Materials You Will Need
Making your own ware boards is one of the most practical things you can do for your pottery studio. The good news — you don’t need expensive materials. Here are the best options:
Best materials for DIY pottery ware boards:
- HardieBacker cement board
- ¾” birch plywood
- ½” drywall
- Particle board
Cut your boards to 12″×16″ or 12″×12″ to start. Experiment with sizes to find what works best for your workflow.
HardieBacker Cement Board (Easiest & Cheapest)
HardieBacker is one of the fastest and most affordable ways to make ware boards. Score the surface, snap to cut, and you’re done — no special tools needed. These are especially useful for drying out smaller amounts of clay and can be sized quickly to fit your needs.
Canvas-Covered Birch Plywood Ware Boards (Most Durable)
For a more professional, long-lasting ware board, birch plywood with a canvas cover is hard to beat. Here’s the full process:
What you’ll need:
- ¾” birch plywood, cut to 12″×12″ or 12″×16″
- Duck canvas (available at clay suppliers, Michaels, or Amazon)
- Water-based polyurethane (Varathane Satin Finish works well)
- Sandpaper
- Staple gun
Steps:
- Apply 3 coats of water-based polyurethane to the board, letting each coat dry fully
- Sand smooth after all coats are dry
- Cut two pieces of duck canvas large enough to drape over the board and wrap to the underside
- Staple one side of the canvas to the board edge, stretch it taut, and staple the opposite side
- Repeat on all four sides, keeping the canvas smooth and tight
- Flip and repeat the process with the second canvas piece on the other side
The polyurethane prevents warping and makes the board water-resistant — two things that matter a lot in a working pottery studio.
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Materials you will need
You can use many different materials to make ware boards. Some of my favorites are Hardie Backer, 3/4” thick birch plywood, 1/2” dry wall, or particle board.
For most of these materials you can just use them as is. I would cut the boards to about 12”X16” or 12”x12” but you can experiment and make several sizes to suit your needs.
For the 3/4” birch plywood I take it a few steps further. I get them cut to 12”x12” or 12”x16”. I buy duck canvas from either my local clay supplier, Michaels or Amazon. I also like to buy Water based polyurethane (Varathane, Satin Finish) this ensures that my boards don’t warp and are water resistant. I brush 3 coats of the polyurethane onto my board and once the three coats are fully dry sand them smooth. Next I cut my duck canvas so that it drapes around the ware board. I cut the canvas so that it reaches the bottom side of the ware board. I cut two pieces out. Next I use a stable gun to staple the canvas onto the sides of the board. I staple one side stretch the canvas so it is smooth and repeat. I do this to all four sides and then repeat the process with the other canvas on the other side of the board.
An easy and cheap way to make ware boards is to buy HardieBacker boards. You can score them and snap them to cut. You can get many different sizes pretty quickly and inexpensively. I love using these to dry out smaller amounts of clay out.
This works really well for me and I get a lot of use out of them.
