What is Pottery?

Pottery is the process and products of forming vessels or other objects with clay and other raw materials and firing them at high temperatures to give them strength and form. It is also the name given to the place where such wares are made, a potter’s workshop or a pottery (plural potteries).

Pottery has been used for millennia in many parts of the world. It is considered an essential element of civilization as it allowed people to improve their quality of life through the use of cooking, drinking, sanitary and decorative wares.

The first step in creating pottery is to form a clay body into the desired object, using either hand built or wheel thrown techniques. The clay is kneaded, or massaged with your hands which allows the moisture within to spread evenly across the entire slab. The clay is then allowed to “bone dry” which means it has reached a low enough water content that it can be fired and is no longer susceptible to breakage.

Once the clay is shaped it can be decorated with incised lines or a variety of patterns. Surface decoration has been popular since ancient times, and in particular the black-figure technique was developed in Greece in the 6th century B.C.E.

There are a number of different glazes that can be applied to pottery, the most popular being clear or white. Other colors may include browns, yellows, blues and greens. Most potters prefer to use ready-made glazes that are formulated for their specific clay and firing temperature which can be purchased from local pottery supplies such as Continental Clay on Stinson in Minneapolis.