Handbuilt, a Potter’s Guide: Master Timeless Techniques, Explore New Forms, Dig and Process Your Own Clay

In Handbuilt, A Potter’s Guide, pottery expert Melissa Weiss shows you the basics of crafting without a wheel, how to harvest and work wild clay, and using natural glazes.

Handbuilt pottery is the perfect way for new potters to dive into this unique medium because it doesn’t require access to a potter’s wheel. In Handbuilt, A Potter’s Guide, Melissa Weiss takes an organic approach to harvesting and working with local clays, and even shows you how to mix your own glazes to use on functional pottery for use at home.

Students of pottery the world over have traveled to North Carolina to attend Weiss’s classes. Now you don’t have to! In this book, Melissa provides you with:

• A solid course on slab and pinch-pot techniques that allow beginning students to master the basics and progress through finished wares.
• Exclusive knowledge of how to dig and process local clays for use in pottery.
• Techniques she has developed for creating unique glazes with ash, salt, and other dry materials.
• Introductions to talented contemporary potters, who will share their work, tips, advice, and techniques.

Learn the basics of handbuilding and more with this engaging guide.

Melissa Weiss is an Asheville, North Carolina potter and a true handmade maker. Each pot she makes contains clay that she digs up on her land in Arkansas. From there, she drives the clay back to her studio in Asheville where she cleans it and incorporates it into her clay bodies. Melissa makes a variety of ash and celadon glazes and fires her pots in a gas reduction kiln. Melissa teaches classes in handbuilding at intervals throughout the year, including at the famous Penland Art School and the North Carolina Pottery Center. She also operates an 8,000 square foot art cooperative called Southside Studios that houses studio space for twenty potters. Melissa participates in shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and exhibits her work in galleries from New York City, to Fayetteville Arkansas.