Pottery lessons

notes of a practicing ceramist

Category Archives: "Lessons"



Pottery: forming the bottom

гончарное дело: формирование дна

We are continuing to disassemble the main stages of work on the potter’s wheel. In this lesson we will learn to form the bottom of the vessel. So, we have a well-centered piece of clay.

Homemade Pottery Wheel (Using Treadmill motor)

Гончарный круг своими руками с мотором от беговой дорожки

There is a wonderful Master Class on making homemade pottery wheel by VertDude. He made it by using the treadmill motor. 

Lace

Лепим из глины. Кружевное сердце

The opening of the Olympic games in Sochi became known all over the world; the Ukraine is still raging; America keeps sticking its nose in everybody else’s business… Our war vehicle is by the window and it does not start… It’s high time to sit by a warm radiator and do something for pleasure)). Today […]

Wonderland – the store of creative goods

Good afternoon dear subscribers, and those who visited our website accidentally (or on purpose:) Today we will look for a store in which we can sell small pots that we made on our potter’s wheel.

Pottery: centering

Гончарное дело. Центровка

Good afternoon, my dear friends… and everybody)). So, we begin to see into the main stages of work on a pottery wheel. Today we will learn centering. It is one of the most difficult stages for those who just begin to practice pottery. It is like brining up kids: you need children to obey and […]

How to prepare clay. Clay washing

As a rule, clay that we can find in the field contains some mechanical admixtures: pebbles, sand and etc. And in most cases you need to get rid from admixtures somehow. If it is relatively large impurities you can strain clay wash through a thin metal sieve. But if there are many small grains (e.g. […]

Hand-made pottery-wheel

Гончарный круг из стиральной машинки своими руками

Finally the day has come for a pottery wheel which we will make with our own hands. And we will make it from an agitator washing machine. The name of it is “Washing machine”; it does not have any name or brand. It only says that it was made in China for a supermarket “Okay”. […]

A fridge magnet. Part two.

Готовые магниты

At this lesson we will continue working at our fridge magnet. At the previous lesson we have learnt to burn ceramic articles, and now we have small relief articles that have been fired.

Burning ceramics

Обжиг керамики

So, our articles have dried well, now it’s time for them to go to the kiln. The first burning (it can the last one) is called biscuit firing (the first firing). You can stack articles on each other when you do this kind of burning, as they are not covered with anything; and the temperature […]

Drying

Сушка глиняных изделий

I can’t wait to start burning our articles! All the more we have the kiln already. But we have to be patient and wait a little until these articles are dry enough properly. Otherwise if there is some moisture in the clay the articles will crack while burning; that would be sad) Usually drying does not […]