Handbuilt Ceramics Paperback – Import, 25 October 2021

Learning hand building ceramics takes patience and practice this book is a great guide for people starting out or ready to learn more, its hard learning a new craft and most instructors are working in groups. I've learned new techniques and will try them soon.

I am just swapping materials so basic and some advanced info on working, glazing and firing.

Love this book I have been a potter for over 20 yrs loved the style of Jo’s works

The odd thing about this book is that it combines basic and overfamiliar 'introduction to handbuilding' sections with sophisticated and useful process descriptions by artists who make complex and difficult forms. I do get that this would make an inspiring aspirational link for beginners, since all handbuilt ceramic art ultimately relies on the several basic techniques. For more experienced makers, though, there really is a lot to be skimmed over. On the other hand, the 'how to' on basic pinching, slab work, coiling and press molding are a lot better than you find in many beginner's books - succinct and orderly with good attention paid to important problematic details.If you've been at it a while, though, it's the artist-contributers' sections that accompany each technique that are golden. I'd have paid $50 just for Claire Partington's brilliant technique for supporting leggy standing figures, complete with photos (seriously, a godsend for me at this moment) and a number of other useful, revelatory practical techniques shared by others. There are construction techniques and tips here that are hard to find if you can't afford to fly all over the country for workshops. Some of the most useful process pics I've seen, and not the usual.I thought the last part, on surface treatments, was the weakest - too much extremely basic (and unattractively illustrated) stuff that you find in every intro to ceramics book, though well done, and again, with some great surface-process description from the contributing artists. The problem is that the leap, say, between "oh, you can press a leaf into soft clay!" and how Partington achieves her wonderful, elaborate surfaces is just trying for too broad an audience - there are so many hand building books out there that cover beginner's ground and so few pitched to more advanced readers. I'd love to see more of the latter.So it's kind of uneven because it's trying to do too much but it's still terrific and will be one that I'll refer to frequently.

This was bought as a gift for a friend and she was delighted with it, noticing many great ideas at the initial flick through.