I’m always looking for a better way to do things. Granted, there are certain aspects of pottery that you just can’t rush. While that is true, I’ve come to learn that there are short cuts for some of the remedial task. That’s why I love reading books like “250 Tips, Techniques, and Trade Secrets for Potters: The Indispensable Compendium of Essential Knowledge and Troubleshooting Tips“. While the title may be a mile long, this book promises a good deal of information and delivers on it, in spades!

But probably the best thing that I loved about this book wasn’t the time saving tips, which is why I bought it in the first place, it was the little details that I picked up along the way, as well as the new ideas (at least for me) that the book contained.

For example, the author (Jacqui Atkin), goes into detail about the different types of clays and the qualities that each have. Wow. I was never told a lot of this stuff when I was taking classes! I’m far from an expert, and after reading this book, I can see why!

The book is laid out very well. Even a novice such as myself can learn from it because many of the tips and techniques are laid out with step by step instructions accompanied by very detailed photos. Next to watching someone do it on video or in person, these photo’s along with the tips really helped me learn some cool new techniques.

Jacqui has also included a wealth of information in this book about slabbing, pinching, coiling, throwing, mold-making and turning. And you guessed it, all with step by step information with photos to show you how it’s done.

I also appreciated the chapter on creating surface decorations. I’ve been wanting to get into making decorative tiles but was unsure about which way to go for adding the most durable and high quality decorations to the tiles. Now that I have this book, I think I’ve found my technique and I can’t wait to try it out.

I found the little sidebar tips to be really helpful as well. In fact, I’d go as far to say that this book is like a Bible of Ceramics. It’s obvious from reading it that Jacqui is very well versed in ceramic pottery. She is also a master at communicating effectively through the writings of this book. While some other pottery books may be confusing and intimidating for beginners such as myself, I found 250 Tips, Techniques, and Trade Secrets for Potters to be very easy to use and follow. I can’t tell you what a great help it’s been helping me expand my skills and accuracy.

The place where I found the best price on this book was at Amazon.com. As if that was a surprise! But other places had it for a few bucks more, but I seem to always gravitate back to Amazon.

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