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Years ago, when I first shared this demonstration, my intention was to give potters a glimpse into the way I teach porcelain. Since then, my teaching has grown into full online courses, national and international hands-on workshops, workshops in my own studio, and demonstrations—all supported by many more years of working with, teaching, and researching porcelain. Throughout those years, my belief that successful work with porcelain begins with an understanding of the medium has been reinforced by my success with potters around the world. Understanding what the clay is doing and why it behaves the way it does has opened many doors for potters who tried to work with porcelain but struggled to succeed. The method I use for throwing tall bottles has been consistently successful. Rather than simply pulling the clay upward and then trying to shape the form, I use the movement of the clay, the positioning of my hands and arms, and controlled pressure to gradually develop the bottle. The accompanying video shows the process in motion. The steps below explain more of what I am doing and, importantly, why I am doing it. Throwing a Tall Spouted Porcelain Bottle: Step by Step 1. Preparing and Opening the Clay Prepare your porcelain carefully before you begin. Thorough wedging helps distribute the moisture evenly through the clay, which becomes particularly important when throwing a tall form. When I center the clay, I begin by creating a dome. The width of this dome already gives me an indication of how wide the bottom of the finished bottle will be. Once the clay is centered, I open it while keeping a rounded curve in the bottom. This rounded interior gives me the beginning of the flowing curve that I want to carry through the finished form.
2. Raising the Wall: Push Rather Than Pull Once the clay is opened, I push a slight dent into the side at the bottom of the pot. This gives me a wall of clay that I can begin moving upward. I think of this movement as pushing rather than pulling the clay. Notice the direction of my arm as I move the clay upward. This helps me keep the cylinder narrow and encourages the clay to move upward rather than flare outward. As I continue, I push the wave of clay all the way to the top. I then strengthen the rim by gently compressing the clay back into the wall. I normally repeat this process several times as the form gains height. With porcelain, I work sparingly with water. Porcelain quickly becomes softer as it absorbs water, and a water-saturated wall loses its integrity and can easily collapse.
3. Developing the Belly Once I have enough height, I begin to develop the belly of the bottle. I leave the wall thick enough at this stage so that there is enough clay to expand into the curve without weakening the form. While making the cylinder, my hands are more or less level with each other on the inside and outside. As I begin developing the belly, their positions shift. My non-dominant hand leads on the outside, slightly above my dominant hand, which pushes from the inside. The outside hand supports and controls the developing curve while the inside hand pushes the wall outward and continues moving the clay upward. The continuous curve develops gradually, creating the volume of the bottle while maintaining enough strength in the wall for the next stage. I keep the extra clay at the base because it supports the form and helps prevent it from collapsing. To begin closing the form, the roles of my hands gradually change. The exterior, non-dominant hand takes on a stronger role, pushing the clay inward, while the dominant hand on the inside becomes more supportive. Eventually, the opening becomes too small for my inside hand and both hands begin collaring the clay from the outside. As the opening narrows, the clay at the rim becomes thicker again. This is the clay I will use to form the spout.
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Working With Porcelain: Why It Isn’t Difficult—Just Different Porcelain is often regarded as a challenging clay body to work with. Potters who attempted it often like the medium, however some give up not understanding how to handle the medium. They perceive it as fragile, finicky, and tedious. However, my challenging personality and years of experience have led me to a different perspective. Today, I advocate for working with porcelain clay. While it is demanding, the rewards and benefits make it all worthwhile. My Early Journey With Porcelain Clay My first experiences working with porcelain, was unsuccessful. To make it worse, more experienced potters and instructors intimidated me. In my early days of pottery I created simple forms, fired to cone 8. Much of my early porcelain work ended up in pit firings. I created incredibly thin porcelain pieces that were fired in pits. These works eventually helped me secure permanent residency for my family and me in the United States. Those early works evolved into sculptural pit-fired pieces that carried my emotions during a time that I was still griefing the loss of leaving my home country, South Africa. Eventually, the heaviness lifted. I began seeing light, movement, and ballerinas in sheer dresses in my mind’s eye. Southern Ice porcelain became my medium of joy. Translucency, color, and light became symbols of the future.
Porcelain isn’t difficult. It’s different. Unlike stoneware or earthenware, porcelain is worked as clay but becomes something closer to glass when fired. Understanding that single truth changes everything about how you handle, design, and fire it.  Sometimes, certain cracks are intentionally allowed. In this case, Antoinette Badenhorst stretched the clay over the balloon while it was being made. The bowl edges cracked. She, stopped it from going too far and enhanced the crack to give the bowl an organic appearance. Why Porcelain Cracks: Understanding the Real Causes Cracking in porcelain isn’t random—it’s usually caused by handling, design, firing, or glazing mistakes, to name a few. Over the years, I’ve seen every kind of crack imaginable, both in my own studio and in work sent to me by students from around the world through TeachinArt.com. Let’s break them down.
Why Porcelain Handles Crack (And How to Fix It) Many potters struggle with porcelain handles. The real culprit in most cases is particle orientation. Clay shrinks in unison only when its particles are aligned and compacted evenly. A handle, unconditionally of the way it is formed, has its own direction of particles, and when you attach it to a mug, it’s like two traffic flows meeting head-on. You need an off-ramp. How to Attach Porcelain Handles Successfully
Preventing Design Cracks in Porcelain Work Porcelain must be formed evenly. Uneven thickness leads to slumping, tearing, and cracking. At high temperatures, porcelain becomes pyro plastic — it softens like glass. Design Tips for Porcelain
Firing Cracks and Dunting in Porcelain Dunting happens when the kiln heats or cools too fast. It can occur in bisque or glaze firing. If a piece comes out of the kiln split cleanly in two, or cracks days later with sharp, glassy edges—the cooling cycle is usually to blame. Dunts in bisque ware is not common in porcelain clay, but glaze cracking happens often. How to Prevent Firing Cracks
Spiral Cracks in Wheel-Thrown Porcelain There’s a misconception that porcelain must be thrown fast to prevent collapse. In reality, it’s advisable to throw porcelain slowly, with a deliberate focus on compacting the clay particles. Spiral cracks occur when certain clay parts remain misaligned and shrink unevenly. These cracks mostly become visible during the final firing process. How to Avoid Spiral Cracking
General Tips to Prevent Base and Rim Cracks
 These sketches from Antoinettes porcelain online classes illustrate the various cracks that may develop in porcelain due to uneven drying.
Antoinette Badenhorst, a renowned potter, presents online classes and hands-on workshops worldwide. In 2014, she and her husband, Koos, founded TeachingArt Online School of Art. Together with other experienced and renown teachers, they provide comprehensive online courses for potters and artists globally. These comprehensive learning experiences are meticulously designed to enhance skills, boost confidence, and foster a deeper understanding of pottery, rather than offering mere demonstrations.
If you enjoyed and gained something from this blog post, please share it with your friends. Unfortunately, I won’t be traveling abroad this year because I need to catch up on my studio work and am also writing a book. Details of my next porcelain workshop is available on the Workshop page Links TeachinArt - Online School of Art Wheel thrown porcelain dinnerware Handbuilding porcelain dinnerware AIC_IAC - International Ceramics Academy of Ceramics MAC - Mississippi Arts Commission Hands-on Studio Porcelain workshops TAGS
porcelain clay, working with porcelain, porcelain pottery, porcelain cracking, porcelain firing, porcelain handles, wheel thrown porcelain, translucent porcelain, porcelain glazing, how to prevent cracks in porcelain
Throwing porcelain dinner sets include the design considerations, throwing and trimming on the wheel, altering processes as well as glazing mixing and firing considerations. Students learn how to make different mug shapes, goblets, tumblers. Antoinette teaches how to make pie dishes, different bowls like cereal and salad bowls, plates, platters and lidded casseroles. She explains how to prevent cracks and hand out many tips and techniques.
Image:Learn how to create fine translucent wine goblets on a pottery wheel.
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In her porcelain workshops at TeachinArt, Antoinette Badenhorst demonstrates how excessive water during wheel throwing can quickly cause porcelain clay - which she calls the “Diva of Clay” - to weaken and collapse.
Porcelain requires careful moisture control because of its fine particle structure and delicate balance between strength and softness. During wheel throwing, too much water can oversaturate the clay body, reducing stability and making walls soft, uneven, or unable to support their own weight. Antoinette explains how beginners often rely on excess water while centering and pulling clay, not realizing that porcelain absorbs moisture rapidly. As the clay becomes overly saturated, forms begin to slump, lose definition, or completely collapse on the wheel. In her demonstrations, students learn:
Through detailed online instruction, Antoinette helps potters understand not only how porcelain behaves, but why proper technique is essential for successful wheel-thrown ceramics.
Centering clay on the potter’s wheel is one of the first, and by far the most important activity that any potter must learn before it is possible to throw a pot.
Most beginner potters are so eager to start throwing, that it take some time to realize the importance of good centering. Some potters will lose interest at this stage and strictly concentrate on hand building. Others will end up with an injury or have difficulty to recover from bad habits.
There is not just one good way to learn to center clay, but there are good ways and bad ways. An understanding of what happens on the wheel will help to find the best way. In this video, I am explaining to you what is happening on the wheel during the centering of clay and teach you my way. Enjoy!
TeachinArt is our online school where artists and potters can learn from the quiet of their own studios and where they get an in depth understanding of Antoinette's classes. You have direct access to the instructor while you study with her to ask questions.
Porcelain clay demands just as much technique and maybe more. It is not so much that the Diva wants to be difficult, but you know she is a water addict right? That means she will drink in as much water as quickly as she can and just when you think she is satisfied, she collapses on you!
Antoinette Badenhorst and David Voorhees are professional potters with a combined experience of almost 80 years in teaching potters how to work with clay.
Buying pottery wheel bat systems are expensive, but you can do it yourself (DIY) in your studio.
Mima Boskov from South Africa helped us to improve the system! Read more here.
See Antoinette's work and workshops at PorcelainByAntoinette
See list of e-courses at TeachinArt.com online art school See Antoinette's blog index
There are a few things that will help with the success of throwing porcelain on the potter’s wheel. The clay must be soft enough for easy manipulation and well centered. Remember clay does not always need water when it feels hard; sometimes it is just thixotropic and needs to "wake up". The potter must feel comfortable behind the wheel, so make sure that everything works well and that you are relaxed.
What did you do before bats were invented to put on the potters wheel? Then how did you secure the bat on the wheel head before someone discovered that 2 holes on the wheel head that can hold a nut and a bolt in which you can click a wheel bat with corresponding holes in it?
In this video I am showing you how to create a clay pad that you can use repetitively to secure a bat on. Tips:
David Voorhees is working with porcelain, mostly on the potters wheel. He discussed his career and the art of his family with Antoinette in this online video interview. His wheel throwing tips and decorating techniques are reaching potters far and wide across the world in his online video pottery workshop.
With parents that were recognized for their watercolor and oil painting across North Carolina, it is no surprise that David uses his porcelain urns as a backdrop for ceramic decorating techniques.
“My pots are made to be used” says Nan. When I interviewed Nan she told me about her life as a potter, her dedication to her students and where her career started. Nan studied in England when she were "accidentally" introduced to pottery. It was an instant passion.
Nan worked and studied in England and Ireland before returning to the USA. Her life long career has an impact on students all over the USA and now that she also teaches with TeachinArt Online School of Art, her knowledge reaches far beyond American borders. |
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