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  • HandoutHandbuilding Supply List

    Handbuilding Supply List

    Okay, so before we meet for the first class, let's get you set up. I'm not going to send you off to buy a $200 starter kit, because you don't need one and I distrust anyone who tells you otherwise. A butter knife, a fork, and a rolling pin get you further than people expect.

    Here's the list, split into what you actually need to start and what's nice to have once you're hooked.

    Budget Tier — Get This Before Day One

    • Clay, 25 lb bag, low-fire or mid-fire stoneware — I'll tell you which one in the welcome email, since it depends what the studio's kiln fires to. Don't buy this randomly online; get it from wherever our studio sources theirs, or ask me first.
    • A rolling pin — the one in your kitchen drawer is fine. You will never use it for pie crust again once clay's been on it, so maybe don't grab your favorite one.
    • Two wooden slats or yardsticks, same thickness — these guide your rolling pin so your slabs come out an even thickness instead of a wedge. Hardware store, cheap, or ask around, someone's garage has scrap wood the right size.
    • A butter knife and an old fork — for cutting slabs and scoring joins. Raid your own kitchen drawer, or grab a couple from a thrift store so nobody's mad when they come home clay-crusted.
    • A small container for slip — an old yogurt cup works. Slip is just clay and water mixed to a paste, and you'll use it constantly, so don't overthink the container.
    • A sponge — the cheap yellow kind, not the fancy car-washing one.
    • A needle tool or a sewing needle stuck in a cork — for trimming edges and popping air bubbles. If you don't have one, tell me, I keep extras.
    • Plastic sheeting or a shower cap — I know how that sounds. Hear me out below.
    • An apron or clothes you don't care about

    That's genuinely the whole list to get started. Total cost, if you're buying most of it new, should land under thirty dollars, less if you're raiding your own kitchen.

    Nice-to-Have Tier — Buy These Once You Know You Like This

    • A wooden modeling tool set (the wire-end, rib, and loop-tool kind) — maybe fifteen to twenty dollars, and it does make certain shaping jobs easier. I still use my kitchen fork for plenty of things, though, so don't feel behind if you skip this.
    • A canvas mat or old bedsheet to roll slabs on — keeps clay from sticking to the table and picks up a nice texture on the bottom of your piece.
    • A banding wheel (a little turntable) — genuinely useful for building even coil pots, but not required for this class.
    • A slab roller — no. Not yet. Wyatt built me one out of two dowels and a cutting board years ago and it was terrible and I used it for a year anyway because he was proud of it. You don't need one for a beginner class. Your rolling pin is fine.

    A Note on the Shower Caps

    I buy the giant multi-pack at Costco, not for anyone's hair, for covering work in progress. Our air here sits around 4,600 feet with low humidity, and slabs skin over and crack faster than you'd believe, sometimes in the ten minutes it takes to answer one email. I lost a whole batch of bowls this way once, learned my lesson, and now everything gets covered the second I step away, even briefly. Nobody believes me about the shower caps until they try it. Then they're converts.

    Shopping Notes

    Clay is heavy and a little inconvenient to haul around, so I'd rather you buy it through the studio or wait for my email telling you exactly which type and where, rather than guessing at a craft store. Everything else on the budget list you can find at a grocery store, a hardware store, or your own kitchen. Don't make a special trip. Don't overspend before you know if you like this.

    See you at the first class.

    ~erin

  • HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques and Settings

    Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques and Settings

    Okay, so this is the sheet I want you keeping on the table while you work, not filed away somewhere. Tape it to the wall if you have to. Here's the thing: none of this is complicated, but it's easy to forget under pressure, and clay does not wait for you to remember.

    ---

    Score and Slip (every join, no exceptions)

    1. Wherever two pieces of clay meet, scratch up both surfaces with a fork or a serrated rib. Don't be delicate about it — real cross-hatching, not a few polite lines.
    2. Add a thin layer of slip (clay mixed with water to the texture of yogurt) to both scored surfaces.
    3. Press the pieces together firmly. Smooth the seam on both sides.
    4. Let it sit a minute before you move it.

    Skipped joins are the number one reason a pot cracks in the kiln. I've watched it happen enough times that I don't argue about this one anymore. Score and slip, every time, no matter what you read on the internet.

    ---

    Moisture Stages (know your clay by feel)

    • Wet/plastic — fresh from the bag, workable, sticks to your hands a little. Good for coils, bad for anything you need to trim cleanly.
    • Leather-hard — firm but still cool and slightly flexible, like cold cheddar. This is your sweet spot for cutting, joining, and adding handles.
    • Bone dry — no give at all, pale in color, room temperature. Nothing joins well here. Don't try to force it.

    The mistake I see most: joining a leather-hard piece to a wet one. They dry at different rates and pull apart from each other later. Get both pieces to the same stage before you join them.

    ---

    Slab Building, Quick Version

    • Roll slabs to an even thickness — a scrap-wood guide on either side of your rolling pin keeps you honest.
    • Let slabs firm up to leather-hard before cutting your final shapes.
    • Compress edges with a rib before joining.
    • Cover everything you're not actively touching. See below — I mean it.

    Coil Building, Quick Version

    • Roll coils evenly, no thin spots, no tapering — an uneven coil is a weak point later.
    • Blend each coil into the one below with your thumb, inside and out, until you can't tell where one ends and the next starts.
    • Build a little, then pause and let it firm up before adding more height. Stacking too fast is how walls slump.

    ---

    The Dry Air Problem

    We're up around 4,600 feet here and the air is dry, full stop. Slabs skin over faster than you think they will, sometimes in the time it takes to answer one email. A skinned-over slab cracks the second you try to bend or join it.

    Cover anything you're not actively working with plastic. I buy the giant multipack of shower caps at Costco for exactly this — not for showering, for covering bowls and lids-in-progress. People don't believe me until they try it, then they're converts.

    ---

    Tools That Actually Get You Started

    • Butter knife
    • Fork (for scoring)
    • Rolling pin
    • A rib or old credit card for smoothing

    You do not need the $200 kit on day one. Buy real tools once you know which ones you're missing.

    ---

    A Word on Symmetry

    Don't chase it. A slightly irregular coil pot has more personality than a machine-smooth one, and beginners lose whole evenings trying to force perfect evenness out of hand-built clay, which was never going to be perfectly even. Fix cracks. Fix weak joins. Leave the wobble alone.

    ---

    ~erin

  • WorksheetHandout 3: Joins, Cracks, and Keeping Things Alive Under Plastic

    Handout 3: Joins, Cracks, and Keeping Things Alive Under Plastic

    You've heard me say most of this out loud already. Here it is on paper so you can check yourself when I'm not standing over your shoulder. Fill this in as you go through today's build.

    ---

    Before You Join Anything

    • [ ] Both pieces are the same leather-hard stage. Press a knuckle in gently — if one dents easy and the other doesn't, wait.
    • [ ] I scored both surfaces. Not one. Both.
    • [ ] I applied slip to both scored surfaces, not just a smear on top.
    • [ ] I pressed the join together and worked the seam with a tool, inside and out, until I couldn't find the line anymore.

    Here's the thing: skipped joins are the number one reason pots crack in the kiln. I don't have a softer version of this rule. Score and slip, every join, no exceptions, no matter what anybody's cousin's pottery teacher told them.

    ---

    Moisture Check (Do This More Than You Think You Need To)

    Write down what your clay felt like right before you covered it or walked away:

    Time: ______ Feel (soft / leather-hard / starting to skin): ______

    Time: ______ Feel: ______

    Our air out here is dry and we're sitting around 4,600 feet, and clay skins over faster than you expect — faster than it would basically anywhere with real humidity. Ten minutes answering an email cost me a whole batch of bowls once. Under plastic means under plastic, even for a bathroom break.

    • [ ] Everything not actively in my hands is covered.
    • [ ] I'm not trusting a damp cloth alone — plastic on top of it.

    ---

    Symmetry Check-In (Optional, Sort Of)

    Circle one:

    My piece is a little irregular and I'm at peace with that. My piece is a little irregular and I want to fix it anyway.

    If you circled the second one — ask yourself whether you're fixing a crack or fixing a personality. Cracks, fix. Personality, maybe leave alone. A slightly wonky coil pot usually has more going on than a perfectly even one. That's not me being nice, I mean it.

    ---

    Crack Watch

    If you find a crack today, note it here before you patch or scrap it:

    Where on the piece: ______________________

    What was the clay doing right before (too dry, too wet, joined without scoring, dropped, other): ______________________

    What I think caused it: ______________________

    I'll ask you this in class anyway — why do you think it cracked — so you might as well write your guess down now while it's fresh.

    ---

    Tool Check (End of Session)

    • [ ] Sharp tools and the wire are put away, not left on the table edge.
    • [ ] Scraps are in the reclaim bucket, not the trash — clay's expensive and reclaim's free.
    • [ ] Table wiped wet, not swept dry. Clay dust in the air is not something you want in your lungs, and a dry sweep just puts it there.
    • [ ] My piece is labeled and covered before I leave.

    ---

    One Line for Next Time

    What's the one thing you'd do differently on your next join or your next slab?

    ______________________________________________

    Bring this back next session. I'll ask.

    ~erin

  • HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide

    Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide

    Here's the thing—almost every problem you'll hit in slab and coil work is one I've hit too, usually more than once. None of it means you're bad at this. It means clay is telling you something and you just need to know how to listen. Keep this handout near your work table.

    ---

    1. My slab cracked while I was building. Nine times out of ten, this is a moisture mismatch. You joined a piece that had skinned over to a piece that was still soft, or your slab dried unevenly while you were working on something else. Fix: keep unused pieces under plastic (I use shower caps, buy the big Costco pack, I mean it) and check that everything you're joining feels the same in your hands before you join it.

    2. My walls collapsed or slumped while I was building. Your clay was too wet, or you tried to stack height before the bottom layer had firmed up enough to support it. Slow down. Let a wall set up to leather-hard before you build on top of it. This isn't a race.

    3. My piece cracked in the kiln. This is almost always a join that wasn't scored and slipped properly. I don't care what shortcut you saw online. Score both surfaces, add slip, press and blend, every single time. My first slab box cracked clean down a corner because I skipped this when I was feeling confident. I kept the pieces on my windowsill for a year so I wouldn't forget.

    4. My coils keep cracking as I roll them. The clay's too dry, or you're rolling too fast and creating stress instead of an even taper. Work slowly from the center out, and if the clay feels crumbly, wedge in a little water or start fresh.

    5. My pot is lopsided. Honestly, let it go if it's not affecting the structure. I'm not chasing symmetry in this class and I don't think you should either. A slightly irregular pot has more character than something that looks machine-made. Fix cracks. Don't fix personality.

    6. My clay skinned over before I even started. Welcome to living at 4,600 feet with dry air working against you the whole time. This happens fast here, faster than most tutorials assume, because they weren't filmed in Utah County. Cover everything, even for a ten-minute email detour. I lost an entire batch of bowls this way once, learned it the hard way so you don't have to.

    7. My lid doesn't fit the box. You're not alone and neither am I. Lids are fiddly, and my own success rate is honestly about seventy percent. Build the lid slightly oversized and trim down rather than the other way around; you can always take more off.

    8. My handle or attached piece fell off after drying. Same root cause as most cracks: no score and slip, or a moisture mismatch between the two pieces at the time of joining. Also check that you didn't attach something heavy to a wall that hadn't firmed up enough to hold it.

    9. My glaze looks blotchy or too busy. Probably applied too heavy, or there's too much going on. Beginners tend to over-decorate. Less glaze reads as more intentional, almost always.

    10. I don't know why it cracked. Ask yourself what I ask you in class: what was different about this join versus the ones that held? Usually you'll find the answer yourself, and you'll remember it better than if I'd just told you.

    ---

    If something goes wrong and it's not on this list, bring it to class. I'd rather you make the mistake and understand it than have me quietly prevent it for you.

    ~erin

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —and that's the thing nobody tells you before they hand you a lump of clay, right? That it's going to fight back a little.

    ERIN: It's going to fight back a lot, actually. I'll be honest with you. That's kind of the whole class.

    JESS: Okay, so for anyone just tuning in, this is the podcast for Handbuilt Pottery, Slab and Coil, the community-ed class starting next week at the center. I'm Jess, I produce these things. And this is Erin, who's teaching it.

    ERIN: Hi, you guys.

    JESS: So episode one, we usually just talk about what people are walking into. Set expectations.

    ERIN: Sure. Here's the thing I want people to know before they show up. Handbuilding is not the class you take because you couldn't hack it on the wheel. I actually came to it because I couldn't hack the wheel — I took a few sessions near the point of the mountain a few years back and made, honestly, ashtrays. For a family that doesn't smoke. Nobody in my house smokes. I just made bad ashtray-shaped things.

    JESS: I love that you lead with your own failure.

    ERIN: Well, it's true. The wheel wants you to let go of control at exactly the moment you don't want to, and I don't let go of control gracefully. Slab and coil is different. You cut, you measure, you plan, and if you get it wrong you can usually rebuild before it's ruined. It rewards being stubborn. I have that in supply.

    JESS: You mentioned once, off-mic, an argument you had with an actual studio instructor about joins. Can we use that one?

    ERIN: Oh, sure, that's a good one for week one actually. So years back, another instructor and I got into it — genuinely, twenty minutes, in front of other students — about whether you have to score and slip every single join, every time, or whether some joins are close enough that you can skip it.

    JESS: And where'd you land?

    ERIN: I was mostly right. Which — fine, she was gracious about it, we're still friendly. But mostly right. You score and slip every join. No exceptions. I don't care how confident you feel or how good your hands look that day. I've watched too many pots crack clean through in the kiln because somebody eyeballed a seam instead of actually roughing it up and wetting it down properly.

    JESS: That's basically the one hill you'll die on.

    ERIN: It's the one hill. I'm happy to argue almost anything else with you. Not that.

    JESS: Okay, give people something they can use right now, before they've even signed up. One practical thing.

    ERIN: Cover your work. That's it, that's the tip. We're at what, forty-six hundred feet, dry air, and clay skins over so much faster than people expect. I lost an entire batch of bowls once because I stepped away to answer a work email — ten minutes, tops — and by the time I came back the slabs had crusted and cracked along the edge. Now I keep everything under plastic the second I'm not actively touching it. And honestly, go to Costco, buy the giant pack of shower caps. Not for showering. For covering little bowls and cups mid-project. Nobody believes me on this until they try it, and then they're buying shower caps by the dozen.

    JESS: I believe you, for the record.

    ERIN: You say that now.

    JESS: What about tools? People always ask if they need to buy a whole kit before showing up.

    ERIN: No. Please don't. A butter knife, a fork, a rolling pin from your kitchen drawer — that gets you further than people expect. I don't trust anybody who tells a beginner they need two hundred dollars of gear before they've made a single pinch pot. Buy the real tools later, once you know what you actually reach for.

    JESS: Good. Okay, so next session — what are people walking into on day one?

    ERIN: Day one we're doing slabs. Rolling them out even, cutting basic shapes, and I'm going to have everyone build a simple box, because a box teaches you every join you'll need for the rest of the class. It won't be pretty. That's fine. I'd rather you understand why a seam cracked than have me quietly fix it before you ever see it go wrong.

    JESS: Low stakes, high learning.

    ERIN: Basically. And bring a container with a lid from home, something you like the shape of, because we'll talk about proportion using stuff you already own.

    JESS: I like that. Okay, that's episode one. Erin, thank you.

    ERIN: Thanks for having me. See you guys next week — cover your clay.

    JESS: ~erin, everybody. That's how she signs off literally everything, so.

    ERIN: It's a habit.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —and that's the thing, right, you can't just wave a fork at wet clay and call it texture.

    ERIN: You can, actually. That's exactly what you do. I don't know what you're objecting to.

    JESS: I'm not objecting, I'm narrating for people who weren't in the room. Okay. So welcome back, this is episode two of the Slab and Coil podcast, I'm Jess, I produce these for Utah Community Learning, and this is Erin, who is apparently defending forks now.

    ERIN: I'll defend a fork to the death. A fork and a butter knife and a rolling pin got me through my first two years of this. You do not need a $200 tool kit to make a good pot. You need patience and something to score the clay with.

    JESS: Score the clay meaning—

    ERIN: Meaning before you join two pieces, you scratch up both surfaces where they're going to touch, add a little slip, which is just clay and water mixed to the texture of yogurt, and then press them together. Every join. No exceptions. This is the one rule I don't budge on.

    JESS: You said in session one that people push back on this.

    ERIN: They do, and I don't mind, I like the argument, but I'm right. I once spent twenty minutes arguing about it with a studio instructor I actually respect, and I was mostly right and she was mostly gracious about it. But here's the thing: skipped joins are why pots crack in the kiln. I've watched it happen enough times that I stopped feeling bad about being rigid on this one point.

    JESS: Give us the anecdote. You said you had one for this session.

    ERIN: Okay, so. Maddox, my youngest, was born last year, and the first pot I made after that was during a two a.m. feeding where I was too wired to go back to sleep. I just went down to the kitchen table with him kind of propped against me and started building a little coil pot with one hand, basically.

    JESS: With a baby attached.

    ERIN: With a baby attached, yeah. It's ugly. It's genuinely one of the worst-constructed pots I own, the walls are uneven, I definitely rushed a join or two. And I love it. It's on my windowsill. I'm not precious about my own work most of the time, but that one I'd grab out of a fire.

    JESS: See, that undercuts your whole symmetry rant from last week.

    ERIN: It doesn't undercut it, it proves it. Nobody looks at that pot and cares that it's crooked. They ask about the story. That's the whole point I keep making — chase character, not perfection. Fix actual cracks. Leave the personality alone.

    JESS: Okay, give the people a tip. Something they can use tonight, no class required.

    ERIN: Cover your work. I will say this every single session until it's annoying, and I'm annoying myself right now saying it again, but our air here is so dry, we're at what, forty-six hundred feet, low humidity most of the year, and clay skins over fast. Faster than people believe. I lost an entire batch of bowls once because I stepped away to answer work email for ten minutes and came back to slabs that had cracked at the edges.

    JESS: Ten minutes.

    ERIN: Ten minutes. So here's my actual tip, and nobody believes me until they try it: go to Costco, buy the giant multipack of shower caps, not for showering, for covering your work in progress. They stretch right over a bowl or a slab, they seal better than a plastic sheet you're constantly readjusting, and they're cheap enough that you don't feel bad using six of them on one project.

    JESS: That's a genuinely strange piece of advice and I believe it completely.

    ERIN: Everyone reacts that way. Then they try it and they text me a photo of their pot under a shower cap like they've discovered fire.

    JESS: Okay, so next session, what are we building?

    ERIN: Next time we're doing our first real slab boxes, lids included, and I want to be upfront now so nobody's surprised later: lids are hard. Getting one to sit tight and clean on a box is fiddly work and my own success rate is maybe seventy percent. I'll teach you the method properly, I'm not going to pretend I've cracked it myself, but you should walk in expecting some trial and error.

    JESS: Manage expectations early.

    ERIN: Always. Bring your slabs from this week if they're dry enough to trim, and wear something you don't mind getting clay on, because we will be rolling.

    JESS: All right, that's episode two. See you next week for boxes and, apparently, humility.

    ERIN: Heck yes. ~erin, out.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —so you're telling me it's fixable, but he had to hear that word first.

    ERIN: He heard it. I was carrying a coil vase up my own stairs, nearly done, glazed, the whole thing, and I caught the edge of the step wrong. Gone. And I said a word I don't usually say in front of my kids.

    JESS: And Liam was right there.

    ERIN: Liam was right there. Twelve years old, just looked at me. I stand by it, honestly. That vase was three weeks of work.

    JESS: This is Handbuilt Pottery: Slab and Coil, episode three. I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Utah Community Learning, and this is Erin, who teaches the class and apparently has opinions about stairs now.

    ERIN: I have opinions about carrying finished work anywhere, honestly. Two hands, always, and know your route before you pick it up. That's the tip. That's free, you don't even have to take the class for that one.

    JESS: Okay, that's a good one. What are you guys actually covering this week, though?

    ERIN: This is the coil session. Last week was slabs, boxes, that kind of flat-panel construction. This week we're building up, walls with coils, and the whole lesson is about joins. Score and slip, every single one, no exceptions.

    JESS: You said that like it's a legal position.

    ERIN: It kind of is one for me. I will argue this with anyone. I got into a twenty-minute argument with a studio instructor once about whether you really need to score-and-slip every join, and I was mostly right, I'll say that plainly, and she was mostly gracious about it. We're still friendly. But here's the thing—unscored joins are why pots crack in the kiln. I've watched it happen too many times to treat it as optional.

    JESS: What does that actually look like, for someone listening who isn't in the room?

    ERIN: Okay, so, picture two pieces of clay you're trying to attach, a coil onto a base, say. If you just press them together smooth, it looks fine right now, today. But clay shrinks as it dries, and those two pieces, if they're not actually fused, they shrink at slightly different rates and pull apart invisibly. Then it goes in the kiln and the crack finds itself.

    JESS: So scoring is—

    ERIN: Roughing up both surfaces, little crosshatch marks, then slip, which is just clay mixed with water into a paste, brushed on both sides before you press them together. You're basically welding them with wet clay instead of just laying one on top of the other and hoping.

    JESS: You said last time to cover things constantly because of the dry air here. Does that connect?

    ERIN: Same family of problem. My very first slab box, years ago, cracked clean down one corner in the kiln, and it was because I joined the walls when the two pieces were at different moisture levels. One was tackier than the other. I didn't check. I kept the broken pieces on my windowsill for a year just to remind myself not to get confident.

    JESS: Do you still have them?

    ERIN: I do not, my husband finally threw them out, which was probably fair.

    JESS: You mentioned Wyatt built you a slab roller at some point?

    ERIN: Two dowels and a cutting board. Genuinely terrible tool. I used it for a whole year anyway because he was so proud of it, and you don't throw that away, even when it's bad engineering.

    JESS: This feels like the theme of your house, honestly. Everybody building something imperfect and you keeping it anyway.

    ERIN: That's fair. That might be the whole class philosophy, actually. Don't chase perfect symmetry, fix the cracks, not the personality. A slightly irregular coil pot has more going on than something that looks like it came out of a machine.

    JESS: Practical tip time. If someone's listening at home and wants to try this without signing up—

    ERIN: Shower caps. The big pack from Costco, not the studio ones, the actual shower caps meant for showering. Stretch one over your work in progress the second you step away, even for ten minutes. I lost an entire batch of bowls once because I answered a work email and the slabs skinned over and cracked while I wasn't looking. At our elevation, the air just pulls moisture out of clay fast. Nobody believes me on the shower caps until they try it once.

    JESS: And then they believe you.

    ERIN: Every time.

    JESS: Okay, so next session—

    ERIN: Next time we're building actual vessels start to finish, taking the coil technique from this week and making something with a real form, a vase or a deep bowl, and we'll talk about smoothing the coils into a wall so it doesn't read as coils anymore, if that's the look you want. Or leaving them visible, if you like that texture, which I actually prefer most of the time.

    JESS: Bring your own opinions on that one.

    ERIN: Please do. I like being pushed back on.

    JESS: We'll see you guys next week. Thanks, Erin.

    ERIN: Thanks, Jess. ~erin, as always, if anyone's reading this instead of listening.

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