Vinegar & Baking Soda Pottery Texture | Ceramic Vase Tutorial

You’ll see the entire process: preparing the clay, making the slabs, shaping the form, joining the pieces, building the neck and handle, creating the textured surface, and finally, the finished vase after firing.

This piece is made from red earthenware clay and fired once at 980°C (1796°F). After firing, the clay develops its natural warm brick-red terracotta color.

CERAMIC TEXTURE RECIPE

For the textured area around the neck of the vase, I first apply a colored engobe.

Engobe base mixture:
• 70% white ceramic clay
• 30% matte transfer glaze
• + 3%-15% black stain added to the base mixture

After applying the engobe, I add my dry texture mixture.

Texture powder mixture:
• 30% white transfer powder
• 30% matte white transfer powder
• 20% white ceramic clay
• 20% baking soda

Once the powder mixture has been applied, I carefully add vinegar over the textured area. The vinegar reacts with the surface mixture and helps create the unusual texture you see on the finished vase.

IMPORTANT TIP

Make sure the vinegar reaches every area covered by the white powder mixture.

In my experience with this piece, if part of the white powder is left without vinegar, that area can become flaky after firing and may separate from the ceramic surface instead of bonding properly.

At the same time, don’t use more vinegar than necessary. Apply it carefully and gradually.

Ceramic materials, clay bodies, application thicknesses and firing conditions can behave differently, so I strongly recommend making a small test piece before using this recipe on an important work.

The final piece shown in this video was fired once at 980°C / 1796°F.

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And if you try the vinegar and baking soda texture, I’d love to hear about your results in the comments.