How to Make a Coil Pot

Building coil pots is an easy and fun exercise in hand building with clay. It's an ancient tradition that follows a beginner friendly process and can be adapted for many uses. You can use coils to build endless things like pots, vases, cups, and extra-large serving bowls even. Coil building can take you anywhere! Start by practicing a basic coil pot and build your skills. 

1. Shape some clay into a loosely compact coil. Use your hands to gently give it a rounded form. 

2. Begin rolling out your coil by pressing down gently, but firmly, with the palm of your hands. Avoid using your fingers as the knuckles can indent the coil. Roll the coil back and forth, using both hands to support and roll it evenly. 

 

3. Continue to press and roll until coil reaches your desired width. This will depend on how large your coil pot is and how thick you want the walls to be. To ensure your coil doesn't dry out and begin cracking, use just a touch of water as needed. 

4. Start by beginning a flat spiral with one end of your coil. This will be the base. To ensure the coil stays together you can score it and add light water along the surface of the coil as you roll. 

5. It's optional to continue scoring as you'll eventually blend the walls of the vessel anyway. It's recommended that you do score the base of the vessel. Continue building your base outward until you reach a desired width for your vessel's base. 

6. Once you reach a desired base width, begin to build your walls up by bringing your coil up on top of the base coil.

7. Once you've reached a few inches in height, but not too high, begin gently blending the base and walls with your fingers. Blend while you can still reach the base of your vessel. 

8. Continue increasing the wall height by building up the coil. Blending every few inches as needed. 

9.  Continue until you reach your desired height. Blend and smooth the inside. You can choose to blend the exterior, even paddling it flat for a more "finished" look. Or retain the organic coil look.