Where to Start with Sunshine Cobb
Sunshine Cobb is a full-time studio artist and ceramics educator who was born in Vancouver, B.C. and grew up in Southern California. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art from California State University, Sacramento in 2004 and her M.F.A. in Ceramics from Utah State University in 2010. From 2012 to 2014, she served as a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, one of the most prestigious ceramics residency programs in North America. In 2013 she was named Emerging Artist by both the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts and Ceramics Monthly. Cobb is known for handbuilt and thrown functional pottery glazed in bright, expressive slips, with a rustic warmth that communicates home, memory, and wanderlust. Her two books on hand building have become go-to resources for potters who want to work with clay without a wheel.
Start here
Mastering Hand Building
Sunshine Cobb · 208 pages · 2018 · Easy
Themes: handbuilding, pinch pots, coil building, slab construction, molds, glazing
A comprehensive, beautifully photographed guide to making pottery without a wheel. Sunshine Cobb covers every major hand-building method, from pinch pots and coil construction to slab work and mold-based techniques, all illustrated with step-by-step color photography drawn from years of studio practice and teaching.
Why Start Here
Cobb writes the way she teaches: with warmth, clarity, and a genuine understanding of where beginners get stuck. The book opens with clay fundamentals and workspace setup, then moves through the three core hand-building techniques (pinching, coiling, and slab construction) before introducing more advanced methods like mold work and template design. Each chapter builds on the previous one, so you develop real confidence as you progress.
What sets this book apart is the range of finished projects. You are not just learning techniques in isolation. You are making plates, bowls, cups, boxes, and lidded vessels that you will actually want to use. Cobb also includes slip and glaze recipes, an overview of kilns and firing schedules, and templates you can photocopy for slab projects.
The tone throughout is encouraging without being vague. Cobb names the specific problems that trip people up, like cracking during drying or uneven wall thickness, and explains how to fix them before they ruin a piece. Published in 2018 by Voyageur Press, the book benefits from Cobb’s experience as both a working artist and a visiting professor at several universities.
What to Expect
At 208 pages, this is a substantial reference that covers hand building from absolute beginner through intermediate level. The difficulty is gentle at the start and increases gradually. You will need access to clay, basic hand-building tools, and eventually a kiln, though many of the early projects work well with community studio access or even air-dry clay. Cobb’s clear structure makes it easy to work through sequentially or to jump to a specific technique when you need it.
Alternatives
Sunshine Cobb · 176 pages · 2022 · Easy
Cobb’s second book, published in 2022, grew out of the video tutorials she began making during the pandemic for home potters working from their kitchen tables. It focuses on projects you can complete with minimal equipment and space, covering both functional pieces like scoops and soap dishes and sculptural work like miniature animals and plants.
Where Mastering Hand Building is a broad technical reference, this book is more project-driven and casual. Each project is self-contained, making it ideal for people who want to jump straight into making things rather than studying techniques first. Cobb’s friendly, conversational tone carries over from her popular online teaching, and the step-by-step photography is clear and well-paced. At 176 pages, it complements rather than replaces her first book.