The Possibilities of Pinch Pots 

August 2024 / by Susan Shellard

Like many folks, my first experience with clay was making the pinch pot ashtray in 8th grade that Mom proudly displayed for years.   Fast forward to being a new SCOV potter and I am hooked on pinch pots!  You can just take a ball of clay, stick your fingers in it and interesting shapes come to life.  It’s a wonderfully direct method of handling the clay that is developing skills as I learn to make the walls even. 

Pinching is an easy way to make all sorts of shapes with very few tools.  Forms are created by using two fingers and shaping a ball of clay by pinching between the thumb and fingers.  Spheres, cylinders, plates, cups, bowls and abstract forms are all possible.  Long necks and balls shapes come to life with the addition of slabs, coils and even multiple pinch pots.

Here are some resources that I’ve found helpful:

• https://thepotterywheel.com/pinch-pot-artists
• For inspiration and proof that pinch pots aren’t only for grade schoolers, here are some artists who create using pinch techniques.  They prove that pinching isn’t just for school art classes!
  • Pinch Your Pottery by Jacqui Atkin, is available in the Oro Valley Library has a nice selection of projects 
    https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=how+to+make+clay+pinch+pot+videos
    is a great intro to how to make a pinch pot especially addressing some of the issues that can arise.
  • 3 Ways to Pinch a Pot -Relaxing Hand building Tutorial Googling this will give a demonstration on how to make different shaped necks—flared, curved in, straight…  Pinch Pots: Open Forms and Combined Forms (youtube.com) This video starts with the definition of a bowl as “a vessel that can hold Cheerios” and is a wonderful demonstration of forming organic shapes with pinch pots.  Other videos in the series go into carving and shaping.