[back cover] This practical guidebook teaches all the skills you need to start creating beautiful ceramics. Step-by-step photographs and clear instructions guide you through the core techniques for making, decorating, and firing pottery, and inspirational projects allow you to put your skills into practice and develop your creativity. Learn about types of clay and basic forming methods such as pinching and coiling. Gain confidence in throwing and trimming clay and develop your decorating and firing skills Discover progressive projects as they teach a new skill, from simple coiled vases with painted decoration to marbled-clay boxes with transparent glazes Follow easy instructions to decorate and add texture to your vessels with inlays, slips, sgraffito, feathering, burnishing, and resist techniques [front flap] Clay is an expressive and exciting medium for beginners. If you're a newcomer to the potter's craft, you'll quickly find yourself achieving impressive results as you master the easy-to-follow techniques presented in "Pottery Basics." A comprehensive course in pottery making, "Pottery Basics "introduces you to a wide variety of techniques for creating, decorating, and firing pottery. Graded from very basic techniques and simple projects to more complicated skills, manipulation of materials, and surface treatments, "Pottery Basics "will guide you through each procedure with clear, step-by-step photos and helpful tips for incorporating attractive decorating techniques. You will also find important information on health and safety, a library of decorative finishes, and glaze recipes that will give your pieces a professional finish.

"PotteryBasics" is an invaluable resource for beginners and a useful reference for the more experienced ceramicist. [back flap] ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jacqui Atkin is a practicing ceramicist and has taught pottery in colleges and occupational therapy classes for several years. She now runs private courses in low-fire pottery techniques, including smoke-firing and Raku. She has contributed to several books as a project maker and gallery artist, and is author of the best-selling "Handbuilt Pottery Techniques Revealed, "also available in North America from Barron's.