Pottery Painting Techniques
Decorating is where your personality shows in your pottery. Master potter Stephen Jepson, who has spent over 60 years at the wheel, emphasizes that technique is just a starting point — the goal is finding your own visual voice. Here are the core techniques to build from.
Underglaze Painting
Underglazes are the most versatile painting medium for pottery. They work like watercolors — you can blend, layer, and create fine details. Apply to bisqueware with soft brushes, then cover with clear glaze and fire. The result is permanent, food-safe, and vibrant.
Best for: Detailed illustrations, lettering, floral designs, and custom patterns on functional ware.
Sgraffito
Apply a contrasting layer of colored underglaze or slip over your clay body, then carve through it to reveal the clay underneath. Use loop tools, needles, or custom carving tools for different line weights. The two-tone contrast creates dramatic, graphic designs.
Best for: Bold graphic patterns, nature scenes, portraits, and geometric designs.
Wax Resist
Paint liquid wax onto bisqueware in your desired pattern, then apply glaze over the entire piece. The glaze slides off the waxed areas, leaving the bare clay or a different glaze layer exposed. Creates beautiful contrast between glazed and unglazed surfaces.
Best for: Abstract patterns, organic shapes, layered glaze effects, and bottom-of-pot protection.
Stamping and Texturing
Press found objects, commercial stamps, or handmade clay stamps into soft clay before bisque firing. After firing, brush underglaze into the recessed areas and wipe the surface clean — the color stays in the impressions, highlighting the texture.
Best for: Repeating patterns, borders, nature imprints (leaves, shells), and textured surfaces.
Slip Trailing
Squeeze liquid clay (slip) through a narrow applicator tip to draw raised lines on the surface — like decorating a cake. Once bisque-fired and glazed, the raised lines create a tactile, three-dimensional design. Traditional in many folk pottery traditions.
Best for: Folk art styles, decorative borders, lettering, and raised dot patterns.
5 Design Ideas to Try
1. Botanical Line Drawings
Use black underglaze with a fine brush to draw simple botanical illustrations — leaves, ferns, wildflowers — on white or light-colored clay. Cover with clear gloss glaze. This minimalist style is perennially popular and surprisingly forgiving for beginners.
2. Geometric Mandala
Divide a plate or bowl into equal sections using light pencil lines, then fill each section with repeating geometric patterns in underglazes. Start from the center and work outward. The symmetry creates a meditative design process and a stunning finished piece.
3. Landscape Bands
Paint horizontal bands of color around a mug or vase to suggest a landscape — dark earth tones at the bottom, greens in the middle, blues and whites at the top. Blend the transitions with a damp brush for a painterly effect.
4. Abstract Brush Strokes
Load a wide brush with underglaze and make bold, expressive strokes across the surface. Layer contrasting colors while still wet for organic blending. This style embraces imperfection — every piece is unique, and there are no mistakes.
5. Carved and Inlaid Patterns
Combine sgraffito and inlay techniques. Carve patterns into leather-hard clay, fill the carved lines with contrasting colored slip, then scrape the surface flat. After bisque firing and clear glazing, the inlaid lines create precise, permanent designs.
Stephen's Complete Pottery Course — $49.99
Watch master potter Stephen Jepson teach wheel throwing, hand building, glazing, and more. One-time purchase, lifetime access.