Field guide · Volume one
Learn to read a pot with your hands.
Weight, foot, rim, glaze. Handmade ceramics carry the record of how they were made. This guide teaches you what to look for, how to name it, and how to keep a good pot in use for decades.
01 · The shelf
Twelve shapes, and what each one asks of the potter
Filter by what a form is for. Every silhouette here is a classic thrown shape; the note under each tells you the one detail worth checking when you pick it up.
Showing 12 of 12 shapes
-
ChawanDrinking · tea bowl
Wide and low for whisked tea. Turn it over: the trimmed foot is meant to be seen and judged.
-
YunomiDrinking · handleless cup
A tall everyday tea cup. Walls should be thick enough to hold while the tea is still hot.
-
MugDrinking · handled
Cylinder plus handle. A good pulled handle joins high, clears your knuckles and balances the cup.
-
TumblerDrinking · tapered
No handle, slight taper. Feel for a thin rim and a heavier base; that weight keeps it steady.
-
JugPouring · pitcher
Belly for volume, a pulled lip for a clean cut-off. The handle must carry a full pour.
-
TeapotPouring · assembled
Body, spout, lid and handle are made separately. The spout tip should sit level with the rim.
-
BottleStorage · narrow neck
Thrown open, then collared in at the end. A narrow neck slows evaporation and shows control.
-
Bud vaseDisplay · single stem
Small enough that one stem fills it. Look for a neck that is even all the way round.
-
Serving bowlServing · open form
A rim that tips slightly outward is easier to lift. A strong foot ring keeps it stable when full.
-
PlateServing · flat
The hardest shape to throw without slumping. Set it on a table and check that it does not rock.
-
Lidded jarStorage · gallery rim
A recessed gallery holds the lid in place. A well-fitted lid seats with a soft, low sound.
-
Moon jarDisplay · joined form
Two thrown halves joined at the belly, a Joseon-era Korean form. Slight asymmetry is expected.
No shapes match those filters. Clear the handle filter or choose another use.
02 · Glossary
The anatomy of a vessel, from lip to foot
Potters describe a form the way anatomists describe a body. Once you know the terms, you can say exactly why one bowl feels right and another does not.
- Lip rim
- The edge you drink from. A slightly rolled or flared lip is comfortable; a thin, sharp one chips easily.
- Neck
- Any narrowing between the shoulder and the lip. Collaring in takes even pressure, so a straight neck is a sign of confidence.
- Shoulder
- The turn from the widest point up toward the neck. On jars and bottles decoration often lives here, where glaze sits best.
- Belly
- The widest part of the body. A belly set low makes a pot feel grounded; set high, it feels lifted.
- Foot ring kodai
- The trimmed, usually unglazed ring the pot stands on. It shows the raw clay, and a smooth, well-cut foot is a mark of care.
- Throwing rings
- Spiral ridges left by the potter's fingers as the wall rises. Kept on purpose, they record the speed and rhythm of the throw.
- Trimming
- Cutting away excess clay from the base at the leather-hard stage to lighten the pot and shape the foot. Over-trimmed pots feel thin at the bottom.
- Chatter tobikanna
- Rhythmic marks from a trimming tool bouncing against the surface. Accidental on most pots; a deliberate decoration in some Japanese traditions.
- Slip
- Clay thinned with water to a cream. Brushed, poured or trailed on for decoration, or used to join handles and spouts to the body.
- Bisque
- The first, lower firing that hardens raw clay while leaving it porous enough to soak up glaze. The second firing melts the glaze.
03 · Glazing
Glaze is glass, grown in the kiln
Three short readings: what a glaze actually is, the families you will meet most often, and how to read a finished surface for clues about the firing.
A glaze is a thin layer of glass fused to the clay. Every recipe balances three jobs: silica forms the glass, fluxes such as feldspar or whiting lower its melting point so the kiln can reach it, and alumina from clay stiffens the melt so it stays on the pot instead of running off.
Colour comes from small amounts of metal oxide. Half a percent of cobalt gives a strong blue; iron ranges from pale celadon green to near-black; copper turns green in an oxygen-rich kiln and red when oxygen is starved. The same recipe can look completely different at another temperature.
- Cobalt — blue at tiny amounts
- Iron, reduced — celadon green
- Iron, saturated — tenmoku black
- Copper, reduced — oxblood red
Celadon is an iron glaze fired in reduction: translucent blue-green that pools darker in carved lines. Tenmoku carries far more iron and breaks rust-brown where it thins over a rim. Shino is a thick feldspar glaze running from white to orange, often pinholed and crawled on purpose.
Ash glazes use wood ash as the flux and run in rivulets. Tin glaze is opaque white, the base for majolica and delftware. Salt and soda glazes form when vapour in the kiln reacts with the clay itself, leaving an orange-peel skin with no dipped coat at all.
- Celadon
- Tenmoku
- Shino
- Salt glaze
Hold the pot to the light. Glaze pooled thick inside the bottom of a bowl means it was dipped and left to drain. Three small scars on the base are stilt marks from the kiln shelf. A rim gone rust-brown shows the glaze thinned enough there for the iron in the clay to burn through.
Fine crackle lines are crazing: the glaze shrank more than the clay on cooling. On vitrified stoneware it is cosmetic; on porous earthenware it lets liquid into the body. A rough, pitted surface was probably underfired or applied too thick.
- Earthenware, about 1000–1150 °C
- Stoneware, about 1200–1300 °C
- Porcelain, about 1250–1300 °C
04 · Care notes
Keeping a handmade pot in daily use
Good stoneware is tougher than it looks. Most damage comes from sudden temperature change, not from ordinary washing. Open each note for the short version.
Everyday washing
Warm water and a soft cloth are enough. Let a hot pot cool before it meets cold water, and never pour boiling water into a piece straight from the fridge: thermal shock cracks more pots than drops do.
Dishwasher and microwave
Fully vitrified stoneware and porcelain with a glazed interior are dishwasher safe. Keep earthenware, raku and anything with metallic lustre out of both machines: lustre arcs in a microwave, and porous bodies absorb water that then heats and can split the pot.
Crazing and stains
Tea and coffee settle into crazing lines. Lift them with a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water, or a short soak in diluted hydrogen peroxide. Avoid long bleach soaks, which wick into the clay and can smell for weeks.
Chips, cracks and rough feet
Soften a chipped rim with fine wet-and-dry paper. A crack through the wall retires the pot from hot liquids. Kintsugi uses urushi lacquer; modern epoxy repairs are strong but not food-safe, so keep repaired pieces decorative. Smooth a rough foot ring with a diamond pad so it stops scratching tables.
About this guide
Independent, unsponsored, and written to be used
Vesselgrove is a reference for people who own, buy or simply like handmade pots. It is not affiliated with any maker, gallery or shop, and it does not sell anything. Where a term has a Japanese or Korean origin it is credited, because those traditions shaped how the rest of the world talks about pots.
Privacy
No analytics, no tracking
This site is three static files. It loads no scripts from other domains, sets no cookies, uses no analytics and collects no personal data. Filter and tab choices live only in your browser for as long as the page is open.