Mastering the Potter's Wheel: Techniques, Tips, and Tricks for Potters

by Ben Carter, Linda Arbuckle (Foreword)

Take your skills—and your work—to the next level.

Mastering the Potter's Wheel starts with an introduction to wheel-throwing , from centering to creating the basic forms. What pushes this book beyond the competition, however, are the techniques offered in the chapters that follow. From a variety of methods for throwing large objects such as pitchers and platters , to alterations , darting , and paddling , this book offers potters a world of possibilities .

With galleries featuring today's top working artists , including Kyle Carpenter, Sam Chung, Chandra DeBuse, Julia Galloway, Martha Grover, Ayumie Horie, Forrest Lesch-Middleton, Kristen Kieffer, Kathy King, Matt Long, Alex Matisse, Lorna Meaden, Doug Peltzman, Mackenzie Smith, Shawn Spangler, and many more, you'll also find page after page of inspiration.

The Mastering Ceramics series is for artists who never stop learning. With compelling projects, expert insight, step-by-step photos, and galleries of work from today’s top artists, these books are the perfect studio companions. Also available from the Mastering Hand Building and Mastering Kilns and Firing .

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2016

Reviews

[George Dix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for a person who has moved beyond beginner potter but has yet to really master the art (as the title might suggest). It provides very useful tips and helps to remedy bad habits you may have picked up since becoming more comfortable at the wheel. I found one of the best uses for this book to be inspiration. There are many nice photographs of very interesting pottery that I inspire to make some day.

[Lucas Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear book with plenty of pictures. Doesn’t go very in-depth but a nice overview.

[Laura Estelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a beginning potter, and this is one of three books that I bought at the same time.

I can't remember *why* I opted for it (probably because some reviewer mentioned exercises), but I was rather disappointed. It has absolutely beautiful production value: thick paper, photos that are technically well executed, and of-the-moment instagram-style visual design. In reading it, it felt like somebody going through the motions of presenting what he thought a wheel-throwing primer needs to include, and the result is facile.

The good:
* I will actually use some of the exercises -- the ones focusing on variety and consistency seem like useful discipline for a hobbyist.
* I loved the "galleries" at the end of each chapter, which presented work from a variety of modern ceramicists. Useful for inspiration and informing my taste.

The bad:
* I don't find photos of throwing to be very pedagogically useful. All of the subtleties of pottery are in touch, and that's obscured through flesh and clay when attempting to photograph it. They tried to address this using some cutaways, but I've found sketches to be WAY more useful. And this book didn't have any.
* The explanations were all surface-level, and didn't spark any ah-hah moments for me. Where do your students typically struggle / what are common failure modes and how to fix them?

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there are pictures included in the tutorials, I think even more pictures would be welcome because not every step had one and it's not easy to always visualise what he means. Following workshops solves this problem of course. But without real live workshops or courses, this book is sometimes a bit hard to follow.

I appreciate the skill section, you can see it as homework to practice. The tutorials are basic, you won't find anything on how to build 5 different kind of vases for example, but will find a tutorial for all basic shapes like a cup, bowl, vase, changing shapes and decorating. I think the writer wrote this book for those who have already taken their first steps into the potters wheel and are curious on how to improve their skills. Not for newbies who start throwing (they would need some workshops to see the teacher at work) but for beginners who already know how the potters wheel work and wish to expand their skills.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was perfect for me at this stage of my learning. For context, I have intermediate skills, a cheap pottery wheel at home and access to a few different clays and tools. I pay a pottery studio to fire my pieces and to provide me with glazes, and they occasionally pay me to teach pottery classes.

Carter concicely describes skills and techniques which, with practice and flexibility, will allow you to eventually master the wheel. He keeps it well contained to greenware (plastic clay through to bone dry). I like that photos of the author are included throughout to demonstrate the content.

The gallery sections at the end of each chapter are excellent. Maybe it's beyond the scope of this book but I do wish the techniques involved in making the pieces within the gallery were described. Perhaps I will have to buy a different kind of pottery book for that.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully photographed, this book has lots of helpful information. The book's strongest features are the skill building sections at the end of each chapter, and the prominently placed safety and ergonomic chapter at the beginning--safety and ergonomics too often being easily overlooked by new potters. This would likely be most useful to potters working in group studios who are provided with glazes and whose work is fired by a studio assistant, as this focuses nearly entirely on greenware with glazing/firing as an afterthought.

[Stéphanie Gauttier · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book with clear explanations and a lot of suggested exercises to keep improving. I have to put everything into practice now and have no doubt I will go back to this book numerous times in the next few weeks!
I am a beginner (less than 8h behind the wheel so far)

[Seath]

An excellent reference guide! Pulling handles is so cool, I didn’t realise that’s how people made them look so smooth. I also want to try the suggestion of using slip as a funky surface texturiser. Lots of useful information with clear and helpful images and plenty of inspiration.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful reference book for pottery! I was a little bit disappointed the book didn’t explain glazing a bit more but I suppose that was in the name. It is a reference book for greenware forms and some surface decoration.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great new addition to the field!

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great text for beginning/intermediate pottery students. I will recommend it.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas for skill development

[Bud Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for wheel throwing - will keep this on hand while I throw.

[Mary Foxe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

used this to correct my posture to get better at centering the clay on the wheel for trimming

[Maurren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good descriptions of how to hold hands when throwing. Detailed descriptions with photos of several types of pieces, sizes etc. Goes into intermediate levels as far as more challenging pots.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good techniques, suggestions and ideas.

[Jennifer Goins · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I just got done reading the book called Mastering the Potters Wheel :Technique , Tips , and Tricks for Potters by the author Ben Carter . I won this book from Goodreads.Frist and I have to say wow didn't know there was so much work that went into pottery I earn some neat ways to do pottery can't wait to try it out might be my next hobby to try and do . I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes to do pottery I would have to give this a 5 star rating . Thank you to Goodreads.Frist and to the author Ben Carter for this book .