# Pottery in NW Texas



## potteryguy1163 (Nov 17, 2016)

Hi. My name is Mark. I live in NW Texas, teach at a local college, have 76 acres of native short grass prairie and I make pots. Some are 'ollas' which are buried in the garden and filled with water and serve as a subsurface drip irrigation system. I also make traditional pottery. My favorite form is the bowl. I've also started making a few pots with pepper forms on them, one is a chip and salsa server.
























I have a Face Book page, Running Water Pottery, where I've posted the occasional photo of ollas in the garden and a few other projects. Most are about the garden!


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## Waiting Falcon (Nov 25, 2010)

Your work is beautiful !! Thanks for sharing.


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Just wondering how to get started doing this and what equipment do you usually need to have?


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## potteryguy1163 (Nov 17, 2016)

To get started in making pottery you first need clay. I suppose one could dig it straight out of the ground but to learn if you're really interested I would get some store-bought stoneware from a ceramic supplier such as Trinity Ceramics in Dallas or Armadillo Clay in Austin. Then just start making pinch pots, looking at some YouTube videos. 
Once you get some pots made, you'll need to fire them in a kiln and that's the hard part, paying for one or renting space in one or building your own. Those are your options unless you want to take classes at a college of local clay studio.
If you're determined to get into the 'business' (not actually selling, necessarily) the kiln is the thing to invest in because the work has to be fired and not in a kitchen oven, that's baking. The ceramic process occurs at temps near 1300 degrees F or red heat. It's not just the temp that one can generate, it's temperature over time that you must consider. So, the firing process is the important part. There are lots and lots of ways to make pots. I use a potter's wheel but you don't need that to make pottery but you do need a way to fire it!


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