5 more pottery surface decorating techniques — Meesh Pottery (2024)

Click here for an additional 14 pottery surface decorating techniques!

If you read that previous post and wondered, is there more? or I wish there were more! or thirteen (but really fourteen) is just not enough! then this is the post for you.

Here are 5 more pottery surface decorating techniques to add to your list of decorative possibilities and to take your pottery to the next level:

1. Crackling

To achieve a crackled look on your pottery you will need some materials first:

1. Some heating element like a heat gun or a hand torch if you like a good flame.

2. Sodium Silicate, which is a colorless, inorganic, non-flammable, and non-toxic chemical compound that's made from sodium oxide and silica.

3. Optional, if you want the surface and the cracks to be of a different color: Underglaze (like this Mayco underglaze set) or Mayco Stroke & Coat Wonderglaze (find a set here or a speckled set here). What is wonderglaze, you wonder? Well, it’s a product that can be applied on wet clay or bisque and can be fired from cone 06 to cone 10, in oxidation or reduction. It’s extremely versatile! If you want your crackle to be done with a glaze so that the cracks are matte and show off your bare clay (or perhaps you want to inlay the cracks with black underglaze like the picture above), then Stroke & Coat is the way to go.

If you are going for color contrast, paint a couple coats of underglaze or wonderglaze onto the exterior surface of your freshly thrown and still on the wheel pot. Make sure that the exterior surface of the pot it dry (here’s where the heatgun comes in) before applying a thin coat of sodium silicate with a brush onto the piece.

After the thin layer of sodium silicate is applied onto the surface you want crackled, apply heat to that surface with a heatgun. The sodium silicate will harden quickly on the exterior surface of the pot.

Then, working from the inside of the pot, which should still be soft and malleable, push out the walls to stretch them out and expand them to create the crackled look.

You can watch a Youtube video by Jonthepotter of the process HERE.

You can create fine line designs two ways:

1. Use Mayco’s Designer Liner, which comes in black, green, red, yellow, bright green, bright blue, blue, brown, orange, and white. Designer liner works on greenware, bisqueware, and even over glazes in the glazing process. The bottle has a fine tip and is easy to use and store. I recommend these!

2. Use your own underglaze or glaze of choice in a fine line precision applicator like the Xiem Bulb Precision Applicator or these Fineline Precision Applicators. Make sure your underglaze or glaze is well mixed and free of any chunks, which will make precision application challenging.

Splattering onto the surface of pottery can be a lot of fun. To achieve the splatter look, you will need underglaze (like this Mayco Underglaze set) or glaze (I’m partial to the Amaco High Fire Series like this delicious chartreuse green) as well as a tool to splatter with, such as a paintbrush, a chopstick, a stick, or an old toothbrush (for finer splatter work).

Splattering is messy, so before you begin, make sure you prep your splatter space — perhaps a large sink? Outside in a cardboard box in the driveway? On the floor atop recycled newspaper?

Once your space is ready for a little wild mess, you can begin to splatter Jackson Pollock style. Have fun conveying spontaneity by energetically dripping or flinging underglaze or glaze onto your chosen pieces from above. Allow gravity and momentum to control the flow. Move around the piece and fling at it from various angles if you wish to create layers of crisscrossing lines, splatters, and drips. Have fun!

Unlike Pollock who worked on a 2D plane, you are a potter, and pottery is 3D; so if you are laying a piece down on it’s side to splatter, you may need to wait for one side to dry before rotating it and tackling the other side with liberated abandon.

Silkscreen printing on pottery involves using a prepared stencil to push thickened underglaze onto the leatherhard or bisque fired clay surface below to produced detailed designs.

You can purchase pre-made screens (like these leaves or bugs or birds or woodland creatures or flowers from Mayco) or you can make your own screens with this DIY Ikonart kit.

To use the silkscreen, you will need to thicken your underglaze first. Mix a small amount of silkscreen medium (like this one from Mayco) to a small amount of chosen underglaze until it is the consistency of paste.

Once you have placed your silkscreen where you want it to go, use a finger to rub the thickened underglaze over the entire silkscreen design. Peel off the silkscreen, and voila!

I first learned how to bubble paint at a paint your own pottery studio many years ago (I know I make my own pottery, but painting pre-made bisqueware is a fun activity with friends, too!).

To bubble paint, you will need:

1. Underglaze (like this set from Mayco)

2. Dish soap

3. A straw

4. A cup (spare red solo cup, anyone?)

5. A bisque fired piece

To make your bubble mix, pour in two parts underglaze, one part water, and one tablespoon of dish soap into a cup and stir the mixture with the straw. Next, hold the cup over your piece and blow into the mixture with the straw (this might bring back childhood memories blowing bubbles into chocolate milk!).

Bubbles will begin to form and flow out of the cup, let those bubbles fall onto the surface of the pot. When the bubbles pop, you can move your body or the piece around to tackle all the sides you want covered. When the bubbles dry, you can layer on more colors.

If you plan to cover the piece with a clear coat of glaze to show off those bubbles, make sure the piece is fully dry first. Then, remember that if you have to wipe off your glaze for any reason, it will also wipe off your bubbles!

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