What to buy for pottery at home, and in what order

Clay becomes ceramic in a kiln, and until it has been in one it is a temporary object. So the first question is not what to buy — it is how will the things I make get fired, and there are only a few answers: a studio that fires for you, a community or college kiln, a shared kiln arrangement, or one of your own.

That answer then decides everything else. If you are firing at a studio, they will tell you what clay to use, because it has to be compatible with their firing schedule and often with their glazes. Buying clay before you know that is how people end up with twenty kilos they cannot get fired anywhere.

Decides the clay

Where it will be fired

Decides the glaze

The firing temperature

Decides the budget

Whether you own a kiln

Decides almost nothing

The wheel

• Clay, of the type your firer specifies — A bag is not expensive and it is the only material cost that recurs. Stoneware is the usual all-purpose choice; a grogged clay — with fired particles mixed in — is far more tolerant for hand building and much less pleasant to throw.
• A wire cutter, a rib, a needle tool, a sponge and a wooden knife — This is the whole starter kit and it comes as a set for very little. Everything else on a tool wall solves a problem you do not have yet.
• A board to work on, and something to cover work with — A piece of plywood and some plastic sheeting. Controlling how fast work dries is most of what stops it cracking, and it costs nothing.
• Somewhere you do not mind getting dirty — This is a real requirement rather than a joke, and it is the thing that decides whether a home pottery practice survives contact with a household.

A wheel is the object people picture when they picture pottery, and it is the purchase most often regretted. Three reasons, in order of how often they bite.

• Throwing is taught in a room with somebody watching you — HobbyHQ does not publish instruction on centring, and the reason is on the pottery page: it is a continuously modulated force judged by feel, and reading about it produces confidence rather than capability. A wheel bought before any class is a wheel you will learn slowly and badly on.
• Hand building makes better work sooner — Pinch, coil and slab need no equipment at all, produce finished objects in a first session, and are a whole discipline rather than a preliminary. A great deal of the ceramics people admire is hand built.
• A wheel needs water, mess and space it is easy to underestimate — Throwing generates a fine clay slurry that goes everywhere, and clay must never go down a household drain — it settles and blocks it. A sink trap or settling bucket is part of the installation, not an accessory.

• It is an electrical installation, not an appliance — Anything beyond the smallest test kiln needs a dedicated circuit, and most need one substantially larger than a domestic socket provides. That is an electrician’s job and it is a real part of the cost.
• Where it goes matters as much as what it is — A kiln needs a non-combustible floor, clearance on every side, and ventilation — firing produces fumes, and some glaze materials produce ones that should not be in a room you are in. A garage or an outbuilding, not a spare bedroom.
• Second-hand kilns are common and need checking — Elements wear out, brick crumbles and controllers fail, and all three are replaceable at a cost that can approach the price of the kiln. A cheap kiln with tired elements is not a bargain.
• Shelves, props and a kiln wash are not included and are not cheap — Furniture is a significant additional cost that catches everybody, and glaze running onto an unwashed shelf ruins the shelf.