Coil Pottery for Beginners

The unbearable heat of Tucson summer has pushed me indoors, making it hard to finish the "Ancient Pottery Challenge". Here is my response to that situation, some basic coil pottery for beginners instruction. Learn how to make coil pots by learning these foundational skills in hand building pottery.

❤️ Support my channel

🛍 Shop for pottery related goodies

📚 Improve your pottery skills

⭐️ Social media

📬 Send me mail
Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

[AncientPottery]

I hope this video inspires some of you to get started making coil pottery. It's not hard, does not require any specialized equipment and is very therapeutic.

[DanCooper]

Watching these videos because I want to make a Bronze Age-style cremation urn for myself out of the native clay from my property.

[lynnann]

I just sold my wheel yesterday. Bitter sweet. I have Parkinson’s and have lost strength in my arms.
But, my lifetime ceramics experience has been hand building.
I found your videos at the perfect moment! 🙏 onward!

[ilsegomez]

I'm so glad I found this channel, I don't want use the wheel I want to learn how the original potters did it with their hands and handmade tools

[fivel]

I never realized I wanted to try this. My whole property is this beautiful clean red clay. I didn't realize I could just add sand and it could be workable and fired right in my yard! Now to try and make some mugs or something to give it a shot 😊

[crystalsoulslayer]

Your whole channel has very strong PBS energy, which is a fantastic thing to have. Very informative and soothing. (The exact opposite of school. Zing!) The clay looks so satisfying to handle. squish squish squish squi

[MawoDuffer]

They always taught coil pottery in school because they didn’t have pottery wheels, but they never taught us to blend the coils together. I like this smoother method better.

[tonyconley]

I just have gotten back into pottery after 13 years of not touching it. I must thank you for being so descriptive for those of us who are blind. I hope to someday become confident enough to not only gather clay, but make and fire it myself.

[dustinlamberta]

Cool to see such a skilled potter face challenges making a hard pot in hard conditions and return to making a basics video. The cycle goes round and round

[kevinm]

I can't tell you how great your videos are and how much they are helping me. I'm working on recreating Scandinavian pottery for the early medieval period and there is nobody making videos about that, but the Norse at the time were doing pinch and coil ceramics and your videos have been a tremendous help for me in recreating some period pieces. Thanks for all you do!

[aubrey]

Hello from Santan Valley, Arizona absolutely 100% agree with it being the temperature of the sun lol. Thanks for all your great content.

[janewhite]

Your comments are always so constructively supportive, you’re a great teacher

[stacy]

I’ve always wanted to make pottery. Your video was the first pottery video I watched and now I am obsessed with harvesting my own clay and using all these ancient methods of making pottery. Your videos are always so informative and to the point. Thank you for making these videos ❤️

[crowstudios]

This was absolutely fantastic! I've had a lot of trouble trying to control the shape of my pottery but I think if I implement what you showed here, I'll have some better success! Thank you so much.

[louisemacdonald]

Hello from Ontario Canada, I love your knowledge and talent. I harvested some clay and I think I have too much sand gonna keep watching and learning. Thank you. I’m excited to learn a new art form.

[Cocohue]

Hi im from the Philippines but currently residing in NZ. Im starting to learn more about pottery and yours is by far my favorite channel! I love that you use anything that's available and how you make things easy and simple to learn and remember! I am definitely signing up for your classes!

[peterforner]

I live in Coober Pedy South Australia ( Opal mining town in the central desert area ). We have brutal summers also, fortunately I live in a Dug-out ( underground house ) where even during our 110F days its about 75F in our underground living area, work rooms. I have a exploration drill that drills a 36" hole when exploring for opal. A few days ago at about 10 feet I drilled through some really interesting ground that had a seam of moist clay about 6" thick. I have always wanted to learn how to make pottery without a wheel or expensive purchase of a kiln. Your videos are great, thank-you. Regards, Peter

[Temajuki]

This video helped me out so much. I started over for the second time yesterday since I was fighting against my project so bad. The third iteration using your techniques made it so much more enjoyable to make my pot and I was able to complete it from scratch within 5 hours. Thank you for the educational video 😊😊😊

[renpixie]

Perfect . This video is exactly what I needed. Stay safe in this heat.

[GBobFree]

Recently discovered your channel, and wanted to thank you for the fantastic content you have created. I recently retired to Thailand, and have access to some clay soils here on my GF's land and in neighboring areas. I think you've just inspired me to start doing some soil analysis here to see if I can begin to collect my own soil and extract the clay from it to make pottery.