Just an fyi, if your planning on using amaco kiln Ice (I can’t speak for the others but this is snow drift) it will turn brown if exposed to dark materials like dirt. I didn’t rub anything on the outside this must have happened with the runoff when watering it. It’s a shame cause now it just looks constantly dirty.
Possibly if you put a dark underglaze below it, it would help with this effect but just a warning to anyone planning on using, espc for planters and such

Hi there,

I work at a pottery studio that does one-time wheel throwing classes. Many of my students will come in with acrylics. Most students are beginners.

I would say I typically have at least one student with long nails in every class that I teach.

Personally, I keep my nails short when throwing, but I've been thinking about growing them out or getting acrylics so that I can better understand and help these students when they come in.

Do you guys have any specific tips for throwing with long nails? I'll typically have them cover their nails with a small sponge when raising walls, and use a wooden knife when opening holes, but I'm just curious if there are better ways.

Thank you :-)

10” round base, 9” tall approx 20 lbs. I have no idea what this is. Any opinions?

Hello everyone! I’m a fellow potter from Spain, and I’m setting up my own home pottery studio.
I’d love to have a sturdy wedging/work table, but most of the advice I’ve come across involves people building their own, and timber isn’t as readily available or affordable here in Spain 😢.
I’ve considered getting a workbench, but I’m not sure how stable it would be for wedging clay. I’ve also thought about using an IKEA table, but I’m worried it might wobble too much.
One of the things I find most frustrating is wedging on a table that shakes, so I’d really like to avoid that!
I’d be using a medium-sized plaster board for wedging.
Has anyone tried using a workbench or an IKEA table for this? I’d really appreciate any recommendations or advice!
Thanks so much!

I'm new to this stuff, and I made a baking dish that's in the drying phase. But I didn't add a foot. Is this gonna cause problems?

I'm nervous about functional use. I have another piece where I left the bottom flat and unglazed, and now it forms mold on wherever surface I place it.

The baking dish is super dry, but I still tried to scrape off some of the bottom to create a semblance of a foot, but I don't think it's the needed depth. At this point, I don't think I can glaze the bottom without it fusing to the kiln. How can I ensure proper vitrification? I don't want to have the mold problem.

Thanks!

Nothing quite like a glazing experiment gone wrong to keep you humble!

Thank to everyone who weighed in on my first post https://www.reddit.com/r/Pottery/comments/1wlo32w/comment/pecngem/?screen_view_count=2

I was going for a floating iron type of glaze, green with red undertones. I made my own glaze, since buying commercial would have cost so much. This did not turn out how I was hoping....but I think I like it. What do you all think??

It’s the holiday season, which means everyone is asking me for gift ideas! i was thinking of asking for some upgraded tools (right now I’m working with a beginners kit). what tools are worth it, and what tools are fine as cheap options?

I am a hobby artist who took a beginners pottery course with my fiancé, we both enjoyed it so much! I was a terrible thrower but managed to somehow throw this basic shape. I spent several hours etching into it with a round ball tool once it was leather hard.

I just wanted to show it off, it’s the culmination of my skills but both of us have agreed we’d love to get a wheel to continue learning.

Some recent work from my last glaze fire. I'm really happy with how these turned out. The white really needs to be touched to get the full experience; it's a satin surface that's like textural ASMR for me.

Recipes for the glazes are here: https://glazy.org/cubist_wombat/recipes

The temmoku especially is why I decided to get my own kiln: the crystal formation depends on a looooong downfire (also shown in the recipes on Glazy)

I have been working on improving the realism of my sculptures for about 2 years... if anyone else out there sculps little animals, you will know the struggle of toes... 😅 What color(s) should I glaze him?

What tool bag would you recommend for transporting carving tools, brushes, bats etc to the pottery studio?

I work at a studio once a week and then bring hand building things home to work on and could do with a bag to carry my tools in!

I've looked at soola bags, but wondering what everyone else is using/recommending!

I'm starting to feel like I have really dialed in my decorating process. I have been using engobe with a manganese inlayed outline, then glazing with stroke and coat. This particular mug has Coyote Oasis for the interior/handle.

The process is time consuming but I have been loving the results.

I can’t wait until it’s fired

A few people here asked how I make and attach handles on my mugs. I took some pictures today. I'm sorry it's not in video format--I am not very good at "content". Hopefully this is helpful to someone.

I pull my handles pretty conventionally starting with a sort of carrot-like shape made by throwing a ball against the wedging table and rotating it. The rib for scale is the standard wood rib from the student kits. I didn't have any bananas.

I let them dry over the edge of my table until they are just firm enough I can handle them without distorting but soft enough that I can still easily bend them. I was in a hurry today so I hit them with a heat gun for a couple minutes.

For each cup I make two little "lugs" that will be my attachment points. I use very soft clay for this.

My cups are about leather hard, maybe just a bit softer. I score and slip the spots where I want to attach the handle.

I then smoosh the little lugs on.

And compress them

I then cut the handle to the desired length, which is for these large cups about the length of my index finger.

I shape the handle. There will be room for adjustment later. They are still pretty soft at this point.

I dip the ends of the handle in slip and roughly attach them to the lugs.

I then smooth and compress the pieces of the lugs around the ends of the handle to get the look and feel I want. This is the part that takes the most patience and practice.

I'll let them rest/dry for a little bit, ideally covered if I have time, and will then again address the surfaces when they are a little firmer. At that point I sign the pot and set it to dry.

I love carving, but am not much of a project planner. Most of my carvings are basically intricate doodles on porcelain. I started this dragon vase project during the pandemic, but wasn’t thinking about the obvious difficulties in glazing such finely carved lines using our cone 10 studio glazes. The carving itself took several days and I hated the idea of ruining it. So it sat, bisqued and gathering dust on my living room shelf for 4 years until I became comfortable with inevitable failure. But it worked out beyond my wildest dreams!! Shoutout to Aftosa wax…our studio wax would absolutely not have resisted getting Shig black all over the dragon’s body during dipping.

This came out of the kiln this week. It's a sculpture in two pieces, both handbuilt. I am so pleased with how it turned out and super pleased that I even know how I did it.

Fist time posting my work. This is made from a speckled white Ermine and a New Mexico Chocolate, clear coat on top. I'm very pleased with the result, just wanted to share ❤️

Hi everyone,
I've been doing pottery for a while, but I'm not that experienced regarding glazing yet. I've only used TerraColor dipping glazes so far, because that's what we use in my community pottery studio. But I love combining different glazes for cool effects + trying out new combinations.

Now I'm looking into buying some Mayco glazes because I keep seeing beautiful pieces with their glazes online.

Now my questions are:
1) Is there anything I have to be careful with if I'm combining glazes from different brands? (apart from the glazes having the same firing temperature + being careful with running glazes)
2) Any tips for combining dipping glazes and brush-on glazes?
3) Does anyone know beautiful TerraColor x Mayco combinations?
4) Which Mayco Glazes can you recommend for beginners? (We fire at 1250°C in our studio)

Thank you!! <3

(More info in case that helps: My favourite TerraColor glazes are Jupiter, Borit, Dromedar, Romantika, Wasabi, etc. And I'm looking into buying some brown/beige/green/red-ish Mayco colors. I like earthy tones. So maybe Tiger's Eye, Honey Flux, Winter Wood, Birch, Black Walnut, Root Beer, Speckled Toad, or something)

My pottery buds and I did a pit firing this weekend and got some incredible colors.

These are porcelain wrapped with a copper wire dish scrubber. I used regular non-iodized table salt and Himalayan pink salt on them both, but got way more reaction out of the one on the right.

Thanks very much to the mods for allowing me to share this experience

Back in April 2025, I received a message from a high-school pottery teacher in Alaska asking if the pottery centering aids that I design might help one of her students, Isaiah. Katie explained that Isaiah is quadriplegic and has no functional use of his arms or legs so he uses tools held in his mouth to work with clay. She had made him a hard rib taped to a stick which he found he could work with to a limited degree. It gave him a starting point, and he was keen to explore what else might be possible. 

You can probably imagine my intrigue so I wanted to know more.  Photos and videos followed and I felt compelled to suggest and make some custom-made tools that would give him greater control over the clay. 

A collaboration between us began. Isaiah has an engineering mind. His feedback and designs are communicated between us to this day, from Alaska to the UK as though there was no distance between us.  We test, adjust, and try again. Katie sends me videos, I send tools back. Isaiah learns quickly and ideas flow. Katie’s creativity added another layer. She built a PVC pipe armature that could move around the wheel and act as the inside or outside support of a pot. It was a homemade setup but incredibly clever, and it lined up with something I teach all the time: it’s the outside pressure point that really does most of the pull. So far the tools have given him a way to shape clay in a way that matches his ideas. 

An update from Katie in September struck me emotionally.  She explained that some students had previously treated Isaiah almost as though he were invisible. Now they're asking to have lunch with him and treating him like any other teenager. Younger students are even seeking his advice on working with clay. Katie doesn't suggest pottery is the sole reason for these changes, but it has certainly played a part.

From Alaska to Baltimore

The latest wonderful news in Isaiah's pottery journey is that a former president of NCECA encouraged Katie and Isaiah to put their story forward. They've now been selected to give a joint presentation and demonstration at the NCECA conference in Baltimore next March. The American contingent of r/pottery will no doubt know what a big deal this is one of the largest gatherings of potters and educators. Isaiah will demonstrate his pottery techniques, while Katie will talk about their journey, and my tickets are booked too. 

Watching the journey

Katie has put together a video showing Isaiah's early attempts and subsequent progress. I've included it in a blog about our journey, which the moderators have kindly given me permission to share here: https://pottr.co.uk/blogs/news/throwing-possibilities-a-shared-journey-toward-more-accessible-pottery

Thanks so much for reading. I'd be very happy to answer any questions and very interested in others who have come across similar barriers and how you've managed to overcome them.

Thanks again, Darren.