News and stories from the world of ceramics
A practical six-week schedule for making handmade ceramic holiday gifts, covering forming, drying, bisque firing, glazing, glaze firing, and packing in time to ship.
Raku, pit, barrel, and saggar firing put surface effects in the fire's hands: reduction, smoke, and thermal shock. Here's how each process works,...
A practical costing framework for ceramic artists — materials, labor, overhead, wholesale and retail — so every pot you sell pays you properly.
Wild clay is underfoot nearly everywhere. A practical guide to finding, testing, and processing local clay for pottery, region by region.
Cold weather punishes kilns that coasted through summer. A practical autumn checklist for elements, vents, moisture, and freeze protection before...
A practical guide to pinch, coil, and slab building for total beginners, with starter projects, joining techniques, and drying advice.
How to formulate, test, and fire glazes for food-contact surfaces — which materials to avoid, how leaching tests work, and why firing matters as much as the recipe.
Seven common glaze faults—crawling, pinholes, shivering, crazing and more—with the causes behind each and practical fixes for application and firing.
Choosing between electric and gas kilns comes down to upfront cost, firing control, ventilation, and maintenance. Here is how each type behaves in...
Bisque firing prepares clay for glazing; glaze firing melts that glaze into glass. Here's what happens at each stage, from temperature ranges to the changes inside the kiln.
