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While you might be having fun making all sorts of clay projects, the real find comes in the finishing stages. Though you can keep your pots and plates and mugs in their dry clay state, you mostly likely want to decorate these pieces in order to show them off a bit. You can do this by adding glaze to the exterior. Glazing will require you have access to the glazing ingredients as well as to a kiln, so it may be in your best interest to find a local art studio that can help you start this process. But once you're there, here's what you need to do.

Clean Up Your Pieces

Your pieces will need to be completely dry in order to be ready for glazing. The glaze will not stick to parts that are wet, after all. Once they are dry, take a piece of sandpaper and begin to smooth out any sharp edges. This will prevent any troubles once the pieces are in the kiln. Your pieces will have been fired once at this point, so the glazing actually takes place on the second firing which is done at a much higher temperature. If there are any problems with your piece at this point, the most you can do is to sand them away, but you don't want to sand too much as this can leave dust on your piece and that's not going to look good with your glaze.

Add the Glaze

Ideally, you will go to a place that already have glaze premixed for you. This way, all you need to do is to take some of that glaze in order to decorate your piece. There are a number of ways you can use glaze. If you want to make an entire piece a certain color, you will want to simply dip your piece into the glaze itself. This can be done with a set of tongs or by dipping half the piece, letting it dry, and then dipping the other half. The glaze should not be heavy when you apply it, so dip quickly and you will have the perfect amount. You can also use a brush to apply glaze in a more precise fashion. This way, you can use many different colors as you are moving around your piece. It will help if you take your time when applying the glaze, allowing it to dry completely before adding more glaze. In doing so, you will prevent anything from running. You might also want to overlap glazes if that suits your piece. Just make sure, again, to allow the first layer to dry completely before you add another color. If you do notice you've made any errors, you can simply wet down your piece of pottery, allow it to dry again and then apply another layer of glaze. It's really a foolproof process. Glazing your pieces is the fun part of pottery, in many people's opinions. Once they are fired again, you will be able to see the results of all your hard work – in color.