Lessons with Clay: Step-by-Step Techniques for Colorful Designs in Hand-Thrown and Hand-Built Tableware

In pottery, “patience is a virtue and perseverance is the key that leads you to creative fulfillment,” according to ceramicist Dora in her intro to the craft. Budding potters will learn the basics of hand-building, which doesn’t require a wheel, via projects including a charming rustic bud vase, simple side plates, and an easy pinched bowl. For those who have access to a wheel, more complicated touches are on the table, such as adding a curved-edge base to a bowl. Dora offers clever tips for creating an environmentally sustainable studio—a “slurry” bucket can hold water and clay “accidents” to be reused, for example—and she’s thorough in her notes on clay preparation, suggesting a “cut, slam, and repeat” technique for potters who want to combine different clay types before forming an object. As well, Dora provides tips for glazes (a simple test for whether glaze is food safe: squeeze lemon juice on a finished product—if it doesn’t changed the color of the glaze, it’s good to go) and kilns (“to protect your kiln shelves from glaze accidents, apply a coating of bat wash” made from alumina and silica). This one-stop-shop for potters in the making hits all the marks. (Sept.)