Pottery Basics: Everything You Need to Know to Start Making Beautiful Ceramics

[front flap]

Clay is an expressive and exciting medium for beginners. If you’re a newcomer to the potter’s craft, you’ll quickly find yourself achieving impressive results as you master the easy-to-follow techniques presented in Pottery Basics.

A comprehensive course in pottery making, Pottery Basics introduces you to a wide variety of techniques for creating, decorating, and firing pottery. Graded from very basic techniques and simple projects to more complicated skills, manipulation of materials, and surface treatments, Pottery Basics will guide you through each procedure with clear, step-by-step photos and helpful tips for incorporating attractive decorating techniques. You will also find important information on health and safety, a library of decorative finishes, and glaze recipes that will give your pieces a professional finish. Pottery Basics is an invaluable resource for beginners and a useful reference for the more experienced ceramicist.

[back flap]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqui Atkin is a practicing ceramicist and has taught pottery in colleges and occupational therapy classes for several years. She now runs private courses in low-fire pottery techniques, including smoke-firing and Raku. She has contributed to several books as a project maker and gallery artist, and is author of the best-selling Handbuilt Pottery Techniques Revealed, also available in North America from Barron’s.

Beginners learn to make vases, trays, tiles, and many other attractive objects. They also learn techniques for creating designs, color combinations, and textures with inlays, slips, feathering, and burnishing. Separate sections instruct on clay preparation, on using a potter's wheel, and on firing in the kiln. Hundreds of instructive and inspiring color photos.