25 Pottery Video Ideas for Instagram Reels and TikTok

The best pottery videos are not about cameras or trends. They show something only a potter can show: clay changing state. Plan your filming around the stages a pot already goes through and you will never run out of ideas.

Before you film: three habits that make every idea easier

1. Shoot vertical. Instagram Reels and TikTok are watched full-screen on phones. Hold the phone upright or set a tripod to 9:16 framing.
2. Fix one camera spot per station. A clamp or small tripod at the wheel, the glazing table and the kiln means you can record without thinking about framing every time.
3. Photograph every piece at every stage. The same angle on the same background, from wet to finished. Those photos become before-and-after posts, journey videos and product photos later.

Process videos (the clay doing something)

1. Centering in one take. Satisfying, short, and it never gets old for viewers who do not throw.
2. Pulling a cylinder, sped up. Thirty seconds of throwing compressed into eight.
3. Trimming a foot ring. Ribbons of clay curling off the pot are a favourite with viewers.
4. Pulling and attaching a handle. Show the moment it joins the mug.
5. Altering a fresh pot. Squaring a bowl or adding a pouring lip.
6. Slab building from template to form. Cutting, scoring, joining, standing up.
7. Carving or sgraffito. Film from above, close, with the sound of the tool.
8. Reclaiming clay. Scraps to slurry to wedged clay; viewers love the "nothing wasted" angle.

Transformation videos (before and after)

9. Wet to finished in seven seconds. One piece, one photo per stage, cut on the beat.
10. How much does clay shrink? Put a wet pot next to its fired twin with a ruler between them. Most clay bodies lose around a tenth of their size; the clay shrinkage guide has published figures.
11. Glaze before and after. Raw glaze often looks nothing like the fired result — a dull pink that fires to deep blue makes people stop scrolling.
12. One glaze on three clay bodies. The same dip on white, buff and red clay, side by side.
13. Glaze layering test tiles. Fan out a row of tiles from "A over B" to "B over A".
14. Kiln opening. Lid up, first look, no cut. The reaction is the content.

Behind-the-scenes and studio life

15. Loading the kiln shelf by shelf. A puzzle viewers enjoy watching solved.
16. A week in the studio in 30 seconds. One clip per day.
17. What went wrong this firing. Crawling, pinholes, a cracked base — honest failures build trust and get comments from other potters.
18. Glaze mixing from a recipe. Weighing, sieving, the specific-gravity check.
19. Studio tour or tool kit. Your five most-used tools and why.
20. Packing an order. Especially before holidays or a market.

Videos that help you sell

21. The making of one commission. From the customer's sketch to the finished set.
22. Product shots that move. Slowly turning a finished mug on a turntable in daylight.
23. "Why handmade costs what it does." Walk through clay, glaze, firing and hours; our pottery pricing guide gives you the numbers.
24. Market or shop restock. The table being set up, the shelves filling.
25. Answer a question from the comments. "How long does it take to make a mug?" is a whole video.

A posting routine you can keep

Posting on the days you already do each task means you film what is happening anyway, instead of staging something extra.

Keep a note of what worked

Next to each video, note the piece, the glaze and the firing. When a glaze video takes off, people ask for the recipe and the clay — and when you sell the piece, the buyer asks the same. A glaze journal and a kiln log make those answers instant.