Holiday Gift Ideas for Potters

Hey everyone! Posting this here on behalf of our teacher Janet O'Malley! She wanted to share it:

Holiday Gift Ideas for Potters

Every year folks are looking for good gift ideas to give to potters. I put this list together for folks in my classes and thought I'd share with the broader community. I am not compensated by these vendors, but after years of using them, I do recommend.

Here you go...

Literature

• A subscription to Ceramics Monthly or Pottery Making Illustrated

• A recently published book called 'By My Hands: A Potter's Apprenticeship' by Florian Gadsby

Tools

• Mudtools : Dickblick and Amazon both sell a starter Mudtool kit that's terrific. Individually, the double ended trimming tool, some of their sponges and their polymer ribs are all great. Some are for sale at the studio. 

  
  

• Garrity Ribs for making interesting shapes and texture, find one you like and add to your list

  
  

• Diamond Core trimming tools are great but insanely expensive, making them a great gift. The T8 is a good place to start but take a look at their site to see if anything else interests you.

• Handheld extruder and handle forms.  Diamond Core makes handheld extruders for handles but they are very expensive, so take a look on Amazon first. For the amount you use them, its fine to go cheap.

Color

• Amaco Underglaze Pencil for signing your work or drawing on it.

• Amaco Semi-Moise Underglaze set (if underglazes are interesting to you, these work like watercolors)

• A Mason stain in a color of your choice (if you decide to ask for this, 2 ounces is a good starting point)

Misc.

• A handcream in an easy to use tube with little oily residue. Your hands can begin to scream at you, having a cream in your tool box can help. Oily creams tend to leave residue on bisque-ware so go easy. 

• And on that note, a nice bag/tool box to bring stuff to and from Indigo

• A Claypron apron

• A gift certificate from one of the clay companies such as the one's mentioned above or Indigo, The Ceramic Shop, Bailey Potter, etc.