Pottery for Beginners: Projects for Beautiful Ceramic Bowls, Mugs, Vases and More

Ford, founder of Kara’s Pottery Club, is a mostly self-taught professional who owns a studio where she creates her art. Her first book presents fundamentals that guide the reader through 10 projects designed to build on progressively learned skills. These have clear instructions along with photos of finished pieces. The text covers properties of clay and techniques for working in this medium. Hand-building basics such as pinching, slab building, and coiling are described, followed by how to throw clay on the wheel. Glazing methods follow, including diverse ways to create texture and decorative patterns on surfaces. An overview of the kiln introduces ways to load it, temperature selection, and firing stages. This is important as firing is often relegated to teachers, which leaves novice potters out of this crucial stage.