Common Pottery Issues and How to Solve Them: Solutions for Perfect Pieces

Pottery is a wonderful art form that combines creativity with technical skill, allowing individuals to shape raw clay into beautiful, functional pieces. However, like any craft, pottery comes with its own set of challenges. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned artist, you’ve likely encountered some common pottery issues that can feel frustrating. From cracking and warping to glazing complications, these issues can derail the artistic process, leaving potters disheartened.

But here’s the good news: understanding common pottery issues and how to address them can significantly improve both your pottery skills and your final results. In this detailed guide, we’ll explore these common problems and provide you with actionable solutions to keep your pottery journey smooth and enjoyable. Let’s dive into the world of clay and troubleshoot the most frequent pottery challenges!

Section 1: Understanding Clay Preparation Issues

Warping

One of the most common pottery issues faced by students is warping. Warping occurs when parts of your pottery dry at different rates or when there’s uneven compression during shaping. This is particularly common when working with larger pieces that are more susceptible to moisture loss. The uneven drying causes the clay to bend and distort its intended shape.

How to Solve It: To prevent warping, ensure that your clay has an even thickness throughout the piece. Dry your pottery slowly, placing it under plastic or covering it with damp cloths to even out the moisture levels. Proper storage techniques, such as flipping your pieces regularly during the drying phase, can also help.

Cracking

Cracks can occur during drying or firing, often caused by improper wedging, rapid drying, or insufficient moisture content in the clay. Improper wedging leaves air bubbles in the clay, while rapid drying can lead to the outer surface drying much faster than the core, causing tension and cracks.

How to Solve It: To avoid cracking, start by wedging your clay thoroughly to remove air pockets and distribute moisture evenly. Allow your pieces to dry slowly and in a controlled environment. For larger projects, consider using a damp box for longer drying periods, which reduces the risk of surface cracking.

Section 2: Throwing Challenges on the Wheel

Centering Issues

Centering is one of the most fundamental skills in pottery, but it’s also one of the trickiest. Many students struggle to center their clay on the wheel, which can lead to wobbly or uneven pots. This is a common pottery issue for beginners and even intermediate potters.

How to Solve It: The key to mastering centering is patience and technique. Start by applying firm pressure to the clay as it spins, ensuring your hands are steady and anchored to the wheel. Keep your elbows locked against your body to stabilize your movements. With consistent practice, you’ll notice your centering improving, leading to more stable and balanced pieces.

Pulling Walls

Another challenge many potters face is pulling even walls when shaping their pottery. Uneven walls can lead to fragile, distorted pieces that lack symmetry and balance.

How to Solve It: Focus on applying even pressure when pulling the walls. Start with gentle pressure at the base and gradually move upward while keeping your fingers steady. Exercises to improve hand strength and coordination will help you maintain consistent thickness throughout the piece. If you’re struggling, don’t rush the process—take your time to ensure each pull is smooth and controlled.

Section 3: Glazing Complications

Crazing and Shivering

Glazing is one of the most exciting parts of pottery, but it can also be one of the most unpredictable. Two common pottery issues that arise during the glazing process are crazing and shivering. Crazing refers to fine cracks in the glaze caused by a mismatch between the glaze and the clay body’s thermal expansion. Shivering, on the other hand, occurs when the glaze chips off the edges, usually due to a glaze that contracts more than the clay body during cooling.

How to Solve It: To prevent crazing, you may need to adjust the glaze composition or firing temperature to better match the clay body’s expansion rate. Shivering can often be solved by reducing the amount of silica in the glaze or by increasing the firing temperature to allow the glaze to expand more evenly with the clay body.

Glaze Application Problems

Uneven coating, glaze running, or bubbling are all common pottery issues when applying glaze. These problems can result from improper glaze thickness, incorrect application methods, or faulty batches of glaze.

How to Solve It: First, ensure your glaze is the right consistency—too thick, and it will run; too thin, and it may not cover evenly. When applying glaze, use smooth, even strokes to avoid overloading any areas. If bubbles occur, this could indicate that the glaze was applied too thickly, or the firing temperature may need adjustment. Testing small samples before applying glaze to larger pieces can help identify potential issues early.

Section 4: Firing Anomalies

Kiln Hotspots and Coldspots

Kilns can sometimes have hotspots (areas that get too hot) or coldspots (areas that don’t get hot enough). This can lead to uneven firing, where some pieces may be under-fired or over-fired, causing defects in your pottery.

How to Solve It: Proper kiln stacking is essential to ensuring even heat distribution. Avoid overcrowding your kiln and use kiln shelves and posts to allow for good airflow around your pieces. Kiln cones are also valuable tools for monitoring temperature accuracy inside your kiln.

Bloating and Black Coring

Bloating refers to bubbles forming inside the clay during firing, while black coring is caused by improper oxidation during the firing process. Both are common pottery issues that can ruin an otherwise perfect piece.

How to Solve It: These issues are often caused by contaminants in the clay or improper firing schedules. Ensure your clay is free of impurities, and follow a gradual, controlled firing process. Reducing the amount of carbon-based material in your clay can also help prevent bloating.

Section 5: Advanced Troubleshooting

S-Cracks in Bottoms

S-cracks, which appear in the bottoms of bowls and other round pottery pieces, are a common pottery issue that often occurs during the throwing stage. They’re caused by uneven compression of the clay at the base.

How to Solve It: To avoid S-cracks, make sure to compress the bottom of your pieces thoroughly while throwing. A good practice is to use a wooden rib or a metal tool to smooth out the base and compress the clay evenly before pulling the walls.

Attachment Failures

Attaching handles or decorative elements can be tricky, and improper attachment often leads to pieces falling off during drying or firing. This is another common pottery issue that frustrates many potters.

How to Solve It: Scoring and slipping are essential when attaching additional pieces. Use a scoring tool to create grooves in both surfaces before applying slip (a clay and water mixture) to bond them together. Make sure the clay pieces are at a similar moisture level when joining to ensure a strong attachment.

Conclusion

Understanding and addressing common pottery issues is essential for any aspiring potter. Whether you’re dealing with warping, cracking, or glaze application problems, the key to success lies in learning from these challenges and using them as opportunities to grow as an artist. By applying the solutions outlined in this article, you’ll be well on your way to creating more polished and professional pottery pieces.

At The Artist Outpost, we offer pottery classes designed to help you master these techniques and overcome common pottery hurdles. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced potter, our classes are tailored to your skill level and interests. You can learn more about our classes by visiting our Pottery Classes page.

Want to dive even deeper? Check out our article on Creating Functional Art: How Pottery Classes at The Artist Outpost Turn Practical Beauty into Masterpieces or discover the benefits of taking a class as a beginner with Why Pottery Classes for Beginners Are Beneficial: Unlocking Creativity, Reducing Stress, and More.