Definition Of Handbuilding In Ceramics

Beth peterson is a potter artist and writer with more than 30 years of experience crafting clay and ceramics.

Definition of handbuilding in ceramics.

Before potters had the wheel they were creating beautiful pots and clay forms using clay their hands and fingers and basic hand tools. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques. Learn about the spruce crafts editorial process.

Basic pottery hand building techniques. Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots. What makes these creations unique is the hand artistry and the type of potter s clay you use. The three basic techniques of hand building are pinch coil and slab construction.

Handbuilding is working with clay by hand using only simple tools not the pottery wheel. Handbuilding clay sculpting any clay body by hand. Greenware any unfired clay body before it is bisque fired and is very fragile. Incise indenting into the wet clay.

You start by kneading the clay into a small lump about the size of your fist. They can be used individually or combined together to suit your whims. Making a pinch pot is the simplest way to begin working with clay. Hand building pottery using slabs of clay is an exciting way to create shapes that could never be produced using a potter s wheel or that would be difficult to achieve if you are doing hand construction using coils of clay.

Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools. Pin share email kidstock getty images.