Welcome! You have officially joined a community where wonky is welcome, perfection is optional, and getting muddy is encouraged. Unruly Clay Club is for beginners, curious makers and anyone who wants to play with clay without taking the whole thing too seriously. Around here we'll be: 🏺 making beginner-friendly handbuilding projects 👐 learning techniques and figuring out what went wrong 💡 sharing ideas and inspiration 📸 showing off our creations — including the questionable ones 🎨 experimenting, playing and trying new things You don't need a pottery wheel. You don't need to be artistic. And you definitely don't need to know what you're doing yet. To introduce yourself, tell us: 1. Have you played with clay before? 2. What's one thing you'd love to make? Bonus points if it's weird. I'll start: I'm Suzanne — psychologist by profession, clay maker by obsession. I love handbuilding, coastal pottery and making clay creatures with personality. Make stuff from mud. Embrace the imperfect. Slightly feral encouraged. 🤎

If you've never touched clay before, good news: you do not need a pottery wheel, 47 specialist tools or a mysterious ability to centre clay while looking serene. Handbuilding is exactly what it sounds like — making pottery using your hands and a few simple tools. There are three basic techniques you'll see again and again: 👐 Pinch — start with a ball of clay and pinch it into shape. Great for bowls, cups, little creatures and wonky things. 🪵 Slab — roll clay flat and cut, fold or join it to create things like dishes, trays, wall pieces and mugs. 🐍 Coil — roll clay into long ropes and build upwards. Great for pots, planters, sculptural pieces and organic shapes. And you can mix all three. There are no clay police. What do you actually need to start? Very little: Clay — if you plan to have your piece fired, check which clay your local studio or kiln service accepts before buying it. Rolling pin — a normal kitchen one works. Something to cut with — a clay knife or simple modelling tool. A small bowl of water — emphasis on small. Too much water turns everything into swamp. An old card/flexible scraper — surprisingly useful for smoothing and shaping. A surface to work on — unfinished timber, canvas or another surface that won't have the clay permanently auditioning for a place on your dining table. Most other pottery tools are useful rather than essential. You can acquire the enormous box of weird wooden sticks later. 😆 Your first mission Grab a ball of clay and make a pinch pot. It doesn't have to become a bowl. Turn it into a planter, monster, candle holder, creature, trinket dish or something nobody can adequately explain. If you make one, post it in 📸 Show Us Your Stuff. Wonky ones especially.