Clay is very addictive and learning how to mold clay into one of the finest ceramics is one you won’t want to miss out on.
This article contains the best online pottery classes available to all kinds of learners.
Enrolling in any of the online pottery classes in this article will give you the convenience to grow from not having any knowledge of pottery to becoming a world-class Potter.
Can I Learn How To Make Pottery Online?
Learning to craft a pot or that beautiful ceramic might be easier than you think through online pottery classes. Because the classes work according to your own pace, you can choose to pause and replay a section whenever you like.
Moreover, they come in HD video, which will enable you to see exactly what your instructors are doing.
Here are the best 15 online pottery classes:
15 Online Pottery Classes In 2022 | Free & Paid
Get access to the top 15 online pottery classes today!
1. Wheel-Thrown Pottery for Beginners – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 3hrs
This online pottery course offers a thorough, well-organized, and detailed approach to the numerous aspects of the potter’s wheel as a mode of artistic expression. Here students learn through text, video demonstrations, and skill-building exercises that walk individuals through a strategic hierarchy of beginning forms.
This pottery class was created for varied levels of art courses as well as people desiring to pursue their own ceramic education. The program will teach you how to speak confidently about the medium, how to grasp processes, how to delineate clear forming procedures, and how to use the pottery wheel.
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2. Handbuilt Pottery Techniques and Projects – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 1hr 30mins
This online course teaches you hand-building techniques for making objects/pots with clay.
If you are a creative-minded person who likes to make different things and likes to learn new techniques for giving life to your ideas, this course is for you.
All the lectures in this course are delivered in HD video format which means, you’ll be able to see how exactly the instructor makes things using clay.
3. Wheel-Thrown Pottery II, Intermediate Skill Builders – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 4hrs
This s one of the best online pottery classes. The course takes a comprehensive, well-organized, and in-depth look at the many facets of the potter’s wheel as a means of artistic expression.
In the class, students are guided through a systematic hierarchy for intermediate forming techniques using text video examples and skill-building exercises. Wedging tips, bottles, chucks, pouring vessels, lids, flatware, double-walled forms, simple sectionals, and more are covered in this session.
This class is designed for those with varying degrees of experience who seek to improve their ceramic education. It is a careful blend of aesthetic advice and core educational aims for art students. Finally, this lesson will teach you how to outline clear forming procedures, and how to broaden your knowledge of pottery.
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4. How to Make Pottery on the Wheel for Beginners – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 1hr
This pottery wheel course is for first-time beginners new to throwing on the pottery wheel or for intermediate students who want to brush up their skills or troubleshoot their skills for quicker success.
In this online pottery class, you will learn the following:
- How to arrange your pottery wheel workspace, your clay, your water, and your tools.
- Best ways to set up a temporary kitchen tabletop studio and a permanent studio if you have lots of space.
- How to throw a pot on the pottery wheel.
- Specific tips and troubleshooting techniques to help you rapidly improve your pottery making on the wheel.
5. Pottery, Clay & Leaves: Make a Beautiful Unique Leaf Platter – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 4hrs
Would you like to create something in clay that not only looks professional but also gives off the most beautiful healing energies from nature? Not only will YOU benefit from the healing properties of clay and nature, but you can also harness this in the piece you make, so others who use it can benefit!
This course offered on Udemy is different from other pottery classes, it combines the instructor’s 30+ years of experience in ceramics with added knowledge as a holistic therapist. In this course, you will grasp the simple step-by-step instructions to make a beautiful, professionally crafted pottery leaf plate or platter.
6. Ceramic, Porcelain, and Pottery repair and restoration – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 2hrs
This online pottery class is for beginners who wish to learn about restoring ceramics. In the course, the instructor will take you from having little to no knowledge of restoring ceramics, to having a better understanding of the ceramic restoration techniques.
At the end of the class, you will learn the following:
- How to make a beautiful pottery leaf plate or platter using clay and real leaves in simple constructive steps
- What clay is and how to work most efficiently with it, understanding its different states and types
- How to decide what clay to use, based on the function (use) of the item you are making & the glaze effect you want
- How to choose the best leaves to use and apply healing intention during the creative process
- An overview of decoration techniques and how oxides, underglazes, glazes, and lusters are used to color pottery
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7. Wheel-Thrown Pottery III, Advance Techniques – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 5hrs 30mins
This course takes a comprehensive, well-organized, and in-depth look at the many facets of the potter’s wheel as a means of artistic expression. Students are guided through a systematic hierarchy for intermediate forming techniques through text, video examples, and skill-building tasks. Wedging tips, bottles, chucks, pouring vessels, lids, flatware, double-walled forms, simple sectionals, and more are covered in this session.
Wheel-Throwing Pottery II has been designed for those with varying degrees of experience who seek to improve their ceramic education. It is a careful blend of aesthetic advice and core educational aims for art students.
8. Pottery Wheel Throwing & Kiln Firing for Complete Beginners – Udemy (Paid)
Duration: 2hrs
This course provides concise step-by-step instruction for creating your own ceramic pieces from start to finish for beginners and entry-level clay aficionados. Unlike other courses that focus solely on clay manipulation skills, this course also covers fundamental kiln fire information, which is critical for finishing your product!
It starts with a fundamental understanding of materials, techniques, and tools, then moves on to clay preparation. The electric potter’s wheel, which provides your product a uniform and finished appearance, is the primary method of manufacturing pottery in this course.
If you’re new to throwing on an electric potter’s wheel, don’t worry; this course explains the many phases of wheel-throwing for total beginners.
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9. The Art of Ceramics: Creating a Modern Mug – Skillshare (Free)
Duration: 36mins
Ceramics are having a moment, and the beauty of the craft raises so many fascinating questions about science, design, and everyday objects.
Join potter Helen Levi on Skillshare for this inspiring, informative 35-minute class on making a mug from start to finish!
This class is perfect for desiring potters or creative looking to get their hands dirty and understand the process of ceramics.
10. Pottery on the Wheel for Beginners – Throwing Clay, Beginning Ceramics – Skillshare (Free)
Duration: 1hr 4mins
Have you been longing to learn how to do pottery? Now is your chance. This online pottery course will teach you how to throw a pot on the wheel from pulling your clay out of the bag to removing your pot from the wheel.
This pottery wheel course is for first-time beginners new to throwing on the pottery wheel or for intermediate students who want to enhance their skills or troubleshoot their skills for quicker success.
11. Ceramics at Home: Building Dishes by Hand – Skillshare (Free)
Duration: 29mins
If you’re interested in learning what pottery is all about, or just curious about making something beautiful, this class is for you.
Join ceramicist Emily Reinhardt in her studio in Kansas City for a beautiful and informative 30-minute class on 3 distinct ways to make your own ceramic piece by hand (no pottery wheel required). Emily creates 3 dishes from start to finish, using a different building method, clay, and glaze for each — and then adding final painted details to give each piece a personal touch.
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12. Make a Clay Mug: Handbuilding Pottery for Beginners – Skillshare (Free)
Duration: 53mins
This free online pottery class will cover how to make a clay mug using the coiling technique, which can be applied to creating all kinds of ceramics, from the humble mug, to as far as your imagination can take you!
This type of hand-building is great for beginners because it requires very few tools, but it’s also an ancient technique that will root your work within the history of this craft.
Join professional ceramicist Mia Moss, founder of Pottery to the People, in this 53-minute video creating a clay mug from start to finish.
13. Make Easy Handmade Ceramic Pottery Dishes Without Fancy Tools! – Skillshare (Free)
Duration: 24mins
Pottery has never been more popular and now you can make easy clay dishes at home without having a pottery wheel or any other pottery-specific equipment.
This course will show you how to make slab-built dishes in different shapes that can be impressed with texture, personalized text, special dates, and more.
14. Throwing Pottery on the Wheel: how to make a ceramic clay bowl for beginners and above – Skillshare (Free)
Duration: 22mins
In this class, you’ll learn how to throw three-pound bowls on the wheel and trim a foot on the bottom. Going over the tools required, how to prepare, and then throwing and trimming the bowl itself. At the end of this best online pottery class, the goal is to help you get a better understanding of the mechanics of throwing, while also exploring the aesthetic aspects of making a good bowl.
15. 4 Time Tested Ways To Make Pottery Without Potter’s Wheel – Skillshare (Udemy)
Duration: 22mins
If you are a creative-minded person who likes to make different things and likes to learn new techniques for giving life to your ideas, this course is for you. In this class, you will learn the basic hand tool for pot making and lots more.
What Is Pottery?
Pottery is the process of molding clay into the desired ceramic, allowing it to dry, and then firing it to create beautiful pottery. There are three types of pottery namely:
- Earthenware
- Stoneware
- Porcelain ware
Types of Pottery Defined
1. Earthenware
Earthware clay was the original type of pottery, and Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romanians, and some Chinese utilized it to make bricks until the 17th century. It is the simplest and quickest to fire, requiring 1,000°C to 1,150°C for a potter.
Its structure is generally hard but brittle, with small holes through which liquid and air can pass, and it cannot be utilized to conserve water.
2. Stoneware
According to ststoneware.com, stoneware is porous pottery that has been fired at high temperatures to make it resistant to liquids. Although it is formed with clay, it outlasts other types of pottery and earthenware.
Stoneware receives its name from the fact that it resembles stone. It can now be found in everyday goods such as beer steins, crocks, and coffee cups. What distinguishes stoneware from other types of pottery, such as porcelain or earthenware? There are various characteristics that distinguish stoneware from other types of pottery.
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3. Porcelain
Wikipedia defines porcelain as a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C (2,200 and 2,600 °F).
Porcelain Clay is presently the best clay to use to mold, and it originated in China, far back around 1600BC.
Requirements to Join Online Pottery Classes
There are a few things you’ll need to participate actively in these online pottery classes, they include;
- A laptop or a good smartphone
- Internet access
- Potter’s wheel (if you intend to participate in potter’s wheel class, but not compulsory).
- Clay
- A sponge
- Small piece of chamois leather.
- Wooden rib for making plates
- Rolling pin
- Bowl
- Water
FAQs On Pottery
The three major types include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.
Pottery and ceramics are one and the same. The word ceramic derives from Greek which translates as “of pottery” or “for pottery”. Both pottery and ceramic are broad terms that describe objects which have been formed with clay, hardened by firing, and decorated or glazed.
A person that makes pottery is called a potter or ceramist.
Yes, you can learn and master the art of pottery on online eLearning platforms like Udemy Skillshare, etc.
Conclusion
The art of pot making is one of the earliest arts that humans developed thousands of years ago. If you are a creative-minded person who likes to make different things and likes to learn new techniques for giving life to your ideas, you can take any of the online pottery courses.
References
- studyabroadnations.com – 15 Top Online Pottery Classes | Free & Paid
- udemy.com – Pottery Courses
- skillshare.com – Online Pottery Classes
- shstoneware.com – What is Stoneware?
- en.wikipedia.org – Porcelain
