A workshop introduction to making pottery
How to Make Pottery by Mary White introduces clay work through materials, forming methods, decoration and finished objects. Published in New York by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1904, it is illustrated by the author and combines practical instruction with examples of pottery from different traditions. White’s preface addresses readers who want to begin clay working, placing their first experiments within the much longer history of making vessels.
The book moves from clays and tools to hand-made pottery and work on the wheel, then follows the piece into decoration and glazing. Later chapters broaden the range to plaster moulds, tiles, kilns and basket-covered pottery. This sequence gives readers an introduction to several connected parts of the craft, rather than treating the making of a pot as an isolated shaping exercise. Drawings of tools and working methods accompany photographs of completed pieces.
Clay, tools and ways of forming a vessel
The opening chapter concerns the clays and tools used in pottery. Illustrated examples include pointed and shaped modelling tools, helping readers recognize the simple implements discussed in the instructions. These early pages establish the material and working vocabulary needed for the projects that follow. For someone studying traditional workshop practice, the relation between a tool’s shape and its task is part of the book’s interest.
Hand-made pottery receives its own chapter before the treatment of the wheel. The illustrations follow the building of a piece through making the first coil, testing the outline and continuing the form. They show how a vessel develops progressively, with attention to its shape as well as its construction. Other passages discuss forming and joining parts, finishing a bottom and using slip. Readers interested in hand building can study these operations alongside the finished jars and bowls shown elsewhere in the volume.
The wheel chapter introduces a different method of working the same material. White describes handling the turning piece and finishing its edges and base. The discussion includes the use of a hoop-shaped tool to remove excess clay from the bottom. Read together, the hand-building and wheel sections allow a reader to compare the demands of building up a form with those of shaping and trimming a rotating piece.
Surface treatment and useful objects
Methods of decoration and the application of glaze occupy separate chapters. Decoration includes working into the surface with shaped tools and cutting away a background to leave a design in relief. These passages connect the handling of clay with the appearance of the finished object. The chapter on glaze continues the process beyond the modelling stage, showing how the book brings forming and finishing into the same account.
A chapter titled “Pottery for Beauty and Use” presents a range of objects rather than a single standardized project. Illustrated examples across the book include flower bowls, a cream jug, vases, a rose bowl, a fruit bowl, a Dutch dish, candlesticks and a wall jar for water plants. The variety gives readers material for studying proportion, handles, openings and the relationship between a vessel’s form and its intended use. The Newcomb pottery jug used as a frontispiece supplies another example of form and surface design.
Moulds, tiles, firing and basket-covered pottery
The plaster-mould chapter and the chapter on making a tile extend the handbook beyond free-standing vessels. They introduce additional workshop processes and show that pottery practice can include flat work and mould-assisted forms. The kiln chapter then considers firing and discusses earlier kiln arrangements as well as the practical place of firing in the potter’s work. White also notes that a beginner may have pieces fired by a pottery maker, a useful indication of how access to equipment shaped the approach described in the book.
Basket-covered pottery brings another handcraft into the volume. Its instructions discuss working with pliable rattan, forming handles and using raffia in a binding. This chapter will particularly interest readers who already study basketry and want to see how woven material can be combined with a ceramic vessel. The book closes with chapters on Native American pottery, under the original heading “Indian Pottery,” and modern American pottery. These provide historical and artistic context for the practical work.
Who will find it useful
This is a useful historical craft reference for pottery students, handcraft readers and people interested in the making of household objects. Its strength is the breadth of the workshop sequence: materials, forming, decoration, glaze, moulds and firing appear together, with illustrations to connect the descriptions to tools and objects. Readers can follow a process through several stages or concentrate on a particular technique.
The book records methods and materials of the early twentieth century. Its glazing and firing passages belong to that setting and should be read with current studio practice and material information in mind. As a record of traditional craft instruction, it offers a detailed view of how a beginner was introduced to pottery and how useful vessels, decorative work and related hand skills were brought together.
Book details
- Title: How to Make Pottery
- Author and illustrator: Mary White
- Publisher: Doubleday, Page & Company, New York
- Publication: 1904; published October 1904; no numbered edition stated
- Language: English
- Format: Illustrated scanned PDF, 223 digital pages, 2,655,674 bytes
