How stoneware pottery is made
Stoneware is fired hot enough that the clay turns waterproof, around 1,100 to 1,300 °C.
- stations
- 7
- things upstream
- 4
- raw sources
- 4
- step from the ground
- 1
The short version
Factory stoneware is mostly formed by machine. Clay is pugged through a vacuum chamber to remove air, cut into blanks and shaped on a jigger, where a spinning mold and a profiled arm make a plate in seconds. Hollow shapes are cast from liquid slip in plaster molds. Pieces are dried, fettled, given a first firing, dipped in glaze and fired again until clay and glaze fuse.
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Pug the clay
Clay runs through a vacuum chamber in a pug mill, which removes air and leaves a uniform body. For casting, dry clay is instead mixed with water into a creamy slip.
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Jigger the flatware
A cutter stamps round blanks from a slab, and each drops onto a spinning mold. A profiled arm descends and shapes a plate in 2 to 4 seconds.
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Cast the hollow shapes
Slip goes into multi-part plaster molds that wick out water, so a solid clay layer builds on the walls. After 45 to 90 minutes the spare slip drains for reuse.
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Dry and fettle
Plates ride a controlled dryer for 6 to 12 hours. Seam lines from the mold are then sanded or sponged away by hand or small rotating tool.
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Fire the bare clay
A first low firing, the bisque, hardens the ware so it can take glaze without falling apart.
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Dip in glaze
Each piece is dipped or sprayed with a liquid mix of silica and feldspar, which dries as a powdery layer on the porous body.
Goes in -
Fire it to vitrify
A second, hotter trip through the kiln melts the glaze and turns the clay waterproof.
1,100 to 1,300 °C
Worth repeating
- Different regions developed stoneware independently, after earthenware and before porcelain.
- Dense and impermeable, stoneware is hard enough to resist scratching by a steel point.
- Stoneware is usually more opaque than porcelain and only partially vitrified.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and stoneware pottery starts as these 4 raw sources.
Open the whole family tree
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How stoneware pottery is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/pottery