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ne of the easiest, quickest and most economical ways to get into Ceramics and Pottery is by learning about hand building pottery. As with most things, don’t expect to be a pro over night. Remember the successful manipulation of clay comes with patience and practice. I’ll talk about tools and equipment elsewhere, but right now I want you to get excited about being able to create something beautiful from a lump of clay. And you will be extremely thrilled when you actually see the magic you can create from hand building pottery. While hand building pottery does not have the most fluid, flowing, delicate flare that hand thrown and molded pieces do. But it does have its own unique character pieces. One of the first things you need to know is about your options in clay. Hand building pottery does requiring you purchasing some ready made clay. Now if you’re a real dyed in the wool potter you may want to dig your own clay, but let’s not get into that now. I’d just like to get you hand building pottery of something and quickly so you catch the pottery bug and start enjoying yourself.

 

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aw clay in and of itself offers you a variety of options. The standard stoneware clay is buff coloured. There is very dark grey clay that is called stoneware which has flecks of iron throughout. You can buy white earthenware clay that is actually gray before it is fired.   There is also red stoneware. You can get porcelain clay which is the whitest firing of all clays, but is also the most difficult of clays for beginners and therefore not the best choice for hand building pottery.

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enerally speaking the consistency of clay is directly related to the technique to be used. If you are planning to some hand building pottery using the coiling method the more malleable your clay should be. If you plan to use sculpting technique stoneware is a good choice, especially with the variety of subtle colours available, making decoration of colourful paint attractive. Designs for domestic use earthenware is often used and then decorated with slip for simple but effective patterns.

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ow that we’ve talked about clay, clay types and best uses for hand building pottery, let talk about the different ways you can hand build. One method that offers a wide variety end creations is coiling. Another is called Pinching and it is actually the simplest and probably the earliest method used to create vessels and animal forms. Slabbing is great for hand building pottery because it that allows you to use either had or soft clays. You can make a wide variety of decorative items from lidded vessels to window boxes.  The one type of hand building potter I find particular challenging but is also satisfying. This type is not usually molding you might think. It is not the kind you pour but on where you actual take small pieces of different colour in a mold the one by one in a mold. This is one type of hand building pottery technique that actually can be made by any one with average skills.

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here is much to learn and plenty of opportunity to be very creative when hand building pottery. I know I have rushed thought these concepts and description for hand building pottery, but I promise I will cover each of them in more detail in future pages of this website