How To Make A Ceramic Bowl By Hand

Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools.

How to make a ceramic bowl by hand.

How to hand build serving bowls did you ever wish you could make a large serving bowl but don t have a pottery wheel. However if you re creating a smaller object pinch the clay by hand between your thumb and forefinger to form the shape you require. Ceramic mold making opens up endless potential for creative expression. 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.

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. To get the walls thinner place one hand on the outside of the bowl and one on the inside. You want the sides to be about 1 4 inch thick. Start at the base of the bowl and gently push out and up maintaining the shape of the bowl.

Now you have a bowl but more than likely it is too thick to be a good bowl. 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. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. Or maybe you re not quite accomplished enough at the wheel to do it.

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.