23 Unique Ceramics Projects for All Ages in 2024
Dive into your first ceramics projects with this list of creative and fun ideas! Ceramics have been used throughout human civilization and are often used to measure when and where certain historical events took place.
According to The Mississippi Valley Archeology Project, many things are considered in ceramic analysis, such as “the shape of the vessel, the kinds of decoration, the way that the decoration was applied, where on the vessel the decoration was applied, the kind of temper that was used in manufacture, and the kind of clay.” This means that even something as small as how you glaze or fire your ceramics can make a difference in how they are used and how long they survive.
Which leads to the question: What can I make with ceramics? Gifts and home decorations are just a few ideas. Take a look below!
Jump to Section
- What is a Ceramics Project?
- Ceramics Projects for Adults
- Ceramics Projects for Students
- Ceramics Projects for High School
- Ceramics Projects for Kids
- Ceramics Projects for Beginners
- Ceramics Projects FAQs
What is a Ceramics Project?
In general terms, ceramics is the art of designing, sculpting and firing all types of objects from clay. Once you have the basics down, you can start to consider different ceramics projects to take on to grow your skillset.
You can take on ceramics projects for yourself, like functional items you can use around the house. Maybe you want to create a masterpiece of a mug for your best friend's birthday or a special occasion like Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Ceramics projects will differ depending on your intention and who the receiver of your creative endeavors is. Read on to get some interesting, fun and creative ceramics projects for people of all ages, from kids to adults.
Ceramics Projects for Adults
1. Pottery Classes
For those adults who are truly beginners to ceramics projects, or who prefer to practice their art in a group setting, it's easy to find local pottery classes! Exceptional instructors can guide you through the process, and often they have tools like a potter's wheel or glazing brushes you can borrow while class is in session.
2. Windchimes
This is one of the more complicated projects, which is why it has been saved as one of the ceramics projects for adults. You'll want one huge hunk of clay to start with, or at least a few medium-sized ones. You'll be using the clay to make five bell shapes of increasing sizes and ten beads of all the same size as each other.
If you make the bells wide enough, they should easily sit inside one another when you string everything together at the end of the project. Remember when glazing the bells, not to glaze the rim underneath, where you'll be placing the items on a shelf to dry – and it may be best not to glaze the beads at all!
Don't forget to gently punch holes in the tops of the bells and through the beads (perhaps with a skewer or similar shaped thin, sharp object) to leave room for a string to hold them together for the final product.
3. Jewelry
While they may seem simple, smaller items like rings or earrings can be more challenging due to their size! Be cautious as you gently form a ring out of clay, smoothing it into the right shape or creating a small hole for the ear clasp or lever. Air drying the clay will be easier than firing the pieces in a kiln.
Ceramic necklaces can also be a beautiful gift for a friend, or to yourself! If you're looking to uplevel your ceramics skills, these are fantastic ways to start.
3. Birdfeeders
Making a birdfeeder is one of the more unique ceramics projects to try. As there are so many ways to create a birdfeeder, it will definitely level up your pottery-making skills. You could throw your birdfeeder on a pottery wheel, building the base first and then cutting out the windows once slightly dried. Slab-built methods range in complexity.
House-shaped birdfeeders make for more complex ceramics projects — if you’re up for the challenge. You’ll need to use various techniques like wrapping the object in paper, beveling the edges, clay cutting, using the slip-and-score method to connect pieces and making design marks and patterns. Some of the most expensive designs have unique and valuable pottery marks.
4. Busts
These ceramics projects are great for practicing your intermediary skills, as they can help you improve your ability to craft forms with clay. Have patience, sculpting a human face can be difficult.
Not only will you get more practice in drawing and carving full-sized faces into clay, but they'll also make for a fun and elegant decoration or piece of memorabilia when you're finished. This is definitely a ceramics project worth glazing.
Ceramics Projects for Students
6. Slab-Built Planter
Build a basic planter in the slab method. These are simple starter ceramics projects for students of all ages! Another blessing for beginner potters is that it's meant to live outside, so any rough edges or design flaws may go unnoticed or even add to the beauty of your outdoor dreamscape.
7. Egg Cups
Egg cups are simple containers that consist of a small, egg-sized bowl (or “cup”) on top of a base that holds a single hard-boiled egg flat on the table. If you're looking to set up a traditional U.K. breakfast like Dippy Eggs and Soldiers (soft-boiled eggs with slices of toast to dip in), you'll love having these simple creations around. They're also fun breakfast food ideas for the kids.
8. Teapots
Technically, teapots are formations involving a variety of smaller shapes. The body is a large bowl (with only a small hole at the head, which may be easier to craft on a potter's wheel). The spout is a decorously shaped tube, which seems simple enough to construct.
However, putting all the pieces together to make a working teapot may be more challenging, which means that creating teapots are great ceramics projects to help students improve their skills. Don't forget to choose a food-safe glaze, so that you're not mixing chemicals into your tea.
9. Sponge Holder
A sponge holder is another simple ceramics project for beginners, but it can be as complex as you want it to be. You could create a small plate or bowl on which to perch your dish-washing sponges, or you could create a more elaborate design with walls to hold your sponges between uses.
10. Figurines
Small figurines are a fun treat! They are enjoyable in many forms and look even better when painted. These clay creations tend to be minuscule, so they require more skill – which is a good way for your student to put their artistic abilities to the test.
Once you've mastered the art of creating these darling delights, you may be considering the different ways of painting ceramics — you could even use glazes that look like paint.
Ceramics Projects for High School
11. Bowls
As a beginner, pinch pots are one of the first forms you learn to craft. Bowls are simply a larger, wider format of pinch pot. You do have to be careful about choosing a glaze that is not toxic, however.
It's always best to be cautious, even if you plan to store jewelry or something aside from food in your bowls.
12. Plates
Similar to bowls, plates are relatively simple. However, they can be a little more confusing than bowls, due to the small amount of concave or curvature that is needed to hold food while being relatively flat constructions.
Throwing plates on a wheel might be even more of a struggle at first than making one by hand. You may want to consider slip casting for this ceramics project, which involves pouring molten clay into a mold you've formed ahead of time.
13. Cake Stand
This one is a gentle challenge, where you'd have to combine the skills you used to create the egg cups with the skills involved in crafting plates. The cake stand has the base piece and a large plate to hold a cake, it has to be food-safe and be able to balance with something heavy atop it. So we don't recommend making a hollow base as it needs to be weighted and heavier.
Cake stands make for great ceramics projects for foodie raffle basket ideas if you're hosting a brunch school raffle or for gifts to bring to a fun tea party.
14. Manual Juicer
Manual juicers, different from their electronic cousins, are circular items that you hold in your palm or place flat on the table. There is a soft, rimmed pointed protrusion stemming from the center and a bowl-like bottom. You can press a half of a cut open the fruit of your choice onto this protrusion to extract the juice.
These seem simple, but creating them may be more of a challenge than you anticipate, due to the odd shape of the protrusion. Don't forget to figure out how you're glazing pottery for food safety and your health!
Ceramics Projects for Kids
15. Stamps
Do you remember playing with stamps and ink pads as a child? Learn how to make a stamp of your own out of clay! These are not only toys for children to use, but simple ceramics projects for children to learn.
The design doesn't have to be perfect. Whetever the little onee can produce while carving and drawing the face of the clay stamp is perfectly fine. They will love making something with their own two hands and then being able to use it after.
16. Beads
Perhaps the most simple option for children is to craft beads out of clay. The methods to create them involve pinching and pulling – tasks that we know they can handle and enjoy! Not to mention that they can use the beads for their own jewelry-producing efforts after they're done playing with the clay.
17. Coil Vase or Cup
Creating a vase or cup with coils of clay is much more simple and safer for young ones than using a pottery wheel, though it is more time consuming. First, have a chunk of clay rolled out in a circle for the bottom of the vase. The child takes a small chunk of clay and rolls it in their hands until they achieve a long and cylindrical snake-like shape, which they use to coil into a circle (or for larger vases, a semi-circle).
The next coil is piled on top of the first (or overlapping, to create the base of the walls of a larger vase). This continues until the vase is the size the child prefers. They'll then smoothen the edges, allow for drying, paint or glaze and fire as needed.
18. Spoon Rest
Aside from pinch pots, a spoon rest may be the answer to the question, “What is the easiest thing to make in pottery?” This is the little dish that sits on the stove to hold the spoon between stirring the soup or the sauces.
This dish can be round in the walls like a bowl or flat like a small plate. You could probably even roll out a small chunk of clay and fire it as is (or let it air dry), though smooth edges and a slight dip in the middle to hold the curve of the spoon might be preferable so that no liquid spills out.
Ceramics Projects for Beginners
19. Succulent Planter
A succulent planter is truly a beginner project because it mainly consists of creating pinch pots. You can add drainage holes on the sides or for accents. You can also vary the difficulty by creating wider and deeper pinch pots – though succulents don't need a lot of room for their roots to grow. They also don't need to be food safe.
20. Knick-Knack Holder
This is basically the same as crafting a small bowl or a wide pinch pot. You can create a small dish to hold your keys when you get home or small toys or pebbles you pick up along the way.
If you like gathering crystals or semi-precious stones, this is a perfect place to display them all together! This is one of the easiest ceramics projects and practical, too.
21. Butter Dish
Butter dishes are great ceramics projects for beginners because it involves creating a base that's similar to the knick-knack holder or the spoon rest, but with a cover to match the dish portion.
You can also add lovely designs to the cover and a small handle, if you want to elevate your skills.
22. Candleholders
Do you still love the old-fashioned tapered candles, but have no way to hold them upright on your dining room table? Candleholders make for lovely aesthetics and a calm atmosphere at night-time.
Creating candleholders makes for engaging ceramics projects because they are simple and relatively quick, especially as you don't have to worry about the glaze being food-safe and the shape is relatively simple – like a pinch pot with a wider base.
23. Mugs and Pinch Pots
The essential pottery for beginners task: pinch pots – or you can make them larger for a mug. You can even add a handle, if you want to challenge yourself!
Just pinch the clay into the shape you want for your vessel, as large or small as you prefer. Adults could even use a smaller pinch pot as a thimble for sewing or shot glasses for game night to go along with your tailgate food ideas.
Ceramics Projects FAQs
What's the Difference Between Ceramics and Pottery?
First, let's define some terms – like ceramics vs pottery. Ceramics tends to be the broader term for items made with clay, while pottery is generally a vessel for other items or liquids.
Then there are terms like “slab built” and “slip and score method.”
“Slab-built” generally means you are using a slab of clay and using it to construct something piece-by-piece, rather than spinning it on a potter's wheel (also known as “throwing”).
The phrase “slip and score method” refers to pressing marks, like scratch marks made with a fork or similar pronged sharp object, into the surface of clay to make it rough. Then you slip a liquid substance such as liquid clay (barbotine), vinegar or water along the rough surface. Finally, you attach another piece of clay to join the two together (such as for the walls of a bird-feeder).
Let's not forget about “glaze”. A “glaze” is a sticky substance that often has color and can be made with food-safe ingredients. “Glazing” is the process of painting a glaze onto a clay object before (or between) firing to give it a glassy exterior.
What Sells in Ceramics?
Those who are looking to become a potter and sell items may be wondering what sells in ceramics and pottery. Well, that pretty much depends on who's buying the product. Buyers will also change depending on what style of pottery you intend to create. Do you want to sell once-off works of art or functional crockery for restaurants?
The most sold items are probably more on the functional side with items like mugs, bowls, and plates. You may also want to sell more artistic, decorative items like vases and sculptures. These also sell well, but you'll need to collaborate with a local gallery or really work hard on your marketing to make a sale and a name for yourself.
In the end, it doesn't matter what you make as long as you're enjoying the experience. Pottery making and ceramics can be fantastic hobbies or they could even become your main source of income, if you have the time and energy to keep up with the work involved.
For even more fun pottery and ceramics experience gift ideas, check out other experiences happening on Classpop!
