Imagine molding a cup, completely your tea/coffee, or molding that tray for your spouse, imagine the gloominess that will spark your face when he eats from that plate you molded. That’s exactly what online pottery classes can help you to achieve, and you don’t need to step outside your home to start molding.
The convenience of online pottery classes will make you grow from not having any knowledge of pottery to becoming a world-class Potter. Yes, I mean every word I said because I’ve seen and heard students that grew from novice to professional potters by following online instructions.
If you’re a stay-at-home mom, this could be an opportunity to do something that is fun and can improve your creativity. Also, there are jobs a stay-at-home mom can take even though they don’t have any experience.
It’s really amazing how potters turn insignificant clay into amazing ceramics. As a Potter, the more you mold the more obsessed you get with your artworks. Pottery just keeps your mind and heart focused on your work for some hours, and you won’t worry about anything else, not even the stress of life.
You can be molding that vase, and you’re using it to cool off from the world’s trauma, the result is good for your health, and you do this from the comfort of your home. You can even take a low-stress job so that you can have time for other important aspects of life.
There are also other art classes that you might love, and the best part of it is they are all free and you can learn them from the comfort of your home, you can enroll in drawing classes, interior design classes, or a music class.
Before we show you the list of online pottery classes, let’s first understand what pottery means.
What is Pottery?
Pottery is a process of taking clay and molding it to the desired ceramic then allowing it to dry and then firing it into a beautiful ceramic. Clay is a type of natural soil material that is created by weathered rock.
There are three types of pottery, they are;
The Earthenware
Earthware clay was the first form of pottery and was used for building bricks by the Egyptians, Persians, Greece, Romanians, and some of the Chinese up until the 17th century. It is the easiest and fastest to be fired, it takes 1,000°C to 1,150°C to fire it to a potter.
The potter made out of it is normally hard but brittle and it has small holes where liquid and air can pass through, and it can’t be used to save water.
Stoneware
Stoneware gradually developed 5 millenniums ago (5,000 years ago), and it’s fired slightly higher than the Earthenware clay. Its high temperature is around 1,200°C and it makes the ceramic to be able to last longer, and it can retain water.
Porcelain Clay
Porcelain Clay is currently the best clay to use to mold, and it originated in China, far back around 1600BC. It can be fired from around 1,200°C to 1,450°C which makes the end product to be very hard and sparkly.
Porcelain Clay is what most of these online pottery classes will use to lecture you. You’ll also find classes on Earthware clay and Stoneware clay.
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.
Benefits of Online Pottery Classes
There are lots of benefits of online pottery classes, here are some of them.
Convenience
You can choose to learn at your own time, you don’t need to go to any mandatory physical building or wait for a lecturer to teach you according to their own schedule (which is not bad at all). You can attend any of these online pottery classes any time you want (just make sure you discipline yourself to religiously follow through with the modules).
You can go through the course materials, and even do your assignments on your own will, and you have the privilege to chat with other foreign students.
Flexible to Participate
You can choose to bring your friends along to your home and you all can participate in these online pottery classes, you can choose to do it in your kitchen, wearing your pajamas. You can choose to come to class immediately after you wake up or after your launch, or even before you go to sleep.
However, make sure you have a fixed time to always come to class because flexibility also comes with its own problem, which includes inconsistency and quitting at some point.
Global Access
These online pottery classes mean you can be in any country and still participate in a course in another country.
Requirements to Join Online Pottery Classes
There are a few things you’ll need to participate 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
Now let’s see some of the online pottery classes, we’ll first list the free classes, and then list the paid classes.
Free Online Pottery Classes
1. Adult Pottery – Claire Louise McLauchlan
This is one of the best online pottery classes for adults, it is a YouTube class where your instructor, Claire Louise will show you how to make practical and ready-to-be-used ceramics. You can either choose to use them in your home, in your office garden or even sell them.
You don’t need much equipment in this class, and you’ll be using your hand to mold your clay into a fine artwork, which means, you won’t be using a wheel to mold in this class. You’ll learn to mold cheese board, a butter dish set, and a Moroccan-style tagine for cooking. Moreover, Claire will practically teach you how to make jewelry boxes, decorative bottles, and a wall-hanging bird bath for your garden.
The video starts by showing you how to mold simple things like a chopping board, cheese platter, and a butter dish.
And it goes on to tell you some of the equipment you’ll need for the class. such as a Mat (canvas type material is better) or a big wooden board, a rolling pin, and an apron (not necessary). She also showed you a piece of paper where she designed the chopping board she intended to mold.
2. Teenage Pottery – Claire Louise McLauchlan
As you guessed, this is a pottery class from the same instructor specially prepared for teenagers. It is one of the best online pottery classes you would find on YouTube for teens because it is divided into weekly classes with more than 15-minute videos from each class.
The class starts by teaching you how to make a fairy house with some pinch pots and you’ll be using the hand-building technique in this class too. She will start by showing you to mold your clay like a snowball by patting it really had.
3. Pottery for Kids
This is another YouTube class, but this video is meant for kids. It’s one of the online pottery classes that is 49 minutes long.
The instructor will be teaching your kids how to mold a bird’s nest with flour, salt, warm water, vegetable oil, a rolling pin, a small and medium-sized bowl, newspaper, a non-sharp knife, baking tray, pencil, and ruler. The instructor is very fun to listen to, and I believe your kids will love learning from her.
4. Learning Throwing with Hsin-Chuen Lin
This is a fantastic step-by-step, more than 100 molding YouTube class, that can teach you a lot about molding, but it’s not necessarily for beginners. Your instructor, Hsin-Chuen, will be using a potter’s wheel throughout the classes, and he will start with “throwing clay pumpkin on the pottery wheel.”
The good side of it is, that there are lots of classes that can help you to become a professional potter. The bad side of this class is the environment is noisy and the videos are scattered, so you’ve to scroll down to get the first part of the video.
5. Make a Clay Mug: Hand Building Pottery for Beginners
This is one of the free online pottery classes made published at SkillShare. Your Instructor, Mia Moss, who has been doing pottery for 10 years and has opened a studio in Berlin will show you how to mold a Clay into a big mug.
She will be using the coil-building approach to teach you in this class, and it is very easy to understand because you’ll be using your hands and a few home-equipments. The class is absolutely for beginners, you don’t need any experience to join.
Most importantly, 74% of students voted that the course exceeded their expectations. So if you’re a beginner, then this could be the course you need to kick-start your pottery journey.
6. 4 Time Tested Ways To Make Pottery Without Potter’s Wheel
In this class, your instructor, Manda Marathe, a fine artist, and sculptor, will be leading you on 4 techniques of molding with your hands, and you’ll use these techniques to create a beautiful ceramic. This is one of the online pottery classes where you’ll need the simplest of pottery tools, so there is no need to buy any expensive equipment for this class.
The videos are made in HD so you can see exactly what your instructor is doing. And it’s for beginners.
Enroll in Class
7. How to Throw and Trim a Plate on the Pottery Wheel – Clay and Ceramics Class (Intermediate)
In this 21 minutes short Intermediate course, you’ll be learning how to center your plate, cut your plate off the wheel, and how to trim your plate to make it more professional.
8. Make a Ceramic Pottery Mug with a Handle on the Potters Wheel – Beginning Clay / Ceramics Courses (Intermediate)
This is another 26-minute Intermediate course that will teach you how to make a mug, and the course is divided into 3 sections. He will teach you to make the body of the mug in the first section, then in the second section, he will teach you to make the handle. Then in the last section, you’ll learn to connect the handle to the body and do your final work.
9. How to Make Handles for Pottery (Mixed)
Knowing how much clay you need while making your handle is very important, and that is what this class will start with.
This is one of the online pottery classes that will show you how to know the correct handle position for rolling a tapered handle. How you can pull a tapered handle and what work surfaces will work well for this strategy.
10. DIY: Learn How to Paint Ceramics with Beautiful Lavender Motifs
This is one of the online pottery classes that are for everyone because you always need that beautiful design on your mug, or jug whenever you’re done molding. Your instructor will be showing you how to paint lavender on ceramics, and also decorate different ceramic items.
Your Instructor will start with painting tea/coffee cups, then progresses to painting plates and bowls, then finally she will end it with some tips for adding other patterns and colors.
Paid Online Pottery Classes
11. Online Classes for Artists | Teachinart.com
This is one of the paid online pottery classes that has thousands of students from 42 countries. Their workshops always encourage you to ask questions until you understand the answer, and their videos are always available so you can revisit them whenever you feel like it.
Antoinette Badenhorst, the founder of teachinart.com has been molding with porcelain clay for over 40 years, and in one of the workshops, she will teach you how to master porcelain clay. It’s a 6 weeks e-course and she’ll take you by hand and teach you one step after the other.
You’ll be using both hand-building technique and potter’s wheel, and it welcomes potters from any level, whether you’re a beginner or you’re now a professional potter.
In addition, there are other workshops you can choose to enroll in such as;
- Colored clay
- Handbuilding pottery for beginners
- Pinching teapots for beginners
- Handbuilding porcelain dinnerware
- Porcelain tips for wheel pottery
- Take wheel throwing to the next level
- Faceted Teapot set
- Shino glazing
- Wheel-thrown teapots
- Glazing made easy
- Alternative firing
- Glazing with Ron Roy
- China painting
12. Wheel-Thrown Pottery for Beginners
This is one of the best online pottery classes published on Udemy. In fact, it is a bestseller course, with 4.9 stars rated by 131 students.
There are over 80 step-by-step videos that will guide you on molding clay to ceramics using a potter’s wheel. The class starts with introducing you to clay properties and pottery wheel tools, then progresses to throwing basics, cups, bowls, open forms, etc.
As the class progresses, you would be given assignments, and at the end of your course, you will be awarded a certificate of completion.
13. Ceramics at Home for Beginners
This is one of the online pottery classes that is a bestseller with 98% positive reviews from more than 1.4k students that was published DOMÊSTIKA. Your instructor, Paula Casella is a graduate of fine art and founded Bambucito Cerámica Orgánica.
She has been in the business of pottery for over 15 years and with her broad experience, she would be taking you on this 3h 51m course. There are 21 lessons and over 54k students have already enrolled.
This beginner course will be teaching you how to model and glaze ceramics from scratch right from your home. You’ll learn the subtle difference between oven-baked clay and air-dried clay, you’ll also learn plaster molds which you can use over again to create a lot of pieces in future projects.
Most importantly, when you’re done with the course, you would be awarded a certificate of completion.
14. The Ceramic School
This is one of the online pottery classes that has 140 workshops, you can choose to select a workshop alphabetically, newly added, or categorically. Also, you can choose to join one or more of their free 15 pottery groups, where you can receive updates, network with people, learn, and share your knowledge.
15. ClayShare
ClayShare is one of the online pottery classes that offer a 7-day free trial, and when you subscribe to their $22.99 monthly classes, you’ll have access to their hundreds of full-length pottery classes and other artistic videos. You’ll also have access to weekly live broadcasts across all their apps, Facebook and YouTube and so many other offers when you subscribe.
However, you can choose to purchase their videos individually.
Online Pottery Classes – FAQs
Is potter a good career?
It’s a good career because an average potter can earn $20 per hour
How do I become a potter?
We have provided 15 classes that you can attend and become a professional potter within a short time.