Pottery for beginners. Useful tips

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What do you need for pottery? A great question when the weather turns bad and you urgently need a new hobby. And what could be better than soft clay, which takes over your mood, the warmth of your hands and turns from an unsightly piece into a beautiful dish? – Nothing!

So, to do pottery, first of all, you need clay. We use white and red clay, but it is not easy to find it in small quantities. In addition, you need a potter’s wheel. There are authentic pottery kick wheels and more modern electric pottery wheels. It is much easier to work on an electric wheel, because you do not need to turn it with your foot all the time. In our studio, we usually use an electric wheel, but at individual pottery master classes you can also try your hand at an authentic kick wheel.

Pottery for beginners

How to choose clay for modeling and pottery?

At first glance, any clay is suitable for pottery. But in practice it is not like that at all!

In order for the first modeling experience to be successful, one must understand the physical properties of clay. Artists have such a term – «the work is not in the material». This means that the work was performed in violation of the technical or physical characteristics of the material. What does this mean in practice? – For example, if you make a very thin plate from clay, it will crack when it dries. Nothing can be done about it. This is pure physics. Moisture evaporates, the pottery becomes ultra-thin and cracks appear on it, which become much larger during kilning. The second example: if the clay is not well kneaded, then air will remain in it, which will expand when the ceramics are heated in the oven and tear the pottery into pieces. Unfortunately, this happens even with professionals.

Let’s understand the types of clay with us. There are several main types of pottery clay:

  • for earthenware products;
  • for semi-porcelain products;
  • for facade ceramics;
  • for decorative and artistic ceramics.

Pottery for beginners

In the context of master classes on pottery, we are interested in the last one. It is soft, easy to work with, you can sculpt with your hands or shape products on a potter’s wheel. Unlike it, clay for semi-porcelain products is less plastic and denser. Clay for decorative purposes absorbs water better and it is easier to make decorative elements from it, such as a handle for a cup. Clay for earthenware products has the highest level of hygroscopicity, so it absorbs water best. For a professional ceramist, this is an advantage, but for a beginner it can create discomfort. After all, if the clay is too wet, it stops obeying the ceramist and you have to wait until the clay dries a little. In the conditions of a master class, this is not convenient, because time is not spent productively.

Clay for facade ceramics is convenient when working with large forms, it is strong in places where different elements are combined and allows you to easily glue parts together. This clay is very convenient for manual sculpting.

Clay for decorative ceramics is ideal for pottery on the potter’s wheel and is perfect for modeling by hand. Clay for decorative and artistic ceramics is best suited for pottery workshops. We regularly use it in our pottery master-classes.

In our work, we use a white clay, as well as a red clay. For instance, Sloviansk has one of the largest clay deposits in Ukraine and a large factory of ceramic masses, which supplies high-quality clay to ceramists from all over Ukraine.

Pottery for beginners

Top tips for working with clay for beginners from our pottery workshop:

  • Before use, the clay should be well kneaded to a homogeneous consistency;
  • Make sure that your hands are always wet when sculpting or pottering;
  • Before kilning, the product must be polished;
  • When working with wet clay, it can be painted with engobes;
  • If you do not plan to kilning your pottery, you can paint them with ordinary acrylic paints;
  • If your clay is dry, wrap it in a wet cloth and it will regain its physical properties.

And you can try modelling and pottering visiting pottery master classes at the «Lihtaryk» art studio. For a deeper acquaintance with the material and process of pottery, we advise you to come to the pottery course, which consists of 10 individual classes. Please note that we will give you a gift – all the products you make during the course will be kilned for free.

Let’s move on to decorating the products. Here you cannot do without stacks and engobes. The more of them you have – the better choice you can make. The more shapes and colors – the more interesting result can be.

Pottery for beginners

Well, in the end, in order to get real dishes from a clay product, you need an oven. A special pottery kiln that maintains a temperature of over 1000°C. The pottery kiln is the most expensive and technically complex aspect of ceramics production. For proper and safe firing in a pottery kiln, the room must be equipped with a special ventilation system.

Pottery firing is the process of turning pottery molded by hand or formed on a pottery wheel into a complete dish or other ceramic item. Firing is the final stage of pottery processing.

Firing can be bisque or biscuit (kilning without a ceramic glaze) – this is the first firing of clay products, which turns dry but fragile products into strong ones. Biscuit firing can require additional firing. The second firing is glaze firing (also you can read our article about glazing with milk).

A biscuit firing can be at a temperature of 800-850 degrees, if after it you are planning to glaze the product. And it can be at a temperature of 900-950 degrees, if it will be the only one firing, or after it you are planning to use glazing with milk.

Pottery for beginners

The firing process consists of several stages:

  • Heating pottery in the oven
  • Keeping of ceramic products in the oven at different temperatures. In this way, the clay becomes stronger and hardens.
  • Drying of pottery in the oven.
  • In general, all three stages take about 18-20 hours.

Before firing, clay products must be completely dry. The drying process should occur naturally. That is why the temperature and humidity in the pottery workshop are of great importance for the drying speed of the products. If the products dry too quickly, they may crack before firing.

Dry products are rubbed so that no sharp elements remain on the surface of the product. The process of polishing the products allows you to make them neater before firing.

Modern ceramic kilns make the life of ceramists much easier. The fact is that electric kilns can be programmed for the desired firing and you not have to think about how and when to change the temperature inside. However, the potter must carefully monitor how to put the products into the kiln. They should not lean against the walls of the kiln, you cannot put many products one inside the other, you should divide the space of the kiln into separate tiers and carefully place plates, cups, jugs or vases already on these tiers.

If you just want to try pottery or to get a new hobby, but are not ready for such grandiose changes in your interior (pottery wheel, kiln, clay at home) – we are inviting you to our pottery master class or pottery course. We provide all the materials, help to realize your idea, and kilning the products at your request.

You can also make a creative gift by purchasing a gift certificate for pottery, which will be useful for adults and children. When you will considering how to spend your free time and where to go in Kyiv, pay attention to the «Lihtaryk» art studio, where all the conditions for creativity have been created.

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