If you ever learn about Native American Pueblo pottery or really any sort of traditional Southwestern pottery you will eventually hear the work “puki” used. And if you are new to Southwest pottery you will no doubt wonder “what is a puki”? No worries, I am here to set the record straight. I have been […]
What is a Puki and How is it Used to Make Pottery Read More »
I came at pottery backwards. It seems most people learn pottery on the wheel first and then explore hand building later. I learned to hand build first, this is probably the reason why hand building has remained my passion and the primary way that I form pottery. Because I am a hand building guy, I
How to Make Hand Built Pottery Read More »
So you found some natural clay, great, but now what? How do you process clay into a usuable material suitable for building pottery or sculpting? It is actually not all that hard to process natural clay, primitive people have been doing it without the help or any specialized equipment for millennia and so can you!
How to Process Clay Read More »
As a lifelong potter and clay finder it always surprises me how many potters have never found and processed their own clay. Most people just do not realize that wild clay is everywhere and making usable clay out of it is not hard. That is why I decided to write the definitive guide on how
How to Find Clay, the Definitive Guide Read More »
While I enjoy making pottery in other ways, there is nothing like the feeling of hand building clay, knowing that you built this pot with no help from machinery. It gives you and your art work a primitive connection to the earth, just you and the clay alone in the studio, surprising and beautiful things
12 Hand Building Clay & Coil Pottery Techniques Read More »
When I first went looking for native clay it seemed to be a rare thing, like gold or silver, I couldn’t find wild clay anywhere. But I knew that it had to be much more common than it appeared because ancient people made pottery wherever they lived. So I did a little bit of research
Where is Clay Found? Read More »
Sometimes I hit a creative dead-end and need some inspiration, I think we all do at some point. When it comes to making a coil pot most of the ideas and tutorials I see on the internet these days look the same, I want something fresh. If you are like me then look further, I
25 Coil Pot Ideas Inspired by the Ancient Southwest Read More »
The ancient Mimbres potters made some of the finest pottery in ancient North America, looking at examples of their pottery in books or museums only raises more questions in my mind than it answers. How did the Mimbres potters make such exquisite pottery using only primitive tools? I went searching for the answers to these
How to Make Mimbres Pottery Read More »
