A Practical Pottery Jar for Cookies

This practical pottery jar design has a hidden talent – the lid is also a plate to hold cookies for tea time!

I learned how to throw this jar in a pottery class at artsPlace with Cam Fisher (a brilliant potter and teacher!) He showed our class how to use a rib to push out the walls make a nice voluminous jar belly as well as a really easy approach to creating rims that have strong support from the walls of the jar.

The was a glaze mistake at the studio, which worked in my favour as it was a brilliant cobalt blue! I decided to glaze with just this colour and see how it broke on the texture I created with a toothed rib. I practiced waxing diligently since I was using a light clay body and I’m mostly happy with the results – a bold and clean look!

Once again, this lid was inspired by Japanese pottery techniques – the knob of the lid is also the foot of a plate. Say what? The lid doubles as a plate to hold cookies. The knob is based off of the spiral shell foot technique. It’s pretty enough to be shown as a lid but also a sturdy practical base to hold cookies at tea time.

And, the jar holds a ton of cookies! This jar was my first big personal pottery win of 2023 and I predict it will live on our kitchen counter for a long time.