13 Cute Pottery Ideas You Can Make Yourself!
When you are new to pottery, the first projects that might come to mind are pots, plates, bowls, and vases.
And although those are great projects to start with and learn the basics of pottery, there are a lot of other creative and cute pottery ideas that you can try out.
So here you can find 13 cute ideas to get you started!
1. Animal figurines
Animal figures are one of the cutest things you can make. You can either make one of your favorite animals or one of your own pets.
Of course, making figurines can be as hard or as difficult as you want it to be.
Take a look at the ones shown below, as an example. Initially they might seem pretty complex, but if you look closer you will see that they are basically a big clay ball with some details added to them.
Additionally, a lot of detail can be added by using some paint after firing the clay. So make sure to consider not only how to shape the clay, but also how to paint it afterwards.
2. Human flower pots
Another fun idea is to make flower pots that look like human faces.
You can start off by making a regular vase, either by using a wheel or by using handbuilding techniques. Then simply add some extra clay for the nose and lips, and add two holes for the eyes.
If you are planning on making several of these vases, try to make each vase look different by changing the facial features.
Once you finish the head section, you can either leave it as is or add a base. In the vases you see above, shoulders were added. And the vases shown below are supported by arm or hands.
3. Snowman
This is probably one of the easiest pottery ideas on this list, but I had to include it because it just looks so cute!
You can make several layers and then stack them on top of each other. Or you can make one big piece and then carve away a few lines to create the illusion of several layers.
In the example below, some extra clay was added to form the nose and the buttons. And two twigs were added after firing the clay.
But you could add a lot of extra details and really personalize your snowman if you. For example, think about adding some eyes, a mouth, a little scarf, or a hat.
4. Egg plates
Every beginner learns at some point how to throw a plate on a wheel.
But these egg plates really show how you can turn something generic and boring, add a little creativity, and turn it into something cute and fun.
It is also a good example of when making something by hand works out better than making it on the wheel.
If you made these plates on the wheel, you would end up with perfectly symmetrical eggs. But have you ever seen one of those in real life?
So making these plates by hand works a lot better.
5. Ceramics birds
These cute birds are another project that is fun and easy to do. You can make the main body from a single piece of clay and add a second piece of clay for the tail.
You can add some details such as feathers or a beak. But as you can see below, even with very minimal detail, these birds still come out great.
And don’t forget to add some color by using different types of clay, glazes, or paint.
You could use them as paperweights or simply as room decoration.
6. Heart mugs
Mugs and cups are one of the first type of item you’ll learn how to make when taking a pottery class. If you have some experience, you have probably made more of them than you care to remember.
But how about making some cute heart shaped mugs instead of your basic mug?!
These mugs are easy to make and don’t take a lot of time or prior knowledge.
You can paint them your favorite color. Or if you are making them for that special person, you can also engrave someone’s name inside the mug.
7. Family of mushrooms
I’m not a huge fan of eating mushrooms. But these clay mushrooms just look super cute, so I had to include them in the list.
Since they are so easy to make, you can a complete collection of small mushrooms, big mushrooms, baby mushrooms, etc.
After firing, you can also paint them in what ever color you want. Or you could stick to the typical red with white dots.
8. Leave plates
These ceramic leaves are a lot of fun to make in fall. As soon as the leaves start falling from the trees, you can go out to find a few pretty ones and use them as a template.
Not only can you use the leaves you found to indicate what the outline of your ceramic leaf should be, if you press the leaf firmly in the clay, you often get a nice imprint of the nerves as well.
The resulting leaf look super neat and can be used to hold your keys, jewelry, soaps, etc.
9. Cute fruit plates
Another cute twist on making plates are these fruity plates. Instead of making standard circular or rectangular shaped plates, you can make them in the shape of your favorite fruit or food.
You can then make them extra cute by using some ceramic paint to give your plates different facial expressions.
Of course, if you are planning on actually using these plates, you want to make sure that you fire them at the right temperature and/or use the right glaze to make them food safe.
10. Mushroom mugs
I know we already talked about making mushrooms, but I thought these mushroom mugs looked so cute that they deserved to be on the list as well.
You can easily make a standard mug by using a wheel or through slab pottery. And then instead of adding a regular handle, you add a mushroom. It’s a super simple idea, but super cute!
I understand that maybe not everyone is a huge mushroom fan, though. So feel free to be a little creative and change the shape of the handle into anything you want.
11. Mugs with mugs
This is another idea to turn your boring mug into super cute ones. These mugs are all given a simple face and an arm holding a mug. So it’s a mug drinking from a smaller mug!
While making these, just make sure to keep the arm and smaller mug close to the main body and preferably in contact with each other. That will prevent the arm from easily breaking off.
12. Happy planters
If you are looking for a cute pot to grow your plants in, you can try making one of these happy planters.
They might seem difficult at first, but that couldn’t be more wrong. They are simply a standard pot with four small cylindrical pieces of clay attached to the bottom.
You can either carve the facial expression before firing, or you can use some paint to add it afterwards.
If you are planning to make several of these, try giving each of them a different facial expression.
13. Fruit coasters
The last and easiest idea on the list are these fruity coasters.
The simplest approach is to make circles of clay and paint them after firing. If you are making a citrus coaster, you can add some 3D texture by carving the parts that will remain white.
If you want to personalize them a little more, you can also try to change the shape of the coaster. You could even use cookie cutters for this if you want some help getting the right shape.
Of course, you don’t have to stick to fruits. Use your creativity and make them as cute as you can!
More pottery ideas!
You can never have too many new ideas. So if the 13 cute pottery ideas above weren’t exactly what you were looking for, you can also check out some of our other pottery ideas such as:
