Pottery Blog - Making Handmade Mugs & Tableware — Handmade Pottery Articles

Living in the 21st century can be a bit hectic. The commute, the kids, the work, the scrolling through endless screens. Sometimes it's nice to just switch off and zone out from the world. Pottery is ideal for this.

There is one job when sat at the wheel - to make something beautiful. This concentration of effort on one task is hard to achieve in many other activities when notifications or other distractions break the calm.

Your favourite mug is possibly one of your most treasured possessions. What exactly is it that makes you love it so much?

In this article I'll try and pin down what I think makes the perfect mug. I'd love to hear about your favourite features, and hopefully I can improve my making in the future.

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...