Pottery Blog - Making Handmade Mugs & Tableware

I started making pots around five years ago, mainly just in the evenings and in the last few months I’ve started working one full day a week in my studio. There are many ways to sell pottery offline from craft fairs to galleries and gift shops. I’m just going to talk about online selling here as that’s where I have the most experience.

I've been asked about providing pottery for people to paint a couple of times so thought I'd write about it. I'm not that keen to do this, mainly because I'm not sure bisque fired pots would make it through the post safely. My method of making pottery is to throw the item on the wheel, then bisque fire it. After the bisque fire it is ready to glaze. At this stage it is very pourous and fragile. Not at all suitable for holding liquids or to be used for anything functional. I'm not sure what people mean by 'painting' ceramics....

Pottery for beginners can be intimidating, there are so many technical terms and strange looking tools. I was introduced to the craft through my wife, so I got a bit of a head start. Hopefully this page will help someone who is getting started with pottery. You can follow this link to see some of my finished handmade mugs. Before going out and buying anything, see if there are any evening classes or courses in your area. If you get the bug for mud, then you can start thinking about getting your own setup. For those of you in the...

It can be very satisfying eating from wheel thrown pottery plates. I thought I’d write about how use a pottery wheel for beginners who are interested in making plates. Many moons ago I wrote an article about why potters don’t like making plates. Whenever I look at the catalogues of other potters they rarely have plates in their range – such a shame! I have avoided making plates for many of the reasons in the article. In the end I just couldn’t resist making a set for us to eat our dinners from. It turns out I actually quite like...

What do kiln vents do? Kiln vents come in various forms, they aim to remove air from the kiln atmosphere. Some types of ventilation are attached over the top of the kiln, others suck air out of the bottom. Electric kilns are more likely to need ventilation as the radiant heat doesn’t move much air naturally. Do you need kiln ventilation? There are two main reasons for using a ventilation system. Remove unwanted gases from the studio space. During a firing there are gases released that can be harmful to breathe. By using a vent many of these can be...

Here are a few of my favourite pottery channels on YouTube. As a self taught potter, the internet has provided a lot of very useful information to help me learn. I also just enjoy watching other potters throw, and probably spend way too much time staring at the screen, mesmerised by spinning clay. The 5 Best Pottery Videos Simon Leach is without doubt my favourite YouTube channel full stop! I suppose his meandering English sensibilities won’t appeal to everyone. In fact if you are after fast, well edited throwing tutorials this is probably not your best option. If you do...

So what is stoneware pottery? Pottery can be made from many different types of clay, they are often broadly categorised as earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. Earthenware clay matures at a relatively low temperature range from 1060°C to 1154°C. Stoneware clay matures at the middle temperature range from 1140°C to 1280°C . Porcelain matures at the highest temperature range around 1220°C to 1300°C. These are only guide temperature ranges, there are hundreds of different types of clay available to buy for producing ceramics with. They all mature at their own specific temperature. Earthenware is often discarded as an option for potters...