Handmade Pottery at Home: Simple Ceramics to Make on Your Kitchen Table

I have a little pottery studio - at one time fully equipped with a slab roller, extruder, electric wheel, and a couple of kilns. For various reasons, all having to do with money, I sold my heavy equipment...even my large kiln (which was my one mistake.) I never gave up on clay, however. Instead, I determined that everything I made was going to be made "sans" machinery. (Though my brother found out I wished I had a kick wheel because I missed "throwing" pots and made one for me! I love it!) Anyway, there is something so wonderful about having that purely hands-on experience with clay. Hand rolling slabs, hand rolling coils, hand building and sculpting all the things that clay holds promise of...I consider buying books like this because sometimes I want to see what other clay artists are doing as far as hand building. Sometimes what I need is a creative shot in the arm. Handmade Pottery at Home is a way for me to get it! The picture on the cover makes my mouth water and that creative thing in me starts dancing around. The "Look Inside" option gives a decent overview of the book. I bought this particular book because it is beautiful. The photography and images are almost ethereal. I also enjoy the author's rather quaint text - it's not all about potting method, but it's obvious she loves working with clay and has found her niche. I find a lot of simple inspiration in her projects. When paging through it my head fills with ideas and I become excited to get to work.The reviewer who gave the book one star is correct that a kiln is needed to fire your work. If the person who buys this book isn't aware of that, then they know very little about working with earthen clay, and would indeed be frustrated. However, one doesn't always need to own a kiln. The individual would have to research this for their area, but quite often there are local potters, or public schools, or ceramic studios, etc. that will fire an independent potters' work for a small fee. As to the same reviewer's remark that the projects are not simple - actually, the techniques are very simple. It's just that the beginning potter needs to allow himself or herself some grace and not expect "perfection", ever, let alone right off the bat. Everything worth learning takes practice. (The toughest thing about these projects is allowing the rolled clay to sit and stiffen for the right amount of time before handling and shaping it.)Unfortunately, the title of the book is rather misleading, which is why I gave only 4 out of 5 stars. This kind of work should NOT be done at one's kitchen table. You should create a dedicated space somewhere else, away from food or surfaces that food will come in contact with. Both unfired clay and glazes have things in them that are toxic. You don't need a big space, just someplace away from where you eat. And, one thing I don't believe the author mentioned that is very helpful and important for hand rolling - use some kind of rail or guide on either side of your clay. For example - if you want your clay to be 1/4" thick, place two 1/4" thick strips of wood on either side of your ball of clay, (sturdy yardsticks work great) flatten the clay somewhat by hand, and then roll it out, using the wood strips as a guide. Once your rolling pin comes in contact with the wood, you'll be unable to roll your clay any thinner, assuring a uniform thickness.Indeed, this is a book filled with incredible photography - lovely images of some very tasty looking cupcakes, soup, French macarons and lots of pretty, sweet ideas for handmade pots, cups, plates, and the like. I find her ideas for decorating pleasing, but I really don't care for decals, (I prefer resist, and impressed or carved design that the glaze flows over.) Still, her enthusiasm for decals got me to rethinking their use - so you never know!Altogether, as an instructional book it's rather sparse, so a beginner will likely struggle. For someone who has any kind of background with clay - understanding the how and when of handling slabs, the joining of pieces, etc, - this book may provide inspiration.Just a warning though - maybe it'll be different for you, but I want dessert by the time I'm done going through the book!

Easy projects, many would be great for a high school ceramic class. As a more experienced potter, I didn't really find anything new or super inspiring here. (to be quite honest, some of the things she made were just pain pathetic looking, but I can see people liking it if they were really into the shabby/homemade looking styles.) It is a book padded with lots of beautiful photography. I think it could have done with less fluff and more projects. But I do like this book. It is beautiful and cohesive and would make a great coffee table book for the pottery enthusiast. Some other posters where annoyed with the books name being misleading and its true, All projects do require a kiln, and many things are clearly made on the wheel, but I can see how most of the things in this book could be made on a kitchen table. I make pottery in my home, and sometimes leave things drying on the kitchen table. So I don't think its such a bad, misleading name.

As soon as this book arrived, I skimmed the contents and was so intrigued I read the entire thing from cover to cover. I then had to try one of the projects. Each project can be built literally in your kitchen, no wheel needed, using minimal tools (you will need access to a kiln.) I found that this book gives very clear and detailed instructions on building the projects shown inside. Each project is pictured beautifully, the instructions are step-by-step and templates are included. A list of needed tools is also included, most can be found in your kitchen or quickly made from ordinary items you already own. Whether you are new to handbuilding with clay or have been building for years, their is plenty to learn from and expand your skill set from this book and its fresh and inventive projects will make you want to pull some clay, get your hands dirty and create. I learned things from this book that were new to my ceramics instructors at my university.

The book has lovely pictures and some great ideas but it reminds me of Martha steward crafts- 5 gorgeous step by step pictures that make it look simple and your crying/ drinking a bootle of wine with glitter stuck to ever inch of your body. I was extremely excited to try these techniques not being able to get a pottery wheel right now but was sadly disappointed with how crude my bowls came out. I have a BFA and have 3 clay classes and 3 throwing classes under my belt so I feel I should be able to follow her book. Rolling out clay even with a roller is extremely hard but not impossible- but I couldn't get it as perfect as her picture. "Tidy it up" is not a step or directions! Pressing clay in a bowl is not easy and you have all this weird overlapping clay to deal with- which is really not pictured. Clear wrap will leave marks in clay- it does pull out clean. There is no trouble shooting in the book. I personally think most of the bowls were made on a wheel for "photography" and everything was rolled on a slab roller. It has some clever ideas and inspirational photos but its wrong to trick people to thinking that these things can be easily made.

I may need to get a second book just to keep one looking pretty on the coffee table and one in the studio. Beautiful pictures of both finished projects and work in progress. Many projects with easy instructions and templates to get you going working with clay to create pretty pieces. This book is for people who already have experience and knowledge of clays, glazes, kilns and firing as they are not covered in this book. I am in love with this book and would recommend it.

This ia a beautiful Martha style pottery book. If I didn't know any better I would have thought that I was reading a magazine. The projects are of a simple nature and mostly just easy things to make. I doubt that the projects would even look good without all the flowers, curtains and tabe cloths. There are many much better pottery books out there to buy......if you really are interested in learning.

First the pros.Lovely presented book. full of beautiful photographs. Text is well presented and easy to read, has some good ideas.Now the cons.As a fairly experienced ceramist looking at this book to help potential students I was disappointed. The book plunges into ceramic terminology without any information about what is going on. You have to fish to the back to find out what she is talking about.The templates are not great. The one for the jug suggests that you might like to enlarge or reduce it to suit. You would HAVE to enlarge it if you wanted anything more than a jug for a children's tea set, if you reduced it you may be able to put a daisy in it after it was finished but nothing else!The section entitled "Glistening Glazes" actually does not discuss glazes at all rather has a page about using englobes. No other surface covering gets a look in and certainly not glazes!There are no real technical details in the book at all, if you dont know how to work with clay, make joints, develop clay to leather hard stage, roll out to an even thickness , wedge air out of clay and so on you will be using the chapter on how to make pottery failures into mosaics quite a bit!!Overall. This book is not great for beginners. The author would have done better by spending more time writing about the pottery and less on high quality photographs (the book is more than half full of her ceramic photographs) and pages about dreamy summer days in the garden and opening presents from her grandma!

This book is lovely for on your coffee table. But if you never have worked with clay it lacks detail on how to do the basics and I think it is unlikely you would end up with any of the results as nice looking as illustrated. If you know how to do handbuilding you may pick up the odd idea but probably very little new.

I received this today and I haven't been able to put it down. The book is full of great ideas and really beautiful things you can make. I am not sure if making the ideas is as easy as the book shows but it will be fun having a go. I recommend this book and I am pleased to say that it is a great addition to my pottery reference library.

I am a begineer potter and this is a lovely pretty coffee table book of pottery with some great ideas.Just could have had more designs4 stars because I could see an experienced potter would find it boring

Lovely looking book, but there is minimal content padded with lots of white space, big text, photos and arty shots. Real shame, as the ideas in the book are quite good, there's just hardly any of them, and the instructions are quite limited.