Pottery can be a daunting subject to learn, and although we are here to help, nothing can beat a good teacher or a good book. YouTube is a wonderful resource of skilled practitioners, so what follows are Hot Clay’s best resources for where and what to read.
Go to a class!
There are now so many classes in pottery, some supervised, some less so. Whichever, take advantage of the equipment and ask lots of questions. They should provide a good introduction to the basics, and you can follow up with research.
Ideally, you will see the variety of techniques and materials in ceramics. Something will inspire and give you direction on what you would like to do. If you have seen something you wish to explore, you are welcome to ask us how to do it, and if we don’t know, we may advise of a specialist in that area.
Don’t try to do too much.
After you have had a basic introduction in ceramics, we often say put your blinkers on, it’s so easy to get distracted in ceramics and to end up going down too many rabbit holes. You will learn more in pottery if you go deep in one area than if you are too broad and learning superficially, little bits here and there.
The handbook series by Bloomsbury Publishing contains many specialist books. They showcase many different disciplines, and they are written by an expert in each. These make a great companion book once you have decided which direction to go in.
To understand the basics of glazes and materials, we can’t recommend this book by Mark Burleson enough. It breaks down raw materials into what each does, shows swatches of colourants in percentages, and suggests what to buy and simplifies processes. It's not wordy and has lots of pictures, so perfect for creative people.
Digitalfire is by far the best database for online information on ceramics. It has every material listed, along with its health and safety information, troubleshooting, fantastic articles, and not forgetting its software, which helps you make your own glazes.
Ceramics Materials Workshop provide great articles, a focus on ceramic artists and the offering of courses; it's a website well worth signing up for. They also have a related podcast, called ‘For Flux Sake’. It's a great listen for all the common questions that hobby potters tend to ask.
Linda Bloomfield has written lots of books, from explaining the science to swatch books of glazes that will have you drooling on every page. She loves experimental glazes, the weird and wonderful.
John Britt’s 'Unity Molecular Formula (UMF) series' on YouTube will help you understand substitutions and going beyond the name of the material. This is a must if you are planning to learn how to make glazes from scratch. He has also written many books on various glaze techniques.
Simon Leach is a traditional thrower from a family that knows one or two things about pottery. YouTube has many pottery throwers; some are social media stars, but Simon’s traditional method has helped many in learning to throw, including our very own ceramics technician!
Second-hand book shops offer up some great classics; there is often great wisdom in older books, and they are usually quite cheap as well.
Website, social media and blogger, Sue’s McLeod's advice pops up everywhere. It is very helpful, well presented and a great source of answers to many questions.
Glazy.org is a great website, hosting a software that will analyse a glaze and convert it to various charts and data. Including the stull chart - much more interesting than you think! It has some wonderful contributions from potters all over the world, with great pictures for reference.
If you want to know more about food safety in ceramics, which we would highly recommend reading up on, especially if you're planning on selling your wares, then Gabriel Kline and Bill Collins have done a brilliant job of simplifying the subject.
And finally!
Be careful of ceramic forums. Although there is a lot of well-intended advice, some of it can lead you astray. Advice is often passed around, minus its original context and therefore can lose its meaning. For example, we receive a lot of complicated firing programs from customers who have taken advice from a forum. We suspect they have come from a kiln design from a certain period; they may have even been a different fuel type, and then the customer is programming it into their modern, well-insulated electric kiln, and you can guess the results.
