Definition Of Handbuilding In Ceramics

Handbuilding is working with clay by hand using only simple tools not the pottery wheel.

Definition of handbuilding in ceramics. Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots. Making a pinch pot is the simplest way to begin working with clay. You start by kneading the clay into a small lump about the size of your fist. Handbuilding clay sculpting any clay body by hand.

The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. 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. What makes these creations unique is the hand artistry and the type of potter s clay you use. Incise indenting into the wet clay.

Most often ceramic tools are used to carve engrave incise the clay. Pin share email kidstock getty images. Beth peterson is a potter artist and writer with more than 30 years of experience crafting clay and ceramics. Greenware any unfired clay body before it is bisque fired and is very fragile.

Learn about the spruce crafts editorial process. Before potters had the wheel they were creating beautiful pots and clay forms using clay their hands and fingers and basic hand tools. Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques. 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.

They can be used individually or combined together to suit your whims. Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools.