Pottery forming techniques are conventionally grouped into three families: hand-building (pinching, coiling, slab), wheel throwing, and slip casting.[Wikipedia] Industrial methods (jiggering, ram pressing, injection moulding) are out of scope for studio practice.
The oldest and simplest technique: a ball of clay is opened with the thumb and walls are gradually pinched outward.[Wikipedia] Best suited to palm-sized vessels — pots, bowls, cups — where wall thickness can be controlled by feel.
Construction by winding long cylindrical rolls of clay on top of one another, allowing each layer to firm up before the next.[Wikipedia] Permits greater shape variety than throwing — coils can build any silhouette including extreme curves.
Flat sheets of clay are rolled out (slab roller or rolling pin), cut to shape, and joined.[Artsper] The only handbuilding technique that naturally produces flat planes — ideal for boxes, tiles, and angular sculpture.
A lump of clay is centred on a spinning wheel and shaped by the potter's hands as it rotates.[Wikipedia] The fastest path to symmetrical rotational forms (cylinders, bowls, plates) and the most iconic ceramic technique. Steep learning curve compared to handbuilding.
Liquid clay (slip) is poured into a porous plaster mould, which absorbs water and builds a clay layer against the mould wall. Excess slip is poured off, leaving a hollow shell that conforms exactly to the cavity.[Wikipedia] The only technique that produces identical copies and supports undercuts / square forms / very thin walls.
