How to make ceramic bowls

Nowadays, many people are using ceramic bowls as utensils at home. We use them in our daily routines. Coloring them and giving them a smooth surface makes them look beautiful. It is customary to have such beautiful pieces at home. These bowls present beautiful coloring. Let’s know how to make ceramic bowls yourself.

How to make ceramic bowls?

How to make ceramic bowls

While making the ceramic bowls, you have to be patient. Generally, we make ceramic bowls over a potter’s wheel. You will have failed attempts, but eventually, you will end up succeeding.

So, we are going to prepare the ceramic bowls. We will discuss the process step by step. To perform efficiently, you have to follow each step carefully. Read more about, best ceramic dog bowl.

Tools needed for the process

The first step is the selection of tools. We should select the tool according to the shape of the bowls. To make professional ceramic bowls, you will need many tools. But if you want to make it for your home usage, you can perform the work with simple tools. Here is a description of the tools given below for this process. A popular article, KitchenAid ceramic bowl review.

  • Rib tool
  • A needle tool
  • Trimmers
  • Water
  • A sponge
  • A wire tool
  • A wheel and clay

The clay should be wet when you start the process. You can make any shape from clay when it is still very wet. Check here, how to repair ceramic bowl?

Centering

We produce the ceramic bowls on a rolling wheel. The position of clay on the rolling wheel is of very importance. Because in case you fail to put the clay rightly, you can’t produce a proper bowl. So, be careful about this process. Place the clay at the center of the rolling wheel. This process of placing the clay at the center is called “centering.”

While centering, try to keep the clay wet. You ought to use the “rib tool” to wipe away the extra clay from the sides. Summarizing this step, we can say that this step is finished by placing the clay at the center and pushing the clay against the hand, steps we use to pull the clay at the center. May you like, how to make a ceramic mug?

Orifice the clay

Making ceramic bowl at home

When you place the clay at the center, the next step is opening the clay. We make dome shapes out of clay with hands. Using the force of hands, we split up the clay and give it a doom shape from inside. This step is a little tricky, and after this step, our clay starts looking like a bowl. You may encounter a problem while performing this step. You should care about the slope of the bowl. It should be just right and shouldn’t have many ups and downs. 

You need to insert your thumb right into the clay while the wheel is still rolling. Keep the thumb right there until the knuckle on the thumb is fully covered with clay.

Soon after you have achieved the bowl shape, take a needle and check the bottom of the bowl. There must be a half-inch thickness. You will have already prepared the sketch of your bowl in mind, so just put your thumb again and bring the clay to your desired size. People also search for, how to make ceramic tile shine?

Elevating the wall

We have just prepared the bowl using the thumb. The problem with that bowl is that it is relatively thick and doesn’t have a good height. So, in this step, we will lift the walls of ceramic bowls. Bowls with short walls present a bad look and look very small. They need further furnishing to raise walls. Related article, how to make a ceramic flower?

We raise their walls with the same method as we used for giving it a bowl shape. The only difference is that we will use our four fingers here instead of using the thumb. The sides of the bowl should ¼ thick. Our craft article, how to make a ceramic bong?

To have this thinness, we insert one hand inside the bowl while the wheel is still rotating. Starting the process from the bottom, we gently take out our hands. We repeat this process again and again until we get the desired shape of our bowl.

Although this step doesn’t require any expertise, yet it needs to perform with experience. In case of using the fingers wrong, it will distort the whole pattern of the bowl. You will feel the need to start the process again. Do yourself content, how to make ceramic decals?

Let it dry

We have given the bowl a perfect shape. It is looking like professional. We dry our newly made bowl before working more on it. Here we use another tool called the “wire tool.” We use this tool to cut the clay from the wheel, and after cleaning, we place our bowl into a dark cupboard. You need not dry It completely. Dry it a little when the clay is hard, cut to give the bowl a final shape.

Trimming process

The trimming process is easy to perform. Here are some simple steps you need to remember. Place the clay on the rotating wheel. Place the bowl on the rotating wheel that the face of the bowl should down. Grab your trimming stools and start trimming the clay from the sides. Shave away the layers from sides until you get a smoother shape from all sides of the bowl. Notice that you have made the foot of your bowl stand. Completing this process, take out your product from the wheel and dry it.

Firing

We have almost completed our process. The bowl is completely dry, and we will go firing it. We will put our newly made bowl in a kiln. If you don’t have a kiln, try using an oven. We use a kiln and oven for baking the clay. Both of them bake the clay to the extent that it becomes glass. The temperature inside the oven or kiln is very high. We place the clay bowls into the oven for at least 8 hours. This is how we do the firing process. Look at it, how to make ceramic beads?

Glazing the bowl

Now, it’s time to convert the raw bowl into a glazed bowl. The glazing process requires adding different colors to it. When we bake the glazed bowl, these colors turn into hard and smooth glossy coverings. This step is easy to perform as you just need to select the color for your bowl.

Apply the color inside and outside of your bowl. Here I would like to give you a little tip that does not paint at the bottom of your bowl. Doing this, your bowl will stick from the bottom and not come out until you break it up.

Final firing

Soon our glaze is dried; we go for another round of firing the bowl. This is the final firing and finishing step of preparing a ceramic bowl. Use high temperature for the second round also. Cool your bowl, and it is done.

by William Jon
Hello, I'm William Jon. I'm a ceramic researcher, ceramic artist, writer, and professional blogger since 2010. I studied at the NYS college of ceramics at Alfred University in the USA about ceramic. I'm a professional ceramicist. Now I'm researching the ceramic products in Wilson Ceramic Laboratory (WCL) and reviewing them to assist online customers.

Leave a Comment