8-Week Introduction to Ceramics

Surface treatments

Decorative work done before glazing: slip, sgraffito, carving, stamping, or burnishing. These add texture, pattern, or contrast that the glaze then interacts with in the kiln.

Layering

Applying one glaze over another to create a surface different to either glaze alone. The result depends on the chemistry of both glazes and how thickly each is applied.

Advanced glaze application

Glazing methods that go beyond basic dipping. Brushing, pouring, layering, and combining glazes to control where and how the surface develops in the kiln.

Bisque preparation

Getting your pieces ready for their first firing. Final trimming, signing the base, and making sure each piece is bone-dry and crack-free before it goes in the kiln.

Foot rings

The raised ring on the base of a thrown piece. Trimmed from a thicker base once the clay is leather-hard, the foot ring lifts the piece off the surface and gives it a finished underside.

Final trimming

The last pass before bisque firing. Sharpening foot rings, checking wall thickness, and making any last adjustments to the form while the clay is still workable.

Advanced trimming

Trimming complex forms like bottles and vases, where the foot needs to balance a tall or curved body. Done at leather-hard, often with the piece held upside down on a chuck.

Wide-form centring

Centring a larger volume of clay across a wider base than you would for a cylinder or bowl. Harder to feel because the centre of mass sits further from the wheel head.

Throwing batts

Removable wooden or composite discs that fit onto the wheel head. Wide, flat, or fragile forms get thrown on a batt so they can be lifted off without distorting before they've stiffened.

Platters

Larger and lower than plates, with a flat or shallow centre and a defined rim. The wider footprint makes them harder to centre and harder still to lift off the wheel intact.

Plates

One of the hardest forms to throw well. The wider, flatter shape tests your centring and wall control in a different way to cylinders or bowls. Usually thrown on a batt so it can be lifted without warping.

Belly shapes

Forms that swell outward through the middle before tapering at the top. You control the clay's outward curve from the inside, a different challenge to collaring inward.

Bottle shapes

Thrown forms with a narrow neck and wider body. Building one needs control of collaring throughout the throw so the shoulder and neck come out in proportion.

Collaring

Narrowing the opening of a thrown form by squeezing inward as it spins. The technique works against the clay's tendency to widen and is the foundation of bottles, vases, and any enclosed shape.

Glaze introduction

An overview of the glazes we keep in the studio and how to choose ones that suit your work.

Cups

Cups build on the cylinder. Same throwing technique, with extra attention to wall thickness for comfortable handling and a clean rim for drinking.

Wax resist

Applying wax to areas you want to keep glaze-free, creating patterns and contrast between glazed and unglazed surfaces.

Glaze application

Dipping, brushing, and pouring. Each method produces different results. You’ll test on sample tiles before committing to your pieces.

Sgraffito

Scratching through a layer of slip to reveal the clay colour beneath. A simple technique that produces beautiful, graphic results.

Decorating with slips

Coloured liquid clay applied to the surface before firing. You can brush, pour, dip, or trail it for different effects.

Pulling handles

Pulling handles from a lump of clay and attaching them to mugs and jugs. A satisfying skill that takes your thrown work to the next level.

Hump moulds

Using plaster forms to shape consistent pieces. Useful for plates, shallow bowls, and repeatable shapes.

Trimming & turning

Once your thrown pieces have dried slightly, you’ll flip them over on the wheel to refine the shape, add foot rings, and clean up the base.

Bowls

Opening out from a centred lump into wider, shallower forms. Different hand positions and a different feel to cylinders.

Cylinders

The foundation form. Mugs, vases, and tumblers all start as cylinders. You’ll learn to pull walls up evenly and control thickness.

Centring

The essential first step. Getting a lump of clay perfectly steady on a spinning wheel. It takes practice, and your teacher will work with you until it clicks.

Joining & scoring

Scoring, slipping, and assembling separate pieces of clay. The fundamentals of making anything with more than one part.

Slab building

Rolling flat sheets of clay and assembling them into structure. Boxes, planters, angular forms that the wheel can’t produce.

Coiling

Building walls ring by ring for larger forms. You’ll learn to roll consistent coils and join them securely to create pots, vases, and sculptural pieces.

Pinching

The simplest and oldest forming method. You’ll make a small vessel entirely by pinching the clay walls thinner. It teaches you how clay responds to pressure.

Tools & materials

What each tool does and when to reach for it. Ribs, wire cutters, trimming tools, sponges, and more.

Studio safety & etiquette

Dust management, safe use of equipment, kiln protocols, and keeping your workspace clean. We take this seriously because ceramic dust is no joke.

Wedging

Learning to condition clay by hand, pushing, folding, and working it until it’s smooth and free of air bubbles. This is how every session starts.