Most sculptors use special instruments like needle-nose tools, sponges and clay rollers to make pots. However, the simplest type of pot, called a pinch pot, is made only with your hands. This is usually the first type of pot that beginner sculptors and potters learn to make. This type of project takes only a few minutes, and is suitable for school-aged children.
Instructions
1. Hold a wad of clay in your hand. The wad of clay should fit in the palm of your hand easily -- if you need two hands to hold it, it is too large.
2. Roll the clay into a ball by placing it on a table and rolling it around and around the surface of your table, using the palm of your hand.
3. Pick up the clay in your nondominant hand. Insert the thumb of your dominant hand into the ball of clay. Do not push your thumb all the way through, but stop when you have about 1 inch of clay at the end of your thumb.
4. Place the fingers of your dominant hand outside the ball, and squeeze the sides of the ball between your thumb and fingers.
5. Rotate the ball and squeeze again. This is called pinching the pot.
6. Continue to rotate and pinch the ball. The hole in the ball will widen and the sides of the ball will begin to thin, so that the ball becomes a cone-like structure.
7. Lay the rounded end of the cone-structure on the table and press it into the table so the end of the cone is flat. This is the base of the pot.
8. Pick up the pot and continue to squeeze the sides until they are as thick as you wish them to be.
9. Smooth the sides of the pot using your fingers.
