28 Best Pottery Gifts for Him: Tools, Wheels and Books

If he is always waiting for open studio hours, a wheel at home changes everything. This tabletop VEVOR has 11 and 14 inch wheelheads, a foot pedal and enough motor for mugs, bowls and small vases up to around 11 pounds of clay. It is not a professional Shimpo, but it is a realistic way for a hobby thrower to practice in the garage several nights a week.

A banding wheel is the tool he will use for glazing, decorating, handbuilding and even photographing pots for Instagram. This one is heavy cast iron on ball bearings, so it spins smoothly without wobbling even with a big platter on top. Far better than the lightweight plastic turntables in craft stores.

For a man setting up a corner of the garage, a dedicated wedging surface keeps clay off the workbench and the kitchen counter. This 22-inch wooden board has a handle so it can hang on the wall between sessions. A practical piece of the home studio puzzle.

Every pottery studio has music going, and every phone near a wheel gets slip on it. The Flip 5 is fully waterproof, so he can wipe off clay with a wet sponge, and 12 hours of battery covers a long weekend session. A gift that works in the studio and on the deck afterwards.

The single best tool upgrade for a guy still using his first-class freebie kit. Three Mudtools polymer ribs in different firmnesses, a cut-off wire, the MudShark needle and fettling tool and a long scraper cover throwing through finishing. Potters often build up this kit one piece at a time over a year; giving it all at once feels generous and gets used on the very next pot.

Rims are what people touch first on a mug, and this rib exists just to finish them. The medium green polymer compresses and rounds an edge in one pass and burnishes leather-hard surfaces. An inexpensive extra to pair with a bigger tool gift.

Most guys throw with whatever sponge was lying around. This trio gives him a fine white sponge for clean finishes, an orange one that pulls standing water out of tall pieces and a blue workhorse for general use. It sounds minor until he tries them and sees cleaner walls.

Cut-off wires kink, snap and walk off at community studios. Four braided stainless wires with grippy handles mean there is always one at the wheel, one in his tool roll and spares for when a friend borrows one. Small price, constant use.

Wooden tools are what he will use for cleaning up the base, cutting a foot bevel on the wheel and smoothing seams on handbuilt work. This eight-piece set is cheap enough to keep one at home and one at the studio, and makes an easy stocking stuffer.

Trimming is where a lot of pots are made or ruined, and dull loop tools chatter and gouge. Xiem's double-ended set gives him several sharp profiles for feet, bevels and undercuts with grips that stay comfortable through a whole board of bowls. A mid-priced gift he would probably never buy himself.

Kemper's basic kit is the one many pottery classes put on the supply list, so it is a safe gift for a man who just signed up for his first eight-week course. It also makes a good second set to leave at home so he is not hauling tools back and forth.

A shredder takes weight out of a heavy-bottomed bowl or refines a curve without the chatter of a loop tool. The small Mudtools version gets into tight spots like the inside of a foot ring. A thoughtful gift for a thrower who complains his mugs feel heavy.

A wire loop for carving patterns, sgraffito through slip, or hollowing out a solid sculpture. It is one of those under-$10 tools that ends up in every potter's favorites cup. Toss it in with a bigger gift.

Handles fall off when scoring is lazy. This pen-style tool has six tines that score deep crosshatching quickly, and they retract so it can live in a shirt pocket or tool roll. A smart small gift for anyone pulling handles or building with slabs.

Once he starts giving pots away, he will want to sign them. This set of letters, numbers and symbols lets him stamp initials, a studio name or a date into each foot. Alignment dots keep words straight, which matters on a curved base.

Iron Lustre is a cone 5-6 glaze that breaks brown on edges and pools blue-gray in recesses, the earthy look a lot of men want on their mugs. It shines over texture and layers well with other Potter's Choice glazes, so it is a great first pint for a home glaze shelf. Confirm his studio fires mid-range before buying.

Mixing glaze from a recipe means weighing colorants to a fraction of a gram, and a regular kitchen scale is not precise enough. This one reads to 0.1 gram, handles 5 kg batches and is waterproof, which matters on a wet glaze bench. The right gift for the guy who has started reading glaze chemistry forums.

Glaze settles into a hard layer at the bottom of a bucket, and stirring it by hand is a forearm workout. These 15-inch paddles fit any drill and mix a full pail smooth in a minute. Practical and cheap, perfect for a potter who already owns a drill.

The least exciting gift on this list and maybe the most important. Dry clay and glaze materials contain fine silica dust, and a home studio has no ventilation system. A NIOSH-approved P100 respirator protects his lungs while he mixes glaze, sands greenware or sweeps up. Give it with a note; he will appreciate it.

Clay dries into every crack and cuticle, and regular soap barely touches it. Lava's pumice bars plus a wooden nail brush get his hands clean before dinner, and the moisturizer helps skin that spends hours in water. A funny, practical stocking stuffer.

For a man who takes his tools to a community studio, a waxed canvas roll beats a plastic bag of loose tools every time. Seven pockets fit ribs, trimming tools and wires, and the heavy canvas shrugs off wet clay. It looks better with age, too.

Throwing splashes slip everywhere, and a neck-strap apron gets uncomfortable after an hour hunched over the wheel. This heavy canvas apron has cross-back straps that spread the weight and riveted pockets for a sponge and needle tool. Sized up to XXL.

A light-hearted tee for the guy whose weekend routine is exactly what the shirt says. It is cheap enough that he will not mind wearing it to the studio, where it will inevitably get clay on it.

Garage studios get cold in winter. This hoodie keeps him warm at the wheel and features a skeleton throwing a pot, which suits a potter whose sense of humor runs a little darker than the usual puns.

A half-liter German stoneware stein is a fun gift for a potter who also enjoys a good beer. It doubles as inspiration: relief decoration, handle placement and that weighty stoneware feel are things he can study and try on his own steins.

Ben Carter's book is aimed at the thrower who has the basics down and wants pots that look professional. It covers centering more clay, throwing in sections, altering forms and trimming, with tips gathered from working potters. The right book for the plateau most men hit around their second year.

For the potter who wants to understand why his glazes run, crawl or crater. This Thames and Hudson handbook explains glaze chemistry and firing with hundreds of photographed results, and it pairs perfectly with the precision scale for a glaze-mixing gift set.

Many potters are drawn to Japanese tea bowls and wood-fired surfaces. This compact, illustrated handbook explains the forms, tools and vocabulary behind them, and it is easy to dip into between sessions at the wheel. A great small gift for a man who loves the wabi-sabi look.