There are numerous pottery making techniques, but they can be broadly categorized into three main areas: hand-building, wheel throwing, and slip casting. Within each of these categories, there are further specialized methods and variations.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

1. Hand-building: This involves shaping clay by hand and with simple tools, without the use of a potter's wheel.

• Pinching: A basic technique where a ball of clay is shaped by pressing and pinching it with fingers.
• Coiling: Building up the walls of a pot by adding and joining coils of clay.
• Slab Building: Creating forms by joining together flat pieces (slabs) of clay.
• Paddle and Anvil: A more specialized technique, particularly in the American Southwest, where the pot walls are built up and thinned by paddling between a wooden paddle and an anvil.

2. Wheel Throwing: This technique uses a potter's wheel to shape clay while it spins.

• Centering: The first step in wheel throwing, where the clay is centered on the wheel.
• Pulling up the walls: Shaping the clay into the desired form by using fingers to pull up the walls of the pot.

3. Slip Casting: This method involves pouring liquid clay (slip) into a mold to create a desired shape.

• Mass Production: Slip casting is primarily used for rapidly producing multiple identical pieces.

Other Techniques:

• Trimming: Refining the shape of a pot on the wheel after it has dried slightly.
• Sgraffito: A decorating technique where a layer of slip is applied to the pot, and then a design is scratched through the slip to reveal the clay underneath.
• Underglaze Painting: Applying colors to the clay before it is glazed.
• Raku: A firing technique that results in unique, often crackled, surfaces.

These are just some of the many techniques Cotton Valley Pottery in Wolfeboro, NH uses to handcraft its decorative, yet functional pottery.  We often combine different methods and develop our own unique pieces and works of art.

Key Takeaways for Creating Handcrafted Pottery:

1. Hand-building: Shaping clay by hand without a potter's wheel.
2. Wheel Throwing: Using a potter's wheel to shape spinning clay.
3. Slip Casting: Pouring liquid clay into molds for mass production.
4. Trimming: Refining pot shape on the wheel after drying.
5. Sgraffito: Scratching designs through slip to reveal clay underneath.