery tutorial

February 11, 2023 Matt M-H

Putting the finishing touches on the throwing process.

The finished wide rim bowls from this tutorial.

A wide rim bowl is a great project for the pottery wheel, and it’s so fun to use for soup or pasta at home. This tutorial includes images, texts, and videos, so that you can learn how to make them.

What you’ll need:

A pottery wheel and absorbent bats such as Hydrobats
Basic pottery tools including a sponge, rounded ribs, wooden knife, and cut-off wire

Complete tutorial below, but here’s a video of this entire process including making and glazing:

Making a Wide Rim Bowl pottery tutorial

Step 1: Wedge and Center

Start with soft clay and weigh 3 lbs, 12 oz. Then wedge until the clay is homogenized. I usually count to 75 while wedging. Then attach to the wheel head and center.

If your clay is not very soft, try adding a small amount of water to the bag a day or two before you use it.

After centering, open your clay. Be sure to leave enough clay on the bottom so that you can trim a foot.

Step 2: Finish Opening and Begin Shaping

After opening the clay and pulling the walls up, it’s time to switch to shaping the bowl.

For this process, I always clean my hands. You have much more control with dry hands and dry tools.

To start, I first apply the rib to the rim and start shaping that. Then I return to the middle of the pot and refine the inside bowl shape. Finally, I’ll pay special attention to the transition point between the bowl and rim, and make sure the rim is well compressed.

Shaping the inside of the bowl from the center to the rim.

Step 3: Finish Shaping and Clean Up

Check to make sure the rim is compressed.

After getting the shape of the rim and inside of your pot just right, you’ll want to clean up the bottom of your bat with a wooden knife or rib. Then, I double check that the rim is compressed, and I’ll remove the whole bat from the wheel.

If I have time, I’ll let the pot dry for an hour or two, then cover with plastic. Because I use absorbent bats, within a day or two, the bowl will just pop off the bat and be leather hard. Now it’s time to trim.

Step 4: Trimming

Begin by setting the outside of the foot.

When your bowl is leather hard, it’s ready to trim. I like to trim on the dry side of leather hard as you will get more crisp lines, and it’s easier to remove small amounts of clay and let the high speed of the wheel and many rotations do the work for you.

I start by trimming to the line that will be the outside of my foot.

Press gently throughout the trimming process to gauge the thickness of your wall. If there is any “flex,” you have trimmed enough in that area.

Then, I created a line that will be the inside of the foot. After that is set, I will start in the bottom center of the pot and do a number of passes from the center to the inside edge of the foot, removing a small amount of clay each time.

As I’m throwing, I will stop and press gently on the clay. If the wall has any “flex” or “give,” it is about 3/8 of an inch thick and where it needs to be. Doing this kind of testing can really get you locked in on trimming your pot to an even thickness.

Cleaning up throwing marks with a sponge.

After trimming, I’ll run a damp sponge over the pot to remove any trimming marks and clean things up. You can also use a soft, flexible rib for this process.

At this stage, you could also choose to carve or decorate your bowl with slip. On this design, the rim is a great area for that, but you could decorate any part of this form.

After trimming, I put my pots on a board upside down and loosely cover with plastic until they are bone dry. Then, the pots are ready to be bisque fired.

Step 5: Glazing

Cleaning the bisque ware with a damp sponge.

After bisque firing, it’s time to glaze your pot.

Start by cleaning the bisque with a damp sponge to remove any dust, but don’t saturate the ware with water! If needed, you can also clean up any bumps or flaws by sanding. Just be sure to remove any sanding dust before glazing.

Then, you can dip, pour, spray, or brush glaze onto your pot. If I had a large enough bucket for glaze, such as a 10 gallon bucket, I would dip these. But as I have a smaller volume of glaze in my studio, I pour glaze on my pots. While grabbing on to the foot, I rotate the pot and pour glaze evenly over the surface.

After glazing the piece, clean up any drips or flaws and let it air dry. Then it is ready to be glaze fired. In this example, I’m firing to Cone 6 in oxidation in a top-loading electric kiln.

All Done

After the glazing firing, you’re pot is all done! It may need just a quick sanding on the foot ring to make sure it won’t scratch anything.

I love making this shape because the rim offers possibilities for carving and decoration, and the final result stacks nicely and is a great way to showcase food.

Have fun!

You might also enjoy: