Coil Pots: How to Make a Coil Pot That Does Not Crack

A coil pot is a vessel built from ropes of clay stacked in rings or spirals on a flat base. Each coil is pressed and blended into the one below, so the wall grows upward one layer at a time. Coiling is how you make pots taller and wider than a pinch pot allows, without a wheel. The keys are even coils, a base as thick as the walls, staggered joins and patience: let the lower coils firm up before you add too many on top.

Coil pot ceramics: what a coil pot is

Coiling is one of the three core hand building pottery methods. Ceramic Arts Network describes it as using "ropelike coils of plastic clay, assembled in successive courses to build up wall of vessel or sculpture." Large storage jars and planters have been coil built for thousands of years, and many studio potters still coil big forms because there is no limit on height except drying and kiln size.

In pottery, a coil is a rope of soft clay rolled out by hand or pushed through an extruder; AMOCA's ceramic vocabulary describes coils as rolled, snake-like ropes of clay joined together to build pots. Coil building is the method of stacking and blending those ropes into a wall. People sometimes search for the main "types of pottery" here, but that question is about clay bodies (earthenware, stoneware and porcelain), which our types of pottery clay guide explains.

A coil pot can look two ways. Blend the coils on both sides and you get a smooth wall that looks almost thrown. Blend only the inside and the coils stay visible as decoration on the outside. Both are real coil pots.

Which clay this guide assumes

The steps below assume kiln clay, which you fire to make permanent. A clay with some grog (fine fired clay particles) gives coils more "tooth" and helps tall walls stand. AMACO's coil pot classroom unit uses its low-fire White Art Clay No. 25, and Skutt's pinch-and-coil lesson uses a mid-range clay bisqued at cone 04 and glazed at cone 6.

Air-dry clay also coils well for decorative pieces. Keep air-dry walls at least 1/4 inch thick, as Crayola advises, and do not use air-dry pots for water or plants. See our best clay for pottery guide for kiln clays that suit hand building.

How to roll even clay coils

1. Start with a sausage. Squeeze a lump of clay into a rough cylinder between your hands.
2. Roll from the center out. Place it on canvas or a dry board. Roll with flat, spread fingers, starting in the middle and moving your hands outward as you roll.
3. Use the whole hand. Rolling with fingertips makes flat spots and a twisted, uneven coil. Use long, light strokes with the full length of your fingers and palms.
4. Keep it round. If the coil goes flat or hollow in the middle, stop, pick it up and squeeze it round again.
5. Make a batch and cover it. Roll several coils at once and keep them under plastic. The Pottery Wheel suggests covering coils with a plastic bag while they wait so they do not dry out.

A clay extruder can push out perfectly even coils in seconds, which helps with large projects or sore hands. Our clay extruder guide compares models.

How to make a coil pot step by step

1. Make the base. Roll a slab and cut a circle, or coil a tight flat spiral and blend it on both sides. The Pottery Wheel says the base should be about the same thickness as the coil walls.
2. Score the edge. Score the outer edge of the base and the underside of the first coil, and brush on a little slip.
3. Lay the first coil. Place it on top of the base edge, not around the outside. Cut the ends at an angle and overlap them, then press the join closed.
4. Blend the inside. Use a finger or wooden tool to drag clay from the coil down onto the base in short strokes, all the way around.
5. Blend the outside. Drag clay from the base up onto the coil, unless you want this coil left visible.
6. Add the next coil. Score and slip the top of the wall, lay the next coil and blend it in. Place its end join in a different spot from the coil below.
7. Shape as you go. To widen the pot, set each coil slightly toward the outside edge of the one below. To narrow it, set each coil slightly toward the inside.
8. Work in sessions. The Pottery Wheel suggests about 5 or 6 coils per session. Let the lower wall firm up under loose plastic before adding more weight. Cover the top edge so it stays soft for the next session.
9. Finish the rim. Level it with a needle tool if needed and round it with a damp sponge or soft rib.
10. Refine and dry. Scrape and smooth at leather hard, then dry slowly and evenly under plastic.

Coil building ceramics: how to coil a vase

A coil vase in ceramics is the same method as a coil pot, with one extra skill: closing the form in toward a neck without collapsing it. Coil building is well suited to vases, because there is no height limit except drying and the size of the kiln.

1. Plan the profile. Sketch the shape on paper, or cut a cardboard rib in the profile you want, so you can check the curve as you build.
2. Build the belly. Set each coil slightly outside the one below to widen the form. Blend the inside fully, since you will not be able to reach it once the neck closes.
3. Let it firm up. Before you turn the wall inward, let the widest part stiffen under loose plastic until it holds its shape. A soft, wide wall sags when you start narrowing.
4. Close toward the neck. Set each coil slightly inside the one below, a little at a time. Big jumps inward make the shoulder fold.
5. Finish the neck and rim. Use thinner coils for the neck so it stays in proportion, and keep the rim covered between sessions so the next coil still bonds.
6. Dry slowly. Vases dry fastest at the neck and rim. Cover the top with a strip of plastic so the whole form dries together.

If you want a vase that holds water, blend the coils well on the inside and glaze the inside after the bisque firing. For more coil shapes to try, see our coil pot ideas.

How thick should clay coils be?

For a medium bowl or vase, a coil about the width of your little finger (roughly 1/2 inch) is a practical starting point; that is The Pottery Wheel's recommendation. The University of the Pacific course gives no single figure and advises matching coil size to the project: thinner coils for small pieces, thicker coils for larger work that needs more support. Keep the base about the same thickness as the walls once the coils are blended.

How to keep coils from cracking

Cracks in coil pots usually open between coils or at the coil ends. These habits prevent most of them:

• Keep coils moist. The University of the Pacific course advises keeping clay "moist but not sticky" and wrapping coils in plastic while you work. A coil that has started to dry cracks as you bend it.
• Score and slip firmer clay. The course says to score and slip each coil. Very soft coils can bond with firm pressing alone; Skutt's pinch-and-coil lesson presses and smooths soft coils downward into the wall without slip.
• Blend at least one side fully. An unblended coil sits on the one below with only a thin contact line. Blending drags clay across that line and locks them together.
• Stagger the joins. The Pottery Wheel advises placing each coil's end join at a different point around the pot so weak spots do not line up.
• Dry slowly and evenly. Coil pots often have small thickness differences. Digitalfire notes that even drying matters more than slow drying, so cover the pot loosely and turn it.

Once the pot is fully dry but unfired, our greenware guide explains how to handle and store it safely.

Do you have to smooth a coil pot?

No, not on the outside. Smoothing is a design choice. The inside should be blended because that is what holds the coils together; the outside can stay coiled for texture. The Pottery Wheel blends the inside with fingers, wooden tools and a rubber rib for watertight vessels such as vases, and leaves the outside coils as "a feature of the outer surface" when the coil look is wanted. For design ideas that play with smooth and textured walls, see our coil pot ideas.

Drying and firing a coil pot

Dry the finished pot slowly to bone dry. Taller pots benefit from a loose plastic tent for several days so the rim and the base dry at the same pace. Thick bases hold water longest; Digitalfire notes that thick ware may need slow early heating in the kiln so remaining moisture can escape. Once bone dry, the pot goes into a bisque firing, then glaze and a second firing to the clay's stated cone.

Common mistakes to avoid in coil pottery

• Letting coils dry out on the table before they are used, so they crack when bent into a ring.
• Pulling the wall inward too fast on a vase or jar, so the shoulder folds or slumps.
• Rolling coils with fingertips, which makes flat, uneven ropes.
• Stacking coils without blending, then wondering why the pot splits along a layer.
• Lining up all the coil ends in one column.
• Adding too many coils at once so the soft lower wall slumps or bulges.
• Making the base much thicker than the walls.
• Letting the rim dry between sessions, which makes the next coil hard to attach.

Safety notes

What you need

A bag of grogged hand-building clay, a sponge, a wooden modeling tool, a scoring tool, slip and plastic are enough for your first coil pot. A banding wheel or extruder helps later. Our pottery tools hub lists the basics, and our clay buying guide compares clays that suit coil building.

Sources: University of the Pacific ceramics course on LibreTexts, "Coil Construction: Pottery and Sculpture"; Ceramic Arts Network, "Handbuilding Techniques"; The Pottery Wheel, "How to Make Coil Pots" and "Easy Coil Pots"; Skutt lesson plan "Built to Succeed: A Pinch and Coil Approach"; AMACO classroom unit "Ceramics 1: Coil Pots"; Crayola Air-Dry Clay FAQs; Digitalfire Reference Library (drying cracks, candling); NIOSH report on crystalline silica in pottery manufacturing; AMOCA Ceramic Vocabulary (coil). Specs checked October 2026.