Nerikomi pieces look like millefiori glass: stripes, checks, spirals and flowers that show on the inside and outside of the pot. The technique asks for very little equipment but a lot of care, because several clays have to behave like one. This guide is research-based, built from Mason Color's stain pages, Digitalfire's notes on colored bodies and tutorials from Ceramic Arts Network, Corrie Bain, The Pottery Wheel and Seattle Pottery Supply. We did not make these pieces ourselves.
What is nerikomi?
Corrie Bain explains the name: "neri" means to mix and "komi" means to press. You color clay, press colors together into a loaf or log, slice that loaf to reveal a pattern, and then press the slices together into a slab or straight into a mold. Because the color is in the clay itself, nothing sits on the surface to wear off, and the pattern is visible on both sides of a thin wall.
A nerikomi pattern is the cross-section you design into the block. Simple patterns are stripes (stacked slabs), checkerboards (stripes cut and restacked with every other strip flipped) and bullseyes (a coil wrapped in a slab of another color). More complex ones join several canes, like a sushi roll, into flowers or faces.
Nerikomi vs neriage
Sources do not agree on the difference. The Pottery Wheel separates them: nerikomi is building patterns by placing colored clays together, while neriage is combining colored clays and throwing them on the wheel, which twists the colors into spirals. Seattle Pottery Supply and a Ceramic Arts Network article treat the two words as the same technique. In practice, most potters in the US use "nerikomi" for hand-built, planned patterns and "neriage" for thrown colored clay. Loosely wedging two clays for a random swirl is a separate look covered on our marbled clay page.
Choose one base clay
Every source agrees on the first rule: make all your colors from the same base clay. Corrie Bain says this keeps shrinkage similar, and Ceramic Arts Network says two different clays can only be combined if their shrinkage matches. A smooth, white, fine body shows colors brightest and slices cleanly. Porcelain or white stoneware is the usual choice; Digitalfire notes that more vitreous porcelains give brighter colors.
Laguna Frost Porcelain
Picked because it is one of the whitest cone 6 porcelains sold to hobby potters, so stains show at full strength and thin slabs glow when light passes through.
- Cone: 6 (Laguna; The Ceramic Shop lists cone 5 to 6)
- Shrinkage: 11% (Laguna)
- Absorption: 0.5% (Laguna)
- Color: white, translucent when thin
Pros
- Very white base for stains
- Translucent thin walls
- Low absorption
Cons
- Soft and less forgiving than stoneware
- Warps more easily
- Costs more per pound
Who should skip it: beginners making their first nerikomi blocks, who will waste less with a cheaper white stoneware.
Laguna B-Mix 5
Picked as a smoother, more forgiving cone 5 base that is easier to keep moist while you build blocks.
- Cone: 5
- Fired color: cream in oxidation
- Shrinkage: 12% (Laguna)
- Absorption: 2.3% (Laguna) or 2.75% (Clay-King)
Pros
- Smooth, porcelain-like texture
- Easier to handle than true porcelain
- Widely stocked
Cons
- Cream rather than white, so pastels look warmer
- Not translucent
Who should skip it: anyone who wants pure, bright pastels or light passing through thin walls.
For more on porcelain bodies, see our porcelain clay guide.
Stains or oxides?
Commercial ceramic stains, such as Mason stains, are the usual colorant. They are made to be stable, give a wide palette and fire close to the color you see raw. Metal oxides (iron, cobalt, copper, manganese) cost less, and The Pottery Wheel suggests practicing with them, but their raw color can be very different from the fired result, and some act as fluxes in the clay. Our planned Mason stains guide covers stain numbers and color families.
Check the stain maker's temperature notes before you choose a palette. Mason Color's reference guide marks some stains with a maximum firing limit, for example 2,300°F (1,260°C) for its 6000 series pinks, and says firing temperatures are only a rough guide because cycle, atmosphere and cooling all change color.
How much stain? Mixing ratios from published sources
| Source | Stain amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mason Color (body stains page) | 5 to 7% | At these "high percentages", with a high gloss glaze, the body can show very vibrant hues |
| Corrie Bain | About 5 to 10% by weight | Depends on how intense you want the color |
| The Pottery Wheel | 8% to start; about 5% for dark blue and black | Example batch: 800 g clay, 64 g stain, 13 fl oz water |
| Ceramic Arts Network | 10% = 5 lb wet clay with 1/2 lb dry stain | Note this is measured against wet clay |
| Digitalfire (marbling) | Usually 5 to 20% | Varies widely by color; test each one |
The differences matter less than they look. Some sources measure against dry clay and some against wet clay, and strong colorants such as cobalt-based blues and blacks need less. Start at 5 percent for dark colors and 8 percent for everything else, fire a test tile, then adjust. Write the percentage on every bag.
Stains are the expensive part. Make small batches (a pound or two of each color) for your first blocks, and keep a white or uncolored clay in the design to stretch them.
How to mix colored clay
There are three common methods. Mixing into wet clay makes the least dust, so it is the one we suggest for a home studio.
- Wet paste method (Ceramic Arts Network): weigh a lump of wet clay, press a well into it, add the weighed stain, then just enough water to make a paste. Knead and wedge until the color is even, with no streaks when you cut the lump.
- Slaking method (The Pottery Wheel): stir the stain into water, pour it over crushed bone-dry clay in a sealed bag, leave it overnight, knead the bag to remove lumps, then firm it on a plaster slab and wedge lightly.
- Dry blend method (Corrie Bain): mix dry clay powder and stain, add water, rest the mix on a plaster bat, then wedge. Corrie Bain finds this the most consistent, but it creates the most dust, so only do it with a respirator and wet cleanup.
Whichever method you use, let the colored clays rest, wrapped, until they have the same softness. A drier color next to a wetter one is the start of most cracks.
Step by step: a nerikomi slab dish
- Plan the pattern. Sketch the cross-section you want. Seattle Pottery Supply suggests making the blocks about the same size so they line up later.
- Make blocks. Form each color into a rectangular block and cut slabs of even thickness with a wire or slab cutter.
- Stack and press. Brush each layer with a little water or slip and stack them. Press firmly to remove air; Ceramic Arts Network says the clays must be very wet to blend without seams or cracks.
- Slice. Cut the block across the stack to reveal stripes. Restack and recut those slices for checks or more complex patterns.
- Assemble a slab. Lay slices edge to edge on a cloth or bat, join each seam with slip, and roll lightly to compress and fuse them.
- Square and shape. Trim the jagged edges, then drape or press the slab into a hump or slump mold. Our pottery molds guide covers mold types.
- Reveal the pattern. At leather hard, scrape the surface with a metal rib to remove smeared color and sharpen the lines.
If you want to throw instead, roll a patterned slab or pack slices around a form, and remember The Pottery Wheel's warning: remove any tube or form early, because the clay shrinks onto it and cracks.
Avoiding cracks from different shrinkage
Different colors of the same clay can still shrink differently. Digitalfire explains that some stains make a porcelain more refractory, which reduces fired shrinkage, while others make it more vitreous and increase it, and the effect grows with the amount of stain. It shows a bowl that cracked along the line between a more vitreous red and a less vitreous green.
- Keep percentages close. Big gaps in stain amount mean big gaps in shrinkage.
- Test the pair. Digitalfire's bi-clay strip test joins two clays in one bar; if it curls when dry or fired, they do not fit. Fire a small tile of every new color combination.
- Even moisture. Corrie Bain says cracks at joins usually come from uneven moisture or too little compression.
- Do not overwork. Over-compressed or too-wet clay smears and bleeds color across the lines.
- Dry slowly. Cover the piece in plastic for several days and loosen it gradually. Ceramic Arts Network dries pieces under cover on a bat so moisture evens out.
Our planned clay shrinkage guide explains how to measure shrinkage on a test bar.
Firing and glazing nerikomi
Bisque as you normally would for your clay, then fire to the clay's maturing cone. Many nerikomi potters leave the outside bare and sand or polish it after firing, or use a thin clear glaze, because a thick or opaque glaze hides the pattern. The Pottery Wheel recommends a zinc-free clear at stoneware temperatures, and Mason Color's guide says free zinc oxide in a glaze can destroy some colors and marks its chrome-tin pinks "Do not use zinc in glaze". If you use pinks or purples, choose a zinc-free clear; see clear glaze for pottery.
Dust safety with Mason stains
Dry stains are fine powders, and many contain metals such as chrome, cobalt or nickel. Request or download the Safety Data Sheet for every stain you buy (Mason Color supplies them on request) and follow it. Weigh stains gently, never pour from height, wear nitrile or rubber gloves (Ceramic Arts Network recommends gloves and a respirator when mixing colorants into clay) and a NIOSH-approved respirator rated for fine dust. Mix in the wet clay where you can. Clean the bench and floor wet, never dry sweep, and scrape rather than sand greenware. Keep stains away from food areas. Our planned clay dust safety page covers silica in more depth.
Common mistakes
- Mixing colors from different clays. Two bodies with different shrinkage will pull apart.
- Uneven softness. Stacking a stiff color against a soft one leaves weak joins.
- Not scraping. Smeared color hides the pattern; scrape at leather hard.
- Fast drying. Edges dry first and crack at the color lines.
- Skipping test tiles. Stains can fire darker or lighter than expected and may burn out above their limit.
What you need
Nerikomi needs a white base clay, a few stains, a scale that reads in grams, a wire, a rolling pin with guide sticks and a mold. Our pottery clay buying guide helps you choose a base body, and a slab roller makes even slabs much easier if you plan to make a lot.
Sources: Mason Color body stains page, reference guide and Safety Data Sheets page (masoncolor.com); The Ceramic Shop, "Mason Stain Guide and Tips"; Digitalfire glossary "Marbling"; Ceramic Arts Network, "Creating Nerikomi Blocks: Decorating with Colored Clay Patterns"; Corrie Bain, "A beginner's guide to Nerikomi"; The Pottery Wheel, "Nerikomi Pottery: 3 Easy Techniques"; Seattle Pottery Supply, "Nerikomi method: how to make Nerikomi pottery"; Laguna clay spec pages for Frost Porcelain and B-Mix 5; Ahrefs SERP data for "nerikomi". Specs checked October 2026.