Hand Building Techniques Handbook

By: Drew, Mack

Most pottery books hand you projects. This one hands you the physics.
Hand Building Techniques Handbook is a complete, ground-up guide to pinch, coil, and slab construction - the three techniques that let you build anything in clay without ever touching a wheel. Across 30 chapters, you'll move from raw clay and basic tools through advanced forming, joining, surface decoration, and firing, with the reasoning behind every technique explained clearly enough to apply on your own work, not just copy.
Inside, you'll learn how to: Master pinch, coil, and slab construction as a single connected skill set, not three unrelated techniquesUnderstand the physics of moisture stages, shrinkage, and joint failure so you can diagnose problems instead of guessingCombine techniques within a single piece and move from vessels to sculptural forms with confidenceSet up a safe, efficient studio workflow around wedging, tools, and clay preparationTake work through drying, bisque firing, glazing, and glaze firing without cracking or losing piecesTroubleshoot the most common handbuilding failures with a dedicated diagnostic chapter you'll return to for yearsThis is a working reference, not a project book. It's built for the studio bench: consulted early for foundational technique, and returned to for years on joining, firing, and troubleshooting - long after the basics are second nature. The historical and cross-cultural chapter grounds the techniques in tradition, while the closing chapter helps you develop your own practice and body of work.
Hand building rewards patient, repeated practice - and having a single, thorough reference at your elbow while you learn shortens that road considerably. Whether you're picking up clay for the first time or filling gaps in self-taught technique, this handbook is built to be your studio companion from your first pinch pot to your most ambitious sculptural piece.Keep it on the shelf nearest your bench - not in a drawer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HDZWPK5Z
• ISBN13: 9798191924366
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 1.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.5" x 11.0"