Handmade Pottery

The Handmade Pottery website was created to provide a comprehensive resource for all things related to handmade pottery.  We plan to provide relevant information about the handmade pottery industry, it's history, how to's, facts and much more.  The site is intended to be a resource for established potters, beginners and also people who just like pottery want to learn more and perhaps order pottery online or locally to start or add to their own handmade pottery collection.

Browse our articles, or links to other websites featuring information on handmade pottery or handthrown pottery.

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If you are new to the process of handcrafed or handthrown handmade pottery there is a great deal to learn.  Handthrown pottery refers to pottery shaped on a Potter's wheel.  Handcrafted, sometimes called handcarved pottery is shaped by hand by adding layers of rolled clay coil on top of each other.  The pottery is then decorated and glazed and fired in a kiln.

If you are interested to learn more about the methods used to create handmade pottery and would like a brief history of pottery visit this page on Wikipedia.

Here is a brief snippet of the above pottery article on Wikipedia... "Pottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries. Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today. Ceramic art covers the art of pottery, whether in items made for use or purely for decoration."

This is our primer on handmade pottery history referenced above.  Facts and fragments we've put together from many sources.  It's meant to just give you a teaser of the lengthy and fast history of one of the oldest crafts known to man and one that is still heavily practiced.  Depending on what source we researched we think the first pottery wheel was created sometime between 3000 and 4000 BC.  However, handcrafted pottery first appeared thousands of years before with the first examples dating back to 25,000 BC!  The earlier forms of handmade pottery where typically forms of art and not what we would consider practical pottery.  It's generally accepted that first pottery vessels were created for drinking water sometime around 10,000 BC.  Pretty big invention given the other options of the time. :)  Lapping at the creek, the good old drink from the leave trick and if you were a real lucky neanderthal maybe you lived near a small waterfall.  OK so we digressed a bit.  Back to more history...

Handmade Pottery: Bowls

These handmade pottery bowls created by Ellen Grenadier are a beautiful example of handcrafted and truly unique pottery.  While this handmade pottery may be functional is also worthy of a coffee table centerpiece or a collectible in a display case.

Visit this potter's website to see their other handmade pottery.

Ellen Grenadier has been making tableware, custom tiles, and murals for over 30 years. Ten years ago, she moved her studio and gallery to the Berkshires. Her current work is stoneware that incorporates impressions of leaves in elegant bowls, plates, sushi platters, dinnerware, tea service, vases and more, all glazed with natural cobalt blues, copper greens and ambers made from iron. Her work is a stylish blend of well crafted refined form and rich surfaces that are alive with subtle texture and colors.

Handmade Pottery: Bowls

Read this interesting perspective from potter David Norton.  Visit his website to see more of his unique and attractive handmade pottery.

To a potter, making bowls is like a musician practicing his scales. It’s fundamental. The more you make, the better they get, for infinity. I love making bowls because people hold them, use them, and make them part of their daily lives.

My small individual bowls are not symmetrical because neither is your hand. There is a natural way my handmade stoneware bowls snuggle into your hand. They’re perfect for cereal, soup, ice cream, rice, and anything delicious. Serving bowls are generously shaped and well balanced with ample rims for easy handling and extra durability. They come in sizes to accommodate snap peas for two or potato salad for forty.

Handmade Pottery: Vases

Gorgeous, earthy everyday handmade vases would fit in any decor.  Viki, from Cool Clay Pots, also makes some very interesting kitchen cookware but we think that her vases by far are her specialty.  We struggled out of more than half a dozen photos to select which one would accompany this text because all of them were great and unique in their own way.

If you like the vase in the photo at right you need to visit her site to see the rest of the collection available for purchase.

Read the excerpt below from Viki's website....  www.CoolClayPots.com

In the Sierra Foothills, near the small community of Cool, California and nestled among the Heritage oak and pine is Vicki Calhoon’s studio. Here Vicki spends hours creating unique, functional, kitchen pottery and decorative “Saggar Fired” vases.

Vicki’s Saggar Fired vases are very unique. There is no actual glaze, rather a fuming process. After the initial bisque firing, each piece is placed in its own chamber containing sawdust, salt and copper carbonate. They are fired in a Raku kiln. As the sawdust burns, it fumes colors and patterns into the clay body. Each piece is uniquely different.

Handmade Pottery: Plates

Beautiful and vibrant.  Perfect combination of coloring and patterns turning a simple handmade plate into a work of art.  Looks to good to eat off of.  :) At least to me it does.  - Ben

Read the excerpt below from Bill Campbell Studio's website and visit to see more handmade pottery from this artist.

Bill Campbell has been a potter for over 30 years.  Across the country, his porcelain is admired for it's spectacular color and elegant, crisp forms... each piece maintaining some of the energy of its creator.  The glazes dance with surprising vibrancy in unexpected patterns.  functional pots become little moments of celebration within the day to day routine.

A bit of history concerning Polish Pottery and why it's so popular today in America. 

The pottery from the Boleslawiec (pronounced "Bowl-slaw-ick") Region of Poland is among the most famous in the world. In this region that lies in Southern Poland, near the German border, there are many ceramics factories producing wonderful products.  This region has a history of pottery making since the 7th century.  Early pieces from the 1700's & 1800's were storage pieces made by farmers that had a chocolate colored glaze similar to pieces produced in America's south during the same period.  Competetion from other Potters drove the Boleslawiec Potters to experiment with new sponging techniques, colored glazes and handpainted decorations in order to differentiate and create a unique identity for their handmade pottery.  It was such an important business to the local economy that the government founded the "Keramische Fachschule" (Ceramic Technical Training School) in 1898 to foster development of the art.

Today the center of this traditional ceramic art is still centered around the village of Boleslawiec .  Where skilled Polish artists still individually handcraft and hand decorate each piece using small sponges and stamp each pattern and color individually.  Certified Master artists not only train apprentice artists but produce "Unikat" (Unique) or "Signature" (Artist signed) pieces.  These "Unikat" pieces have colors and/or designs that are individual to each artist and due to the time involved in making each piece the supply is very limited.  Since all pieces are hand crafted each vary in design, pattern and color.  Ceramika Artystyczna was founded in 1950 and has been making award winning stoneware for over 50 years.