Coil Pottery

Decide on a shape.

A hand method of forming pottery by building up the walls with ropelike rolls of clay and then smoothing over the joints. Variations include ring building, spiral coiling, and segmental coiling. It is the oldest method of vessel production, predating the invention of the potter’s wheel.

Think about what type of pattern you want to incorporate. You can Make bands of shapes and add to the pot or piece the shapes one at a time.Your coil pottery can have even bands of patterns or uneven as you can see here.

You can smooth the surface of your coil pot or leave the coils.

Add in extra shapes or even add a lid!

Parts of a Pot: foot, belly, shoulder, neck and lip.

As in the human form, these structures are distinct in good pots but they simultaneously build upon each other to form an integral whole, with each part of the pot’s anatomy complementing rather than overpowering; the foot providing a strong undergirding, the belly volume, the neck an upward thrust away from gravity’s pull, and the lip giving character and definition.

Lip