Potters

Potters are craftspeople who create objects from clay. They may work by hand-building or on a potter's wheel, and they fire the finished forms in a kiln to harden the clay and set glazes. Pottery covers a wide range of objects, from everyday vessels such as bowls and jars to sculptural and decorative pieces, produced for functional or expressive purposes.

Pottery is one of the oldest human crafts. Early vessels appear in many regions during the Neolithic, and the potter's wheel emerged in several cultures in the late 4th millennium BCE. Across the world, civilizations such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, and later Greece, Japan, and Korea developed distinct techniques and styles for shaping and finishing clay.

Common techniques include wheel throwing, hand-building (coil, pinch, and slab methods), and slip casting. Surfaces are finished with slips, engobes, and glazes, and the forms are bisque-fired before glaze-firing. Kilns may be wood-fired, gas, coal, or electric, and firing atmospheres can be oxidation, reduction, or wood-firing, which influence color and texture. Clay bodies include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.

Potters use tools such as a wheel, ribs, needles, knives, and sponges, along with bats, molds, and kiln furniture. They prepare clay by wedging, center on the wheel, shape the form, trim, dry, bisque-fire, glaze, and finally glaze-fire. Preparation, proportion, and surface treatment determine the durability and aesthetic of the finished piece.

In modern times, potters work in studios, cooperatives, schools, or industrial facilities. The studio pottery movement emphasized individual craftsmanship and natural glaze aesthetics, with figures such as Bernard Leach in Britain and Shoji Hamada in Japan shaping 20th-century practice. Native and regional traditions, such as Pueblo pottery, also contribute to the diverse craft of potting.