Where to Start with Jacqui Atkin
Jacqui Atkin is a professional studio ceramicist, author, and gallery owner based in rural Shropshire, England. With over thirty years of experience working with clay and years of teaching pottery in colleges and occupational therapy settings, she brings deep practical knowledge to her writing. She currently works as an editorial consultant and project editor for ClayCraft magazine. Her books cover the full range of ceramic techniques, from handbuilding and wheel throwing to surface decoration and glazing, always with the kind of patient, step-by-step instruction that makes complex processes feel approachable. Her work is held in public collections across the United Kingdom.
Start here
Beginner's Guide to Pottery & Ceramics
Jacqui Atkin · 128 pages · 2017 · Easy
Themes: handbuilding, wheel throwing, glazing, firing, ceramic techniques
The ideal first book for anyone curious about pottery and ceramics. Jacqui Atkin draws on over three decades of hands-on experience and years of teaching to walk complete beginners through every core technique, from pinching and coiling to throwing on the wheel, decorating, glazing, and firing.
Why Start Here
Atkin covers the full breadth of ceramics in a single, well-organized volume. The book opens with a clear overview of clay types, tools, and studio setup, then moves through handbuilding techniques (pinching, coiling, slab work) before introducing the potter’s wheel. This wide scope is its greatest strength: instead of committing to one method before you know what suits you, you get to try them all and discover your own preference.
Step-by-step photographs accompany every technique, showing exactly what your hands should be doing at each stage. Atkin writes with the calm authority of someone who has watched thousands of beginners encounter the same problems and knows precisely how to help. The practical projects, from simple coiled vases to marbled clay boxes, give you real things to make while you learn.
The final chapters on decoration and firing cover inlays, slips, sgraffito, feathering, burnishing, and resist techniques. Published by Search Press in 2017, the book reflects current materials and methods.
What to Expect
At 128 pages, this is a concise but thorough introduction rather than an encyclopedic reference. The difficulty is gentle throughout, with each technique building on the previous one. You will need access to clay, basic tools, and eventually a kiln (though many projects can be completed with air-dry clay or at a community studio). Atkin’s clear structure makes it easy to dip in and out as your interests develop.
Alternatives
Jacqui Atkin · 160 pages · 2009 · Easy
A practical reference organized as bite-sized tips rather than sequential lessons. Each entry addresses a specific challenge or technique, from wedging clay and reclaiming scraps to fixing cracks and choosing glazes. The format makes it ideal as a companion volume you keep by the wheel or workbench and consult whenever a problem comes up.
Atkin draws on her decades of teaching experience to anticipate the questions beginners and intermediate potters actually ask. The book works best alongside a more structured guide, giving you quick answers to the small frustrations that can otherwise derail a session.
Jacqui Atkin · 160 pages · 2013 · Easy
If you already know that handbuilding is your path, this book goes deeper than the beginner’s guide. The revised 2013 edition covers coiling, slab construction, mold work, and pinch techniques through more than 400 color photographs, many of them unique cutaway shots that show correct hand positions inside the clay.
Atkin guides you through projects that produce genuinely useful finished objects without requiring a potter’s wheel. Tips for managing moisture (including a hairdryer trick for speeding up drying) and keeping clay workable address the frustrations that make beginners quit. The expanded gallery section showcases what is possible once you master the fundamentals.