Make Pottery At Home Without a Kiln (Or Anything Else)

Learn to make pottery at home without any special tools, kilns or other equipment. In this video I show how anyone can easily make pottery using just basic tools you already have, can easily purchase or can make yourself. Follow along as I take you through the whole process of making a bowl from forming with clay through firing in my driveway.

🔥 Resources mentioned in this video

🎥 Videos referenced in this video

0:00 Tools for making pottery at home
3:59 Work area setup for pottery at home
6:00 How to fire pottery without a kiln?
7:05 Forming pottery at home
11:30 Where do pukis come from?
13:10 Smoothing pottery at home
15:12 Firing pottery at home without a kiln
19:01 The big reveal, pottery made and fired at home

#potteryathome

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Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733

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[AncientPottery]

New here? Subscribe to learn how to make pottery simply and easily with basic tools. If you are a regular viewer and have questions go ahead and ask them here, I try to answer all comments.

[malcontentplays]

You are my saviour! I am poor… like not “I can’t afford my winter vacation to the Bahamas and my summer spa retreat this year” poor… I’m “I barely can afford rent and my phone and groceries every month” poor… and this actually gives me hope that my lifelong dream of making pottery may come true! People like you are the reason people like me have hobbies and can enjoy life. It’s not a big deal… it’s a HUGE deal!! Thank you so much.

[ankeuttajaespanjassa]

I have realized that companies have made us believe that we can't do things at home without expensove materials / equipment and it really pisses me off. I'm just on journey from making my own watercolor paint including the binder and because of that I stumbled to your videos and so thankful! Thank you for spreading the know how

[rjsongwriter]

So generous of you to demonstrate to those who would love to make pottery but don't have specialized equipment. There is a beauty in this type of pottery that doesn't exist in wheel formed pottery. This pottery is more human, has more charm, character, and "soul." Sure, pottery fired in this way isn't vitrified, but frankly, who cares! This way of making pottery is about art, not trying to compete with commercially made pottery.

[JoannCarolus]

I just learned more in this 19+ minute video than I did in an entire semester of college ceramics. Thanks!

[AdisiTaliWaya]

My Cherokee tribe would use clam shells to smooth out their pottery, and some even had patterns cut into the edges to scrape designs into the pots.
The creek near my home has freshwater clams, so I use them.
I also use mussel shells that I pick up when I travel to beaches on my vacations.
Beaches are a great place to find free polished rocks and shells that can be used instead of a gourd shell.

[lynnealuebben]

As an educator who helps homeschooling parents, often cost is what limits most education. I love ideas that help turn what we have into working models. Thank you for this.

[faith]

I'm sculpting with polymer clay, silently wishing we could use real clay, but no kiln, right? A few hours later and no research, this video pops up.
I love spirit!
Thank you 😊

[EmerlyNickel]

I mean this as a compliment:

Watching this video reminded me so much of watching public access shows in the 90s.
I don't know what it is: the sound, the editing, but all of it culminated into giving it that vibe and I love it!
I was hit with a wave of nostalgia.
Even seeing your cellphone on the table didn't take that nostalgia away :D

I'm definitely checking out the rest of your channel when I'm done watching this video. Thank you!

[mjremy]

I was shocked to hear the high sound of good vitrification on the terracotta bowl you made. It sounded very dense and strong. I expected a more fragile clay. I felt so nostalgic watching this. I grew up in the 60's so your music and general vibe in this video felt familiar. Not only an excellent video tutorial, but it reminded me of home. My parents were ceramists back in India. Their factory was well known. They were studio potters with a small workforce of highly skilled potters, glazers, packers. It was a small production place but supplied major outlets with art pottery for years. My dad made his own glazes, built his own electric kilns with kanthal wires, my mother prepared for art exhibitions. They even exhibited their pieces at the Victoria Albert Museum in London, UK. I still have those two pieces.
During the Indian monsoons, the weather cooled down, the rain fell in sheets, the clay dried on plaster slabs on the verandah before kneading, and the smell of baking pottery pervaded the rooms where we worked. There was a hum of activity and creativity that were the most beautiful and peaceful moments of my childhood. My parents were at their industrious best in that environment, my mother getting orders filled, my dad measuring out new glaze recipes on his scale. As the hot afternoon cooled into evening, the sun slanted into the rooms painting everyone golden. I remember each worker like a sepia photograph. I remember feeling sad when the day ended and we had to go home. I wanted to live there among the clay and ovens and glazes and wheels and dust and sweat and slip and molds. I loved that place. For years I felt so sad here without a kiln or pottery, raising kids and working inside a prison of walls, my creativity stifled.
Suddenly, I watch this video. I don't need a kiln. I have clay. I have a wheel. I can fire them in my back yard. I can use black and white engobes, and a pebble to burnish the pots to a satin gloss. I don't need glazes. I feel so liberated. I could even make pottery while traveling in my RV. All it takes is a campfire. Youtube is wonderful. And so are your videos. Thank you. Subscribed.

[tonitouchberry]

May I complement you sir? I am 79 years old and have taught silver and metal smithing. Also a sculpture teacher. I watch, "HOW TO" videos all the time. I admire your editing to cut out small talk to "get to the point", quickly and precisely. You are a good instructor! Thank you darlin!☺️
Keep crafts alive ... it may keep us alive!!!

[rockcollin]

Dude where have you been all my life? I love your videos! You're the perfect balance of

[AmbroseReed]

This is so interesting! Of course humans have been making pottery for millennia without wheels and modern tools, but I had somehow never put together just how accessible it could be

[d.d.d.a.a.a.n.n.n]

I love that you emphasize how valuable your hand are as tools. This gets overlooked so often as people want to buy the best tools, and forget their hands are amazing

[NeverSayNeverCreations]

As someone whose stuck to air clay because of the barriers to trying (mostly financial) this is so educational and is truly opening a lot of doors to grow and play with clay!

[caryhammond]

I'm USEING my late husband's tablet to watch your video He passed away a few months ago. He was a mater potter for 50 years. Your video is the first time I've been able to watch pottery making without bursting into a waterfall of tears ! I sculpt faces out of clay. I knew about your home firing technique from my own fireings long ago
Just wanted to tell you I enjoyed very much your teaching and allowing me a small step in my healing journey of living without him after 33yeats of this remarkable self taught potter. I miss him so very much. But watching you today was like he sent me a Get busy girl, you have things to do."Much love", Donna R

[chariddawn]

Very inspiring. My mom did pottery. She had a second house full of molds, several kilns, and when she died I was young and not aware. My dad sold everything for nothing. When I learned I had none of her art stuff I was devastated. I always wanted to continue her craft.

[motorcyclelad]

A beautiful mix of John Denver and Radar O’reiley❤️
This man has the wonderful heart of a teacher.

[creepypastapudding]

I love the small bowl is called a Pookie, it just fills me with joy

[AMKmusic]

I loved making pottery, one of my favorite art classes growing up and in college. I got disappointed that my dream of making pottery would never come to fruition because I didn't have a kiln/wheel/glazes. This video has revived that dream ☺