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The Process of Making Pottery

The Process of Making Traditional Pottery

So often people ask us, “How long does it take to make a piece of pottery?” In an attempt to answer this question we always tell people about the various steps to making pottery. We feel that pictures may be clearer than words. Illustrated here is the process of making an Acoma pot. We are indebted to Franklin Peters of Acoma pueblo who shared with us his time, material, skill, and good humor.

Click on any photo to enlarge!

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling |Slipping | Polishing | Painting

The Raw Materials

Acoma clay in its raw rock form — Raw Acoma clay rocks

A handful of old pot sherds waiting to be ground up for temper — Pot sherds to be ground up for temper

Acoma white slip in its natural rock form — White slip in raw rock form

Yellow slip in its raw rock form — Yellow slip as raw rock

Brown paint in its raw rock form

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

The Tools

Traditional tools used in making hand-made pottery — Building tools consisting of gourds, knife, and wooden spatula

Bowls used to start the bottom layers of a new coiled pot — Old pieces of pottery used as a form to start the pot also called “Base Bowls”

Natural yucca brushes, prepped and ready to paint — From right to left, the yucca soaking to soften, the yucca chewed to reveal fibers, the yucca trimmed and ready to use for painting

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

Preparation of the Clay

Acoma clay in its raw rock form — Clay in rock form

Base clay soaking to soften and prepare for fine grinding — Clay soaking to break up the hard bits and to make it malleable in preparation for sun drying and coarse grinding

Adding water in preparation to grind the clay more — Grinding the dry clay chunks into powder

Grinding the clay slowly, bit by bit — Grinding the dry clay chunks to powder

Grinding more clay, more grinding, more clay — Grinding the dry clay chunks to powder

Grinding the clay even finer — Grinding even finer

And even more grinding, the clay has to be really fine — And still more grinding

Testing to see if the clay is fine enough yet — Testing the clay for fineness

Scraping the ground clay into a bowl — Scraping the clay into a bowl

Clay being sifted for pebbles and other materials — Finished dry ground clay

A handful of old pot sherds waiting to be ground up for temper — Pottery shards used for tempering (adding additional structural support) the clay

Preparing to grind a pot sherd on a metate — Soaked pottery sherds to be ground

Pounding pot sherds with a hard stone — Pounding pot sherds with a stone

Pounding the pot sherds even finer with another stone — Pounding the pot sherds even finer

Still pounding and grinding pot sherds with a large stone — Still pounding and grinding…

Still pounding and grinding — Ground almost fine enough

Finely ground pot sherds to use for temper — Finally ground finely enough

Pouring out the ground clay for mixing — Pouring powdered clay on mixing stone which was handed down from his grandmother

Adding ground pot sherds to the clay — Adding ground pottery shards

Adding more ground pottery shards to the clay powder — Adding and mixing more ground pot sherds

Thoroughly mix the clay and the temper — Hand mixing powdered clay and powdered sherds

Beginning to add water to the mix of clay and temper — Adding the first water using traditional native Big Gulp cup

Hand mixing water and clay — Mixing water, clay, and shards

Roll the clay into a ball and scrape more clay off the mixing stone — Using a wooden tool to scrape up every bit of clay

Scraping every last bit of clay off the mixing stone — Scraping every bit of clay off the stone

Form the clay into a block and let it stand overnight to get ready — Forming the clay into a block to store it overnight to help it become more usable

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

Coiling

Tools, starter bowl and clay ready to start coiling — Water, tools, and pottery bowl in place to begin forming

Tools, starter bowl and clay ready to start coiling — Tools, starter bowl and water ready to begin

A small bit of clay to begin with — Starting with a small piece of clay

The clay gets worked to remove any air bubbles — Punching the clay repeatedly to remove air bubbles and then forming into a bowl shape

Forming a bowl shape — Forming the clay into a bowl shape

Using a piece of a gourd to work the clay on the inside — Using a gourd to work the clay outwards from the inside

Using — Using a gourd to work the clay outwards from the inside

Using a piece of gourd to work the clay out from the inside — Using a gourd to work the clay outwards from the inside

Placing the clay into the bowl form

Pushing the clay into a bowl form — Pushing the clay into the bowl form

Finished and ready for the first coil — Finished clay in bowl form

Preparing the first coil — Preparing clay for the first coil

Pounding the clay to remove air bubbles — Pounding the first coil with hand to flatten

Pounding the first coil flat — Pounding the first coil with hand to flatten

Still flattening the clay — Pounding the first coil with hand to flatten

The first flat coil — Flattened clay coil

Adding the first clay coil to the bowl — Adding the clay coil to the bowl

Adding the fist clay coil to the bowl — Adding the clay coil to the bowl

Adding the first clay coil to the bowl — Adding the clay coil to the bowl

Smoothing the first clay coil — Smoothing the added coil

Smoothing the first clay cloil to the bowl — Smoothing the added coil

Smoothing the first clay coil — Smoothing the added coil

Smoothing the first coil — Smoothing the added coil

Preparing to make the second coil — Preparing the clay for the second coil

Rolling out the second coil — Rolling the second coil

Flattening the second coil

Flattening the second coil

Ready for the second coil

Adding the second coil to the bowl — Attaching the second coil

Adding the second coil of clay — Attaching the second coil

Attaching the second coil to the bowl — Attaching the second coil

Smoothing the second coil

Rolling out the third coil

Flattening the third coil

Attaching the third coil to the bowl — Attaching the third coil

Attaching the third coil

Smoothing the third coil

Smoothing the third coil to the pot — Smoothing the third coil

Shaping the pot

Shaping the pot

Beginning the first trim — The first trim

Trimming the pot — The first trim

Stretching and shaping the pot from inside — Stretching and shaping the pot from the inside

Shaping the pot from outside — Stretching and shaping the pot

Stretching and shaping the pot

Stretching and shaping the pot

The second trim of the pot opening — The second trim of the top of the pot

Trimming the pot

Trimming the pot

Trimming the pot

The trimmed pot

Final shaping of the neck — Shaping the neck

Into the drying process — Drying process: The piece on the left is the one from above, the one in the middle is a completely dried pot

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

Slipping

The white slip in original rock form — The white slip in rock form

Soaking the white slip — The white slip soaking

Applying the white slip with a piece of cloth — Applying White slip using a piece of cloth

Using a cloth to apply the white slip — Applying White slip using a piece of cloth

Applying the white slip — Applying white slip using a piece of cloth

Final application of the white slip — Applying White slip using a piece of cloth

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

Polishing

Back to the drying process — Drying process: The piece on the right is after the white slip has dried

Polishing with a round river rock — Polishing with round river stone

Polishing with a water-polished river stone — Polishing with round river stone

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

Painting

Brown paint in original rock form — The brown paint in rock form

The brown paint grinding stone handed down from Franklin's grandmother — The brown paint stone handed down from Franklin’s grandmother

Adding water to the brown paint stone — Water is added to the brown paint stone

Grinding the brown paint stone to achieve proper concentration of pigment — Grinding the brown paint rock in the brown paint stone with water until the right concentration is achieved

Grinding more of the brown paint stone — Grinding the brown paint rock in the brown paint stone with water until the right concentration is achieved

Adding processed bee-weed to the brown paint mix — Grinding the processed bee weed into the ground brown paint rock and water until the correct amount has been added

Painting brown with a yucca brush

Using a yucca brush to paint brown — Painting brown with a yucca brush

Brown paint being applied with a yucca brush — Painting brown with a yucca brush

Adding brown paint with a yucca brush — Painting brown with a yucca brush

Painting with a yucca brush — Painting brown with a yucca brush

Using a yucca brush to add brown paint — Painting brown with a yucca brush

Orange slip in original rock form — Orange slip in rock form

Soaking the orange slip — The orange slip soaking

The orange slip dry — The orange slip dried

Paint made of the orange slip — The orange slip reconstituted into yellow/orange paint

Painting with orange slip — Painting with yellow/orange slip

Painting orange slip with a yucca brush — Painting yellow/orange slip

Adding orange paint with a yucca brush — Painting yellow/orange slip

Painting yellow/orange paint with a yucca brush — Painting yellow/orange slip

Painting with the yellow/orange paint — Painting yellow/orange slip

Buffing the orange paint — Buffing the yellow/orange paint

Materials | Tools | Preparation of Clay | Coiling | Slipping | Polishing | Painting

The finished product — The final result