How To Make A Ceramic Bowl By Hand

Many new potters and experienced ones as well want to go bigger and better with bowls but just don t know how to get there.

How to make a ceramic bowl by hand.

You want the sides to be about 1 4 inch thick. Well maybe it s time for you to consider hand building one. To get the walls thinner place one hand on the outside of the bowl and one on the inside. Now you have a bowl but more than likely it is too thick to be a good bowl.

Ceramic mold making opens up endless potential for creative expression. Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools. Or maybe you re not quite accomplished enough at the wheel to do it. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building.

To make a pinch pot one inserts a thumb into a ball of clay and continually pinches the the clay between the thumb and fingers while rotating to thin. If you re making a bowl or plate use a potter s wheel to ensure it s symmetrical. Not only does ceramic mold making enable you to repeat a form over and over again it also makes individual forms lose their preciousness which frees you up to experiment more. However if you re creating a smaller object pinch the clay by hand between your thumb and forefinger to form the shape you require.

If you want to make pottery decide on which item you re going to make before choosing an appropriate clay such as low fire clay.