Book excerpt: Learningfrom others' mistakes is always more efficient and less costly thancommitting them yourself. This book is packed with practical informationthat will enable potters to successfully complete the many steps inpottery production. Making functional pottery or ceramic sculptureentails many different skill sets and processes in forming clay, dryingclay, glazing, and firing. Any one of these steps can cause failures. As ceramics consultant Jeff Zamek points out, under ideal conditions abeginning or advanced student would be guided by a teacher at everystep; mistakes and bad habits would be caught as they occurred andcorrected. While such learning situations are rare today, this bookfills the gap. As Zamek says,"This book offers you forty years of wisdom, generated by my students'and my client ceramics companies' issues with clays, glazes, and kilnfiring." With its solutions to common problems, this guide helps potters to succeed.