Pottery stories #1: Hand-building, the oldest way to shape clay
Long before the wheel, people shaped clay by hand to make the very first vessels. Three hand-building techniques are still used today.
Look closely at a hand-built piece and you will see that every form is built from layers of clay pressed, smoothed and joined. Whether it becomes a jar or a bowl, it all begins with a pair of hands.
Pinching
Take a ball of clay, press a thumb into the centre, then turn and pinch the walls evenly. It is the quickest way to make cups and small bowls, and the first lesson for beginners.
Coiling
Clay is rolled into long ropes, stacked in rings and smoothed together. Coiling makes large jars and vessels that are hard to throw on a wheel.
Slab building
Clay is rolled into sheets, cut to shape and joined. It suits trays, square plates and forms with crisp edges.
The beauty of imperfection
Hand-built pieces are rarely perfectly round. The fingerprints and smoothing marks left on the surface give them a character no machine can copy.