Can you do pottery with long nails?!?!

[KF-hidz]

I did a quick wheel workshop as a girls night with some of my friends. My nails were long (like slightly shorter than your extensions) and.... Uh I was definitely picking clay out from under my nails for the rest of the weekend.

[kat]

To get the clay out of long nails, I’ve seen people heat-bend the head of toothbrush at an angle, and then use it to shrub out the underside

[LexyGarcia]

silicone finger cots/covers!! they literally just go over the tips of your fingers and smooth it out! i've been doing ceramics for three years and they are game changers!

[blueburrry]

i used to work with clay a lot and love keeping my natural nails long, and i pretty much do exactly as you did. the only real issues i have with long nails and throwing is how often i accidentally scratched my pieces(i just wasn’t careful enough), and how damaging it is to your natural nail if you dont have some sort of polish on it at least, which made them break easier. if your clients have extensions they shouldn’t worry, but you might want to warn anyone about bare, long natural nails!!

[Princeps_Cretaceus]

i have very long nails usually because i grow them out and i’ve never had issues with sculpting or pottery!! i feel like you just need to get used to them and then you know how to work around them
(that being said i don’t do pottery often but i do lots of other activities with my nails that people usually need short nails for)

[ellepwnzstevedaily]

I’m so envious of long nail havers and also wanna try a Russian mani, but good lord the amount of dirt that would accumulate working with plants makes it a hard no. Maybe in the dead of winter I’ll finally give it a try. I don’t do a lot of plant work then, other than keeping my greenhouse warm. Congrats on another year with your boo!

[Sqweetchy]

As a nail artist that loves to throw, it's a struggle but the plus side is i do my own nails so I can remove and reapply them as needed

[creakyquercus]

You can try wearing disposable gloves and putting cottonballs in the fingertips, or wearing silicone finger cots under the gloves! This makes a smoother surface so you don't scratch the pot and protects the nails from the clay.

[glennleon]

Hey I do pottery and was wondering if you could do a tutorial on how to do that design with the riv, thanks so much!

[nikkir]

I totally agree. When my nails start to grow past my finger tips I can cone 🎉up and down, but I end up scraping both the inside and outside of the walls of my pot.

[star_night_studio]

I had nails for my first ceramics class two semesters ago and since we started with hand building and coils, they helped with getting in the tiny crevices my tools couldn’t reach, but I had small nail marks when I was making slabs 😂
By the time we got to the wheel, I didn’t have the nails anymore, but I think I got some near the end of the semester still in the wheel
Hindering for a lot of things, but helpful for a lot of things, too!

[Rayfay]

I felt that under-nail complaint in my soul lol. As someone who naturally have long nails, I tried using my double jointed thumb and knuckles to go around, but in a different way. I’m new to the wheel and seeing your way around it is giving me ideas, so thanks lol

[azazelviper]

Hi nail tech/artist/ cosplayer and maker here, please use a scrubby nail brush to get any dirt from under nails, and if you use clay make sure you dont het any clay or moisture should those start to lift, thats yhe last thing you want to do is deal with the greenies

[chloeo]

I loved seeing the different techniques! And I think a little nail brush would make washing much much easier :)

[ellelovsu]

this is what i do! i have long natural nails and tend to just use knuckles and strange hand positions to avoid ripping my pieces up 💔

[awyta_de_limon]

I keep my natural nails pretty long, when i first went to pottery class everyone told me it was probably better to cut them off, but i've had my nails this length since i was young and i've done artsy stuff for far longer so they have become part of my tools and something very annoying to not have, and yeah they are hardvto use on the wheel but it's not the first time i had to avoid them when working so i'm also pretty used to using my tools in ways that replace my fingers, a favorite i have are a set of plastic tools made for kids but they include shapes that are pretty useful for anything, but you could even use just a butter knife and spoon

[hellohumans]

I am a student that is currently in sculptures and I love doing my nails but also love working with clay. My teacher, from the get go, told us that if your nails are long, natural or fake, to get a nail brush, which has been such a life saver for me. They usually come in pedicure kits or you can order them by themselves online

[meoweowe]

if you haven’t already gotten them removed and you have some sharp clippers you could go ahead and cut the nails to the length of your natural nail underneath to make things easier until you’re able to have the rest removed

[vrtualren]

definitely agree bc i do a ceramics/sculpture class rn in school and its so fun but whenever my nails are a bit too long, i find myself getting bits of dried clay under my nails every single time after class 😭

[meowscutie]

Try a square, squoval, ballet, or oval in a slightly shorter length next time 😊 that may be easier to tolerate or easier to limit the clay getting stuck. I bake with long nails and while it feels absolutely disgusting, you get used to the feeling eventually and it stops bothering when stuff is under there.
Before anybody starts, i do clean under my nails. I do not put anything that was under my nails back into the dough or whatever I'm working on.