Pottery Studio Review

Get ready to throw pots on the Pottery Studio pottery wheel. This is a nice starter kit for crafty kids (or adults) who want to learn how to do pottery.

The instructions take you through preparing and working with the clay, as well as how to use clay to make hand-sculpted creations, such as pinch pots and clay beads. But then there are instructions for how to use the pottery wheel to make creations. It runs on a USB cord or battery power. If you use the USB cord, the instructions recommend plugging it into a USB wall outlet as opposed to a computer. We used a computer, and the pottery wheel worked just fine. There are two speed settings, though on our machine, there wasn’t much of a difference between the two. A lot of the process is just trial and error and experimentation as kids get the hang of working with the clay on the pottery wheel. When a creation is complete, add designs around the vessel with the sculpting tools, and then remove the vessel to dry. Once dry, paint it with a white base coat, and then use the acrylics to add color. The color wheel in the instructions shows kids how to mix primary colors to make new ones. There are also pictures in the instructions of things that kids can create. The instruction booklet also provides a history of pottery, as well as definitions of pottery terms. The clay is for decorative purposes only and should not be used with food or beverages.

The kit includes a battery/USB-operated pottery wheel, USB cord, three pounds of clay, white base coat paint, paint brushes, opaque acrylic paint, and four sculpting tools. You will need to provide newspaper, paper towels, a small plastic bowl for water, resealable plastic bags for clay storage, a Phillips head screwdriver, cookie cutters, a tooth pick or paper clip, and three C batteries. Refill clay is available and sold separately.