Mastering Hand Building

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.