Can You Do Pottery With Long Nails?

Pottery is fun, and I love it. Though I’m not a professional pottery artist, I did some pottery work as part of my school project. And since then, I have known how it feels to make beautiful, functional things by myself.

Indeed, it brings a childhood vibe whenever you do it, but can you do pottery with long nails? I know, loving pottery and long nails equally feel like a significant issue.

But fret not, I have shared my ultimate tips to give you satisfactory answers on whether it is possible to do pottery or not and what steps you need to follow if you really want to do pottery with long nails.

Can You Do Pottery With Long Nails?

Pottery is an art, and it mostly requires your hands and fingers to craft some beautiful things. Unfortunately, it seems like long nails can be havoc doing pottery.

If you have been maintaining naturally long nails or fake acrylic nails for a long time, then I’m pretty sure you know how to perform all your difficult daily work with long nails. Therefore, pottery won’t be exactly impossible for you to do with long nails either. 

So, can you do pottery with long nails?

Yes, you definitely can do pottery with long nails. You don’t have to cut your beautiful long nails just for pottery work.

I’ll give you five practical tips on how to do pottery with long nails.

How to Do Pottery With Long Nails?

Now that you know you can do pottery with long nails, let’s see how you can do it. The first formula is practice. Practice can make everything better. Keep practicing by following my ultimate tips to do pottery with long nails.

Tip – 1: Use rubber gloves while doing pottery.

The best option is to use rubber gloves while doing pottery. Avoid cotton gloves. It will be harder for you to feel the clay with cotton gloves. Plus, they are not that favorable to working with clay. 

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Most pottery artists, even without long nails, use gloves while pottering. It’s always not about just nails, the gloves will protect your hands too. If you are thinking about which gloves to get, I’d recommend OriStout Disposable Gloves for Women.

These gloves are my favorite as they are thick, and with long nails, they do not rip. Besides, these are the only gloves with all useful qualities available in pink color. Apart from pottery work, you can use these gloves for food preparation as well as finishing any sort of household chores.

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If you are going to do pottery for a long time with gloves, your hands may dry out during the process. So, before you wear the gloves, don’t forget to moisturize your hands. It’s the best practice for your hands as well as for your nails. 

But if you are planning to buy other types of gloves, ensure they are in the right size for your hands. As you have long nails, small and tight gloves may get torn apart by your long nails. Likewise, too loose and big-sized gloves will not fit your hands and affect the real purpose of wearing gloves. 

Even if the gloves perfectly fit your hands, ensure you don’t push your fingertips too hard to the edge. Keep a considerable free space for your long nails in your gloves.

Tip – 2: Use a roller to prepare the clay.

Clay is the only material that you require to craft beautiful, functional things. But the clay needs to be prepared before throwing into the wheel machine. 

Long nails make it harder for you to prepare the clay. But here, you can use a roller to prepare the clay.

Using a roller lets your long nails stay obscured from direct contact with the clay. Hence your long nails will not create any obstacles in the clay preparation process.

Even you will see that most potter artists without long nails feel more comfortable using a roller to prepare the clay than using their fingertips. 

With fingertips, you will have significantly less area to press on the clay. But with a roller, you can see that you will have a decent amount of space that you can use to press on the clay. Also, you can finish the clay preparation quickly.

You have to get used to it. Once you are on it, you won’t be able to notice any hardship or discomfort while preparing the clay by using a roller. 

Pro Tip: You can also your knuckles to prepare the clay if in case you have been missing a roller to prepare the clay.

Tip – 3: Use a sponge to shape the clay.

You can consider using a sponge to protect your nails and the clay from each other while shaping the clay in the wheel machine. 

It may be hard if you are doing it for the first time. But you can embrace this skill, too, along with consistent practice. To prepare the sponge, soak it in the water for a couple of minutes until it becomes soft. Then squash it up to remove the excess water.

Then use that sponge to shape the clay the way you want it. You can use your other hand to gently cover up the clay in the running wheel while giving the desired shape to that clay.

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Tip – 4: Use your finger pads to shape the clay.

You can also use finger pads to shape the clay on the running wheel. Just make sure your nails are not touching the clay.

Even if a slight accidental touch on the clay by your nails can give it an unappealing mark of line, so be very careful while shaping the clay with your hands when you have long nails.

You can try to expand your fingers slightly upward to put adequate pressure on the clay with your finger pads to shape it.

Can you do pottery with long nails if your nails are super sharp?

If your long nails are sharp, like, stiletto nails or the shape of your nails is square, coffin, or squoval, then accidental damage to the clay can happen. 

I’d recommend getting a round shape or almond shape for your nails before doing a pottery job with long nails. With round-shaped nails, accidental damage to the clay by your nails is somewhat less than having long nails with sharp edges. 

Tip – 5: Use your knuckles and a stick to design the clay.

The final part of your pottery job is the design. To design the clay, you’d require to remove some excessive amount of mold from some parts of it. 

Pro Tip: If you are wearing any ring, you must take it off.

You can use your knuckles in this scenario to remove the excess mold. This thing requires a lot of practice. But that’s not impossible anyway. While doing fine designing, you can use a tiny stick that matches the required thickness.

What Are the Disadvantages of Doing Pottery With Long Nails?

The above information was about how to do pottery with long nails. But I didn’t talk anything about the consequences that may happen to your beautiful shiny natural long nails while doing pottery. 

So, here are two things to consider. First, question yourself before you go to do pottery with long nails.

1. Do you want to protect your long nails from any damage while pottery? or,
2. Your prime attention is to make the pottery perfect by ignoring your long nails.

If you do pottery with long nails without gloves, chances are there that your long nails will become unflattering, and the shiny, beautiful look of your natural long nails that catches the eyes of everyone will fade away. Plus, you will find a lot of clay material inside your long nails.

You may end up with nasty scrape marks on your nails, which will make your nails look awful. In addition, the beautiful pink color of your natural nails may replace with an unpleasure color due to the clay you will touch.

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How to Take Care of Your Long Nails While Doing Pottery?

While doing pottery, it is crucial to take a moment and list all the possible adverse impacts that your nails can suffer from.

First of all, long nails are prone to breaking. And your nails will get wet and stay wet while doing pottery. As a result, your long nails will be very fragile. Hence you may break your long nails very quickly if you stab them into something hard. 

You have to be very careful about your nails and always try to keep them away from direct contact with every possible thing to ensure the life of your long nails from breaking.

Painting your long natural nails with multiple coats of nail polish will conceivably strengthen your long nails; on the plus side, you will not lose the attractive natural and shiny look of your long nails by the clay. 

If coloring nail polish isn’t a choice, you can use a base coat or a nail strengthen on your nails before you begin to prepare the clay for pottery.

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As your nails are long, you will see clays underneath your nails. So after finishing your pottery work, gently wash your long nails with a soft brush to clean the underneath. Do not use hard materials to clean the clay underneath your nails. A no-longer-in-use toothbrush will work fine to clean the bottom of your nails. 

After washing your hands and nails, apply some thick moisturizer. If you have cuticle oils, use them on your nails. It would be best to follow the nourishing process before a goodnight’s sleep. You can put your hands on spa gloves and let them in this state for the night. 

Wrapping up:

I’ve interacted with many girls and women who prefer to cut their long nails when they see themselves in a difficult situation with long nails. But if you love long nails truly, you will come up with a solution to maintain your long nails anyway, even if your job is challenging with long nails.

Long nails are the glory of a woman. Not because they look good but because they can make you feel good. The presence of long nails makes you more feminine, and premium. Giving up on them is not always a better option until you find a way to manage a particular task with long nails. 

I hope this article will help you to do pottery with long nails or long acrylic nails. So follow these tips and do great pottery with long nails confidently.

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