# Things to Make With Clay: 12 Projects, Easiest First URL: https://myclay.online/blog/things-to-make-with-clay Published: 2026-06-12 Category: Hand building Tags: Hand building, Beginners, Sculpting, Technique Reading time: 5 min > Start with a pinch pot, then a coiled bowl, then something with an attachment. Each project on this ladder teaches one new skill, so pick the next one up rather than jumping to the piece you actually want to make. The most common way people stall with clay is picking a project three rungs above where they are. A first-timer attempting a teapot will fail at the spout, the handle, the lid and the drying, all at once, and conclude they are bad at clay. This is the same list of projects, ordered so each one teaches exactly one new thing. > **From the studio:** I tried to make a lidded jar in my second month, and I made about six of them before one came out with a lid that actually fitted. Later I realised the problem was never the lid — it was that I could not yet make two forms with matching diameters, which is a skill a coiled bowl teaches for free. Going backwards down the ladder is not a defeat. ## The four ways to form wet clay Before the projects, the methods. Nearly everything is a variation on one of these. Press moulding into a plaster or bisque form, and slip casting into a plaster mould, round out the list, and both are more about mould making than clay handling. ## The ladder ### 1. Pinch pot **Teaches**: wall thickness, compression, drying. One ball, two hands, no tools. This is the foundation, and if you make five of them your third will be visibly better than your first. [Full guide here](/blog/pinch-pot-guide). ### 2. Pinch pot with texture **Teaches**: working at leather-hard. The same form, stamped, carved or rolled into fabric once the clay firms up. It teaches you to feel the difference between plastic and leather-hard clay — a distinction covered in [the stages of clay](/blog/clay-stages-leather-hard-bone-dry). ### 3. Coiled bowl **Teaches**: joining, and controlling a profile. Coils scored, slipped and blended one on top of another. You can build far larger than you can pinch, and each coil placed slightly in or out changes the shape. [How to make a clay pot](/blog/how-to-make-a-clay-pot) covers the sequence. ### 4. Spoon rest or soap dish **Teaches**: slabs and slumping. Roll a slab, cut a shape, drape it over a crumpled cloth or a bowl to give it a curve, and let it stiffen. The first genuinely useful object most people make. ### 5. Hanging planter or wall tile **Teaches**: drying flat things, which is harder than it sounds. Flat pieces curl as the top face dries faster than the underside. Sandwich them between boards with newspaper on each face, and flip daily. ### 6. Mug with a handle **Teaches**: attachments, and the moisture-matching rule. A coiled or thrown cup plus a pulled handle. This is the first project where a piece can look perfect and fail a week later, and the reason is always the same — read [score and slip joins](/blog/score-and-slip-joins) before you start. ### 7. Slab box **Teaches**: right angles and interior seams. Four walls and a base, cut at leather-hard so the edges stay crisp. Reinforce every interior corner with a thin coil pressed into the seam; a sharp inside corner is where cracks begin. ### 8. Sphere from two pinch pots **Teaches**: hollow forms, and why you pierce them. Two hemispheres joined at leather-hard, seam blended. The basis of rattles, bud vases and much sculpture. **Pierce it** before firing, or trapped air expands and destroys it. ### 9. Small figure **Teaches**: proportion, and hollowing. Big shapes first, detail last. Nothing solid thicker than about 2.5 cm. [How to make clay figures](/blog/how-to-make-clay-figures) covers armatures and the drying rules for thin limbs. ### 10. Set of four matching bowls **Teaches**: consistency, which is a real skill. Weigh the clay for each one. Making four similar bowls is far harder than making one good one, and it is the difference between a hobby and a practice. ### 11. Lidded jar **Teaches**: fit, and shrinkage. The lid and the gallery must match, and both shrink 10 to 14 percent between wet and fired. Make the lid at the same time as the jar, from the same clay, and dry them together with the lid in place. ### 12. Teapot **Teaches**: everything at once. Body, spout, handle, lid and strainer holes, all needing to work together, all at matching moisture. It is the traditional test piece for a reason. Attempt it when the previous eleven feel routine. ## Choosing a material for the project If you cannot fire, the project list still works, but the material changes what you can keep: - **Air-dry clay** — fine for 1 through 5 and 9. Never watertight, never food safe. [Why air-dry clay cracks](/blog/air-dry-clay-cracking) covers its main failure mode. - **Polymer clay** — excellent for small detailed work and figures, and it cures in a domestic oven. - **Ceramic clay** — the only option for anything holding liquid, and it needs a kiln. [Can you make pottery at home](/blog/can-you-make-pottery-at-home) explains the realistic routes to one. ## How to get better between projects The ladder works best if you treat each rung as practice rather than production. **Make five, not one.** Five quick pinch pots teach more than one careful one, because the improvement happens between attempts rather than within them. Your fifth will be visibly better than your first, and that gap is the actual lesson. **Keep the failures.** A cracked pot is a diagnostic record. The shape and position of the crack tells you exactly what went wrong, and a shelf of failures is a far better teacher than a shelf of successes. **Change one thing at a time.** If you alter the clay, the thickness and the drying method all at once, a bad result tells you nothing. **Write on the bottom.** Date, clay body, and anything unusual, carved in before firing. Six months later you will want to know, and you will not remember. **Repeat a project you already did.** Making the same bowl again three months later is the clearest measure of progress there is, and it is much more encouraging than most people expect. ## Where to go next Start at rung one with [the pinch pot guide](/blog/pinch-pot-guide), or go straight to the full build in [how to make a clay pot](/blog/how-to-make-a-clay-pot). If you are choosing a material rather than a project, [what clay is best for sculpting](/blog/best-clay-for-sculpting) and [is modeling clay the same as polymer clay](/blog/modeling-clay-vs-polymer-clay) will both narrow it down. ## Frequently asked questions **What are the main methods of working wet clay?** Pinching, coiling, slab building and throwing on a wheel, plus press moulding and slip casting. The first four cover almost everything a studio potter makes. **What is the easiest thing to make with clay?** A pinch pot. It needs no tools, no wheel and no template, and it teaches wall thickness, compression and drying — the three things every other project depends on. **What can you make with clay that is actually useful?** Mugs, bowls, plates, planters, spoon rests, soap dishes and lidded jars are all achievable by hand. Anything holding food or drink needs a fired, properly glazed body rather than air-dry clay. --- Source: https://myclay.online/blog/things-to-make-with-clay — https://myclay.online/