Best New Pottery and Ceramic Books 2025

This post is a round up of the best and most interesting new books on ceramics and pottery published in 2025. The books include artist monographs, technique, glaze recipes, material science, ceramic history, and more.

You might also want to check out our previous guides from 2024 or 2023.

Viola Frey: Artist’s Mind / Studio / World

The first monograph on the celebrated San Francisco Bay-area artist Viola Frey, this book covers more than 50 years of her career with new scholarly investigations, lots of illustrations, and an illustrated chronology. Frey has only become more prominent since her passing in 2004 and this is a long overdue deep look at her oeuvre.

Viola Frey: Artist’s Mind / Studio / World
By Cynthia de Bos, Jenelle Porter, Jodi Throckmorton, and Nancy Lim
Hardcover, 228 pages
Published December 2024 by Gregory R. Miller & Co
$55 but usually available for less

Clay: A Human History

With a mix of archaeology, history, and her own experience as an amateur potter, Jennifer Lucy Allan tells the story of this material and it’s long history with humans, ranging from early figurines and clay tablets to today. Connecting clay and human history, Allan tells many stories that are illuminating for specialists and a general audience as well.

Clay: A Human History
by Jennifer Lucy Allan
320 pages, hardcover or paperback
Published March 4, 2025 by Pegasus Books
Hardcover $30, Paperback $16

Amazing Glaze Food Safe Recipes: Innovative, Lab-Tested Techniques and Recipes

Amazing Glaze Food-Safe Recipes book cover

Following up on Gabriel Kline’s 2018 book Amazing Glazes, this time around he collaborated with chemist Bill Collins to explain testing techniques, equipment and materials to illuminate food-safe glaze techniques and recipes. This guide covers glaze safety, mixing and application methods, and includes more than 100 recipes and combinations. There’s also guidance on troubleshooting common issues with glazes.

Amazing Glaze Food Safe Recipes: Innovative, Lab-Tested Techniques and Recipes
by Gabriel Kline and Bill Collins
160 pages, Hardcover
Published October 28, 2025 by Quarry Books
$30

The Great Pottery Throw Down: 20 Projects to Create at Home

A complete guide for beginners, this book covers setting up a studio, handbuilding and throwing techniques, and 20 projects inspired by the popular TV show.

The Great Pottery Throw Down: 20 Projects to Create at Home
176 pages, Hardcover
Published April, 2025 by Quadrille
Listed at $35 but usually available for less

Ceramics: A Green Approach

Part of The New Ceramics series of books, this volume details how potters and ceramic artists can be more responsible in regards to sustainability including firing techniques, sourcing clay and glaze materials, packaging and shipping, and more.

Ceramics: A Green Approach
by Kevin Millward
224 pages, paperback
Published August 2025 by Herbert Press
Listed at $35

Creative Pottery: Innovatie Techniques & Experimental Designs in Thrown & Handbuilt Ceramics

This innovative book, first published in hardcover in 2020 and then in paperback in 2025, has a unique approach to creating pottery with various combinations of slabs. Covering slabs and thrown molds, it truly is a new approach to creating pottery that will push both beginners and experienced makers to consider new ways of making.

Creative Pottery: Innovatie Techniques & Experimental Designs in Thrown & Handbuilt Ceramics
by Deb Schwartzkopf
192 pages, paperback
Published December 2025 by Quarry Books
$30

Developing Glazes: Low-Fire Reducation and Oxidation

A guidebook to developing creative and experimental glazes, this book includes techniques and recipes for low fire temperatures (Cone 06 to 04) with step-by-step instructions and more. The book covers glazes, slips, and a guide to the ingredients needed to make these glazes.

Developing Glazes: Low-Fire Reducation and Oxidation
by Mary Fox
160 pages, hardcover
Published Novemeber 2025 by Harbour Publishing
Listed at $35

Practical Pottery: A Complete Guide to Getting Started in Making Beautiful and Functional Bowls, Plates, Vases, & More on the Wheel

A comprehensive guide to making pottery on the wheel, this book covers choosing clay, shaping, centering, throwing and altering thrown forms. Also included are discussions of drying, trimming, and firing work. In short, a complete guide to making pottery.

Practical Pottery: A Complete Guide to Getting Started in Making Beautiful and Functional Bowls, Plates, Vases, & More on the Wheel
by Sus Borgbjerg and Susan Liebe
192 pages, Hardcover
Published May 2025 by Schiffer Craft
$30