Wheel and hand building
Building a Teapot, Spout and All
Almost every part of a teapot is something you already know how to make. A round pot. A lid. A pulled handle. What turns those into a teapot is a tapered tube stuck to the side at an angle, and one measurement that decides whether the finished thing pours or dribbles down its own belly. Get that line right and the rest of it is assembly.
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The short version
A pot with a hole in the side and a tube over the hole
The one question
Where do you want the water to stop? Whatever height you answer, the top edge of the spout opening has to sit at that height or higher. A tip below the rim means tea runs out of the spout while you are still filling the pot, and nothing you do afterward fixes it. Every other decision on this page sits underneath that one line.
Throw the body, the lid and the spout in one session out of the same bag of clay, so all three stiffen at the same rate. The body wants to be a little thinner than a mug, because a teapot full of water is heavy, and it wants a gallery at the rim: a ledge, set down inside the wall, for the lid to sit on. Set your calipers on the inside of that gallery before you take your hands off the pot.
Throw the spout off the hump as a tall thin cone. Collar it in until the opening at the top is about the width of a pencil, then throw it roughly a third longer than you think you need, because you are going to cut the bottom of it away at an angle and lose that length.
Next day, at leather hard, trim the body and the lid. Then hold the spout against the pot at the angle you want it, roll it against the curve, and scribe the line where they touch with a needle tool. Cut to that line and file it back until the two surfaces sit together with no daylight in the join.
Cut the strainer holes before the spout goes anywhere near the pot. Trace the footprint on the wall, then punch as many holes as will fit inside it, and clean the burrs off both faces. Then score, slip, press it home and blend a thin coil into the seam all the way round.
Handle goes on last, once the spout is set and you can hold the pot and feel where the weight wants to go. Then dry it slowly with the lid in place, bisque it with the lid in place, wax the lid seat before you glaze, and fire it with the lid in place. The lid and the pot warp together or they stop fitting.
01 · The idea
Everything on a teapot is downstream of one line
Draw the line before you throw
Decide where the top of the spout is going to land, and then treat that height as the real rim of the pot and design the body underneath it. Almost everybody who gets caught by this did it the other way round: made a lovely pot first, then made a spout to fit whatever was left.
A teapot is the first pot most people make where the parts have to agree with each other. A mug is one object and it only has to please you. A teapot is six objects having a conversation, and the conversation is about water.
Water finds its own level. The water sitting in the body and the water sitting in the spout are the same water, at the same height, so the moment you fill the pot past the top of the spout opening, the extra runs straight back out of the spout and onto the counter. That is not a flaw in your spout. That is physics, and it means the top of the spout opening is the actual capacity of the pot no matter what the body could have held.
So the rule is short. The top of the spout opening sits level with the lid seat, or above it. Level is acceptable. A little above is safer. Below is a pot that spits at the first person who fills it, forever, and there is no repair for it once the spout is on.
There is a second line, less famous and just as annoying. The tip has to reach past the widest part of the belly. A spout that stops short of the belly delivers tea onto the side of the pot, which then runs down to the table. Sight down from directly above and check that the tip clears the widest point, not just that it looks long enough from the side.
And a third, which is really about shape. A spout has to taper. It needs to be narrower at the tip than at the base, because a narrowing tube speeds the water up and holds the stream together. A tube of even width all the way along is the one shape that reliably dribbles, which is why an extruded spout needs work before it earns its place.
Three lines, and they are all decided before you touch the spout. The rest of this page is how to hit them.
02 · Why this page reads like this
Watching teaches your hands. Reading keeps your order.
What the video does better
How hard to collar. How a needle tool actually rides around a curve without skipping. How somebody carries a fitted spout to the pot without deforming it. Nobody has ever written a sentence that teaches those, and we are not going to try.
There are hundreds of teapot tutorials on YouTube and eight of the best ones are on this page. So it is fair to ask why anybody would read about it as well.
Because the two are good at different halves of the job, and a teapot splits along that seam more cleanly than anything else in the studio. Video is for hands. Text is for order.
A teapot has six parts and something like forty small decisions, and most of those decisions are invisible on camera because they already happened. By the time you watch a spout go on, the holes are cut, the calipers were set two days ago, and the clay reached exactly the right stiffness while the video was skipping ahead. You can watch that clip twice and still not register that the holes came first, because nothing on screen tells you they did. Then you get to your own pot, attach a beautiful spout, and realize you can no longer reach the wall behind it.
The second reason is duller and it matters more. A page sits still. A video plays at its own speed and you cannot scrub back through it with slip on your thumb, but a list waits exactly where you left it and comes back the second you look down.
And the two together are worth more than either one alone, because reading a step ten seconds before you do it is what turns having watched something into remembering it. You get the same instruction twice, in two different forms, a few seconds apart, with your hands in the clay in between. That is why this page is mostly short lists rather than long paragraphs, and why there is a version toggle at the top: read the long one once, then work off the short one.
03 · The anatomy
Six parts and the line that ties them together
The drawing is cut straight through the middle, with the lid lifted off so you can see what it lands on. The dashed line is the water. Everything numbered on it is something you have to decide before the spout goes anywhere near the pot.
- The fill line. The dashed line is the highest the tea can ever sit, and the top of the spout opening is what sets it. Anything poured in above that line comes straight back out of the spout.
- The collar and the gallery. The gallery is the ledge cut into the wall. The collar is the wall left standing above it. The lid drops inside the collar, and the collar is the only thing keeping the lid in the pot when you tip it.
- The knob and the air hole. The hole lets air in as tea goes out. Without one the pot glugs, stalls, and pours in surges.
- The strainer holes. Cut into the wall inside the footprint of the spout, before the spout goes on. Their total open area has to beat the narrowest part of the spout or they become the bottleneck.
- The base of the spout. Cut to a saddle shape so it sits against the curve of the body with no gaps anywhere. This join has water behind it for the rest of the pot’s life.
- The tip. Level with the lid seat or above it, reaching past the widest part of the belly, tapered, and cut to a thin undercut edge so the stream breaks away cleanly instead of clinging and running back.
- The handle. Set behind the balance point of a full pot so pouring is a wrist roll, with enough clearance to lift the lid out while the handle is on.
04 · The order
The order
The whole build, in twelve steps
The whole build, in seven steps
Two sessions, usually a day apart. Everything gets thrown on day one and everything gets assembled on day two. The order matters more here than on any other pot, because three of these steps become impossible if you do them out of sequence.
Two sessions, a day apart. Throw everything on day one, assemble everything on day two. Steps five and six are the ones that stop working if you swap them round.
- Wedge it all at once. Body, lid, spout and handle come out of the same bag on the same day. Different clay, or the same clay a week apart, means the parts shrink at different rates and the lid is the first thing to tell on you.
- Throw the body. Rounder than you think, with the wall a touch thinner than a mug, and leave a gallery at the rim: a ledge set down inside the wall with a collar standing above it.
- Set your calipers on the inside of the collar before your hands leave the pot. That number is the lid, and you will not get it back once the clay stiffens.
- Throw the lid to the calipers, and throw a spare. Lids are cheap today and expensive tomorrow.
- Throw the spout off the hump. A tall thin cone, collared until the opening is about the width of a pencil, thrown a third longer than you need. Throw three of them.
- Cover the whole set under one sheet of plastic so every part stiffens at the same rate overnight.
- Next day, trim the body and the foot, then trim the lid and set the knob on it. Do this before you think about the spout, because trimming changes the profile you are about to fit against.
- Mark the fill line. Sight across the lid seat, hold the spout up against the pot, and find the angle where the tip lands level with that seat or a little above it, clearing the widest part of the belly.
- Trace the spout footprint and cut the strainer holes inside it. Holes first, always. Once the spout is on you cannot reach them.
- Cut the base of the spout to the curve of the body, file it until there is no daylight in the join, then score, slip and press it home with a small counter twist.
- Blend a thin coil into the seam all the way round, including underneath the elbow where nobody wants to reach.
- Pull the handle and put it on last, once it has stiffened enough to hold an arc, so you can balance it against the weight of the spout.
- Wedge it all at once. Body, lid, spout and handle from the same bag on the same day, or the parts shrink at different rates and the lid stops fitting.
- Throw the body with a gallery at the rim, set the calipers on the inside of the collar before your hands leave the pot, and throw the lid to that number. Throw a spare lid.
- Throw the spout off the hump. A tall thin cone, collared to about a pencil width at the top, a third longer than you need. Throw three.
- Stiffen the whole set under one sheet of plastic, then trim the body, the foot and the lid the next day.
- Find the angle. Hold the spout against the pot until the tip lands level with the lid seat or above it, and clears the widest part of the belly. That angle is the whole design.
- Trace the footprint, cut the strainer holes inside it, then cut the spout base to the curve, score, slip, press it home and blend a coil into the seam. Holes before spout, always.
- Handle last, once you can hold the pot and feel where the weight wants to go. Then dry it slowly with the lid in.
The numbers we work to
None of these are laws. They are the starting points we hand people who have never made one, and they are close enough that a first teapot made to them will pour.
| Part | What we aim for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Body wall | About ⅛ inch, a touch thinner than a mug | A teapot is heavy before you add a pound of water to it |
| Collar above the gallery | ¼ inch minimum | Anything shallower and the lid drops out at a pouring angle |
| Spout tip opening | Around ⅜ inch across | Wide enough to pour fast, narrow enough to hold the stream together |
| Spout wall at the tip | As thin as you can throw it | A thick lip holds a drop, then walks it down the outside |
| Strainer holes | Twelve to twenty, around ⅛ inch each | Total open area has to beat the narrowest part of the spout |
| Spout length | Thrown a third longer than the finished length | The angled cut at the base eats the difference |
| Handle clearance | Two fingers, measured with the lid in | You have to be able to get the lid out with the handle on |
05 · The spout
The spout
Three ways to make one, and one cut that stops the drip
Throw it, fit it, and cut the tip sharp
The spout is the part people are frightened of, and it is genuinely the hardest thing on the pot. Not because making the tube is difficult, but because a tube has to meet a curved wall at a compound angle and seal against it. Here are three ways to make the tube, and then the part that is the same whichever way you made it.
Making the tube is not the hard part. Getting a tube to meet a curved wall at a compound angle and seal against it is. Throw it off the hump, fit it patiently, and cut the tip sharp.
Thrown off the hump
The standard route, and the fastest once it clicks. A wheel makes a tapered tube almost by accident.
- Center a fist of clay on the top of a hump, open a narrow hole, and pull a short thick cylinder. Narrow to start with. You are not making a vase.
- Collar it in from the top with both hands, in stages, letting it grow taller each time it narrows. Collaring is what makes the taper.
- Keep the wall thicker at the bottom than at the top. The bottom is the part you are going to cut away, so it is allowed to be heavy.
- Take the top opening down to roughly a pencil width, then thin the last half inch with a chamois or a thin rib so the tip is as fine as you can get it.
- Wire it off wide and leave the base fat. Throw three, keep the two that are straightest.
More on the two moves underneath this one: throwing off the hump and collaring in.
Rolled around a dowel
No wheel needed, and the one to use when the body was hand built and you want the spout to match its language.
- Cut a long triangle from a slab rolled at about ⅛ inch. The long edge becomes the base of the spout and the point becomes the tip.
- Wrap it around a wooden dowel with a strip of newsprint underneath so the clay will release. A tapered dowel gives you a tapered spout, which is exactly what you want.
- Score and slip the overlap, then roll the whole thing gently on the table to close the seam and true up the tube.
- Slide it off the dowel while it is still soft and curve it before it stiffens. A dead straight tube looks like plumbing.
Pulled and hollowed
Slowest of the three and the most controllable. It makes shapes a wheel cannot make.
- Pull a solid tapered rod exactly the way you would pull a handle, thick end to thin end.
- Let it stiffen to firm leather hard, lay it in a groove so it cannot roll, and split it lengthways with a wire.
- Hollow both halves with a small loop tool, keeping the bore tapering so it narrows toward the tip.
- Score, slip and rejoin the two halves, then blend the seam until it disappears. Check the bore is clear by holding it up to a light.
Fitting it to the body
- Hold it up and find the angle first. Tip level with the lid seat or above it, and past the widest part of the belly. Check it from the front as well as the side, because a spout can be at a perfect height and still point off at an angle nobody wants.
- Cut the tip before you cut the base. Then you are fitting the real finished length instead of guessing what will be left.
- Scribe the base. Hold the spout at your chosen angle and roll it against the pot with a needle tool riding on the wall. You get a saddle shaped line, which is the compound curve you need.
- Cut to the line and file. A surform or an old hacksaw blade, checking it against the pot every few strokes, until it sits with no daylight anywhere round the join.
- Score and slip both faces properly. Not a scratch and a smear. This join has water pressure behind it for the rest of the pot’s life.
- Press it home with a small counter twist, then blend a thin coil into the seam all the way round, including underneath the elbow where nobody wants to put a finger.
- Find the angle. Tip level with the lid seat or above it, reaching past the widest part of the belly. Check it from the front as well as the side.
- Cut the tip before the base, so you are fitting the real finished length.
- Roll the spout against the pot with a needle tool riding on the wall to scribe a saddle shaped line, then cut to it and file until there is no daylight in the join.
- Score, slip, press it home, and blend a thin coil into the seam all the way round.
The cut that stops the drip
A spout dribbles because water clings to the outside of the lip and follows it back down the pot. The fix is geometry rather than luck. Cut the tip at an angle so the underside comes to a thin point, undercut that outer edge very slightly, and then leave it alone. Sponge the inside smooth if you like. Do not round the outside. A soft rounded lip is a road, and the tea will take it.
The twist nobody warns you about
A thrown spout remembers the wheel. As it dries, and again as it fires, it unwinds a few degrees, and the tip you set dead straight ends up pointing off to one side. Set it with a small counter twist against the direction your wheel was turning, then sight straight down the pot from directly above to check. It is a few degrees, not a quarter turn, and you will have it calibrated by about the third teapot.
06 · The strainer
Cut the holes before the spout goes on
This is the step that gets left out of the plan more than any other, and it is the one that cannot be recovered. Once a spout is attached, the wall behind it is unreachable from the outside and awkward to the point of dangerous from the inside.
- Trace the footprint. Hold the fitted spout against the body at its final angle and draw round it, lightly, with a pencil or the back of a needle tool.
- Stay inside that line by a good ⅛ inch. A hole that ends up underneath the join is a leak, and it is a leak you will not find until the pot is glazed.
- Punch from the outside in, with a finger or a damp sponge held against the inside of the wall so the clay cannot blow out or dish inward.
- Go low. The bottom hole wants to be as close to the floor of the pot as the spout will allow, or the last inch of tea simply never leaves.
- Clean both faces. Every burr on the inside catches leaves. Every burr on the outside stops the spout sitting flat against the wall.
- Count them, then cut more. Too few holes is the single most common reason a good looking teapot pours like a tired garden hose.
The area rule
Add up the open area of all your holes. It has to beat the narrowest cross section of the spout, or the holes become the bottleneck and the pot pours slowly no matter how good the tip is. In practice that means twelve to twenty holes at around ⅛ inch, not four big ones. Big holes are easier to cut and let leaves straight through into the cup. Small holes strain better and clog faster. A lot of small holes is the compromise almost everybody lands on.
07 · The lid
A lid that fits is easy. A lid that stays in is the work.
A jar lid only has to sit there. A teapot lid has to sit there while the pot is tipped past forty five degrees with somebody’s wrist behind it, and it has to let air in while it does. Those two jobs are what separate it from every other lid you have made.
Gallery or flange, never both
A gallery is a ledge cut into the pot with a collar standing above it, and the lid drops down inside. A flange is a ring on the underside of the lid that drops into the mouth. Both work perfectly well. Both at once binds up and jams the first time either part moves a millimeter, which they will.
The air hole
One small hole through the lid, around ⅛ inch. Without it nothing can replace the water leaving the pot, so it glugs, stalls and pours in surges. Put it on the handle side where a thumb naturally rests off it, and check it is clear again after glazing.
Keeping it in
Tip a teapot and a plain lid falls straight out. Make the collar taller than feels necessary, ¼ inch at the very least. Or cut two notches in the collar and give the lid two matching lugs, so it drops in and turns to lock. Test it by tipping the leather hard pot upside down over something soft.
Fit it at every stage, not once
Leather hard, bone dry, and again after the bisque. Clay moves the whole way through, and a lid that fitted perfectly while it was wet is a lid you have not finished yet. The bisque fit is the important one, because it is the last fit you can still change with a sanding pad. There is more on galleries, flanges and calipers on our throwing lids that fit page.
08 · The handle
The handle goes on last, and it goes where the weight is
A mug handle only has to be comfortable. A teapot handle has to be comfortable while lifting two pounds and rotating it through ninety degrees, which is why it is the one part you cannot design on paper. You have to hold the pot with the spout already on it and feel where it wants to hang.
- Handle after spout. Always. The spout is the heavy end and the awkward end. Once it is attached you can pick the pot up and find the balance point instead of guessing at it.
- Pull it, then wait. A freshly pulled strap will not hold an arc and will sag into a shape you did not choose. Let it firm up over a rolled towel or the rim of a bucket until it holds its own curve.
- Set the grip behind the center of gravity of a full pot, not over it. Pouring should be a roll of the wrist, not a lift followed by a tilt.
- Leave room for the lid. Two fingers of clearance under the handle, measured with the lid in, and then actually try to take the lid out with the handle in place. This is the mistake that only shows up when the pot is finished and glazed.
- Join it like you joined the spout. Score, slip, press, blend, and keep the join generous where the handle meets the shoulder. A handle that pulls off takes a piece of the wall with it.
Over the top
A pulled strap arching across the lid, attached at the shoulders. The most familiar shape, the best leverage, and the one that most often ends up too low to get the lid out.
Side handle
A short stub set at ninety degrees from the spout, the way a Japanese kyusu is built. Beautiful, very controllable for small pots, and it keeps your hand well away from the steam.
Lugs for a cane handle
Two pierced lugs on the shoulders, and a bent cane or bamboo handle fitted after firing. It keeps the weight down and the hand cool, and it means a broken handle is a five minute repair rather than the end of the pot. There is more in our pulling handles guide.
09 · Without a wheel
Slabs and pinching, and why a teapot suits them
Nothing on this page needs a wheel. The fill line, the taper, the hole area, the join, the drying: every rule above is about water and shrinkage, and water does not know how the pot was made. Hand building actually has an advantage here, because a teapot is an assembly anyway and hand building is nothing but assembly.
The slab route
Faster than it looks, and the route that gives you square, faceted and angular teapots the wheel will never make.
- Roll a slab, rib both faces firmly, and then wait for it to firm to soft leather hard before you touch it again. Every other step here depends on that wait.
- Wrap a rectangle into a cylinder around a form, or drape it, then paddle the corners round if you want something less angular.
- Cap it top and bottom and seal it completely. The trapped air inside is what lets you paddle and shape it without the walls collapsing.
- Cut the lid opening out of the top, and turn the disc you just cut out into the lid. It already fits, because thirty seconds ago it was the same piece of clay.
- Add a collar underneath the opening for the lid to sit on, then fit the spout and cut the holes exactly as on the wheel. Those rules do not change because the body changed.
Rolling and prepping: our slab rollers and slab molds guide.
The pinch route
Slow, quiet, and the only route that needs nothing but your hands and a table.
- Pinch two hemispheres, thin and even, and let them stiffen until they hold their own shape without sagging.
- Score, slip and join them at the equator into a sealed sphere with air trapped inside it. That air is your support for everything that follows.
- Paddle the sphere into the shape you actually want. Flatten a base, raise a shoulder, whatever the pot is asking for.
- Cut the lid opening, add a collar, and pinch a knob. Pinch or roll the spout the same way.
- Take longer than you think you need. This route rewards patience more than skill, which makes it a very good first teapot for somebody who has never centered clay. Start with our pinch pot guide if the hemispheres are the part you are unsure about.
10 · When it goes wrong
When it goes wrong
Nine ways a teapot goes wrong
The three that ruin a teapot
Almost all of these are decided long before the fault shows up, which is the frustrating part. Three of them cannot be fixed at all once the spout is on, and those three are marked as such.
There is a longer list of things that go wrong. These are the three that turn a teapot into an ornament, and all three are decided before the kiln.
- It pours out of the spout while you are filling it. The tip is below the lid seat, so the pot cannot hold water above that height. There is no fix once the spout is attached, and no fix after firing. This is the one to check twice.
- It dribbles down the outside. The lip is too thick, or it got rounded off with a sponge. Cut it thinner and sharper before the bisque. After the bisque you can still grind an undercut into the underside with a diamond pad.
- It pours slowly. Not enough hole area, burrs blocking the holes, or a blocked air hole in the lid. Check the air hole first, because it takes two seconds and it is the answer surprisingly often.
- Tea runs back down the belly. The spout is too short. The tip has to clear the widest part of the pot, and it has to clear it looking down from directly above, not just from the side.
- The lid falls out when you pour. The collar is too shallow. Build the next one deeper, or cut notches in the collar and put matching lugs on the lid so it locks with a quarter turn.
- The spout points sideways after firing. The thrown spout unwound as it dried and fired. Set the next one with a small counter twist against the direction the wheel was turning.
- A crack opened where the spout meets the body. Gaps in the join, or the spout dried faster than the body. Fit until there is no daylight, blend a coil into the seam, and keep a bag over the spout while the rest of the pot dries.
- The lid came out of the glaze firing stuck shut. Wax was missed, or glaze crept onto the seat. Wax both faces, wipe them clean, and check them again before it goes in the kiln. Cone 5½ welds an unwaxed lid on permanently.
- It is too heavy to actually use. The wall is too thick, or the foot was never trimmed. A teapot carries its own weight plus about a pound of water, and all of it hangs off one hand.
- It pours out of the spout while you are filling it. The tip is below the lid seat. Nothing fixes this afterward, so check the height before you cut anything.
- A crack opened where the spout meets the body. The join had gaps in it, or the spout dried faster than the pot. Fit until there is no daylight, blend a coil into the seam, and bag the spout while the rest dries.
- The lid came out of the glaze firing stuck shut. Wax both faces of the seat, wipe them, and check again before it goes in the kiln. Cone 5½ welds an unwaxed lid on permanently.
11 · Drying and firing
Drying and firing
The lid rides along, start to finish
A teapot has more joins and more different wall thicknesses than anything else most people make, and every one of those is a place for the drying to go unevenly. It needs days, not hours, and it needs its lid the whole way.
- Dry slowly, and dry unevenly on purpose. The spout tip is the thinnest thing on the pot and will be bone dry while the body is still damp. Bag the spout on its own, tent the whole pot loosely, and give it days.
- Dry with the lid in place. The lid and the gallery have to shrink against each other rather than separately.
- Bisque with the lid in place too. Bisque here is cone 05.
- Test the pour with water after the bisque. This is the last moment you can change anything cheaply, and it takes thirty seconds.
- If it dribbles, grind the underside of the lip with a diamond pad until the edge is thin and slightly undercut. Two minutes of work that saves the pot.
- Wax the gallery and the matching face of the lid. Proper wax resist, not a wipe with a sponge and a hope.
- Glaze the inside as well as the outside, and get glaze all the way through the spout. Pour some in, swill it, pour it out, then hold the tip up to a light and make sure the bore is clear.
- Fire it with the lid in place. Glaze here goes to cone 5½. The lid and the body have to warp together or they stop fitting, and they will both warp a little.
- Dry slowly with the lid in place, and bag the spout so the tip does not race ahead of the body. Days, not hours.
- Bisque with the lid in, at cone 05.
- Test the pour with water after the bisque. If it dribbles, grind the underside of the lip thin and slightly undercut with a diamond pad.
- Wax the gallery and the matching face of the lid, then glaze inside and out and check the spout bore is clear all the way through.
- Fire it with the lid in place. Glaze goes to cone 5½ here, and the lid and body have to warp together.
Separate them and they stop fitting
From the moment you trim the lid to the moment the pot comes out of the glaze kiln, the lid belongs in the pot. Take them apart at any stage and they spend the rest of the process shrinking and warping to two different schedules, and a lid that has done that never really goes back.
What a firing costs here
Bisque is free. Glaze firing is charged by volume, so a teapot is cheaper than it looks: the spout and handle stick out, but the box you measure is still a fairly small one. The firing calculator will give you the number before you commit.
12 · The videos
Two more, on the two things that decide whether it pours
Six of the eight are already up the page, sitting beside the step each one belongs to. These two are deep dives, one on making the tube and one on the tip, and neither of them is us.
Keep this open
The list for your phone
Everything above, with the explanations taken out. Copy it into your notes and leave it open on the bench, because reading a step ten seconds before you do it is the whole point.
At the wheel
- Body, lid, spout and handle from the same bag, same day.
- Wall a touch thinner than a mug. It gets heavy.
- Gallery at the rim, collar at least ¼ inch tall.
- Calipers on the inside of the collar before your hands leave the pot.
- Spout off the hump, collared to about a pencil width, a third longer than you need.
- Throw three spouts and a spare lid.
- Stiffen the whole set under one sheet of plastic.
Assembly day
- Trim the body, the foot and the lid first.
- Tip level with the lid seat or above it. Nothing fixes this later.
- Tip has to clear the widest part of the belly.
- Cut the tip at an angle before you fit the base.
- Trace the footprint, cut the strainer holes, clean both faces. Holes before spout.
- Twelve to twenty holes at around ⅛ inch, lowest one close to the floor.
- Scribe the base against the curve, file until no daylight.
- Score, slip, press home with a small counter twist.
- Blend a coil into the seam, under the elbow too.
- Handle last, two fingers of clearance with the lid in.
Before the kiln
- Dry slow, lid in, spout bagged. Days, not hours.
- Bisque with the lid in, cone 05.
- Test the pour with water after the bisque.
- Dribbles? Grind the underside of the lip thin and undercut.
- Wax the gallery and the matching face of the lid.
- Glaze inside, swill the spout, check the bore is clear.
- Fire with the lid in, cone 5½.
Questions we get asked
The ones that come up at the wheel
If yours is not here, ask whoever is on shift. Teapots are the pot people most enjoy being asked about.
How big should a first teapot be?
Small. Something that holds two cups is around a pound and a half of clay for the body, and it teaches you every single thing a large one teaches while costing far less when it goes wrong. Big teapots are also heavy when full, and weight is a design problem you do not need on your first one.
Can I extrude the spout?
Yes, and it is quick, but you get a straight tube of even bore, which is the one shape that reliably dribbles. So the taper becomes your job: stretch and squeeze the last stretch narrower, and curve the whole thing before it stiffens. Done properly it is a perfectly good spout. Done straight out of the die, it is a drainpipe.
Do I need a strainer at all?
Not if you only ever use bags. A single larger hole works fine in that case. If there is any chance of loose leaf, cut the cluster, because retrofitting one is impossible. Either way, put the hole low and clean the burrs off both faces.
Why does my lid rock after firing?
Something warped, and it is nearly always because the lid and the body spent part of the process apart, or because the lid dried sitting on its own rim. Dry it in the pot, bisque it in the pot, fire it in the pot. If it still rocks after the glaze firing, you can usually grind the seat flat on a wet diamond pad.
My spout cracked off in the bisque. What did I do?
Almost certainly a join with gaps in it, or a spout that dried much faster than the body. Both are fixable next time: fit until there is no daylight anywhere round the join, blend a coil into the seam on the outside and inside the elbow, and keep a bag over the spout while the rest of the pot dries so it stays level with the body.
Should I cut the strainer holes before or after attaching?
Before, and it is not close. Once the spout is on you cannot reach the wall from outside, and reaching in through the mouth with a hole cutter is how people put a thumb through the side of a pot they were nearly finished with. Trace the footprint, cut the holes, then attach.
Can I put my teapot on the stove?
No. Stoneware fired to cone 5½ is not flameware, and direct heat will crack it. It is completely happy holding boiling water poured into it. It does not want a burner underneath it.
Which clay should I use?
Whatever you already throw comfortably, as long as every part of the teapot is that same clay from the same bag. If you are picking fresh, a smooth to lightly grogged stoneware is kind here: enough tooth to hold a join under water pressure, smooth enough to file a clean spout base without it crumbling.
Go make one
Your first one will pour badly, and it will teach you more than six mugs
That is the whole thing
A teapot is the only pot that grades itself. You fill it, you tip it, and it either pours or it does not, and there is no arguing with the result. That is uncomfortable, and it is also the fastest honest feedback anywhere in the studio. Make a small one, write down what you would change, and make the next one better. Then bring it up front and show somebody, because a teapot that pours properly is worth showing off.
Fill it, tip it, and the pot tells you immediately whether you got it right. Make a small one first. If you want the long version, with the cutaway drawing, the three ways to make a spout, the hole area maths and the other six videos, switch to Comprehensive at the top of this page.
Which version would you like to print?
Videos come out as a labelled box with the title and channel to search for, since paper does not play them.