For years, I avoided making bowls with rims. They seemed inefficient – taking up too much kiln space, adding unnecessary weight, and complicating what should be a simple form. But after taking a 9-month online class with artist and maker Amy Palatnick, I decided to challenge my assumptions and give rimmed bowls a fair shot.

What I discovered surprised me. Bowls with rims aren’t just about aesthetics – they solve real functional problems and create opportunities for both the maker and the user.

Why Rims Matter: Function and Purpose
Here’s what I learned about how rims actually function on bowls:

Handling Hot Dishes – The rim provides a cooler surface to grip when lifting bowls straight from the oven or microwave, protecting hands from heat.

Stacking Efficiency – Despite taking up more horizontal space, rimmed bowls stack beautifully inside each other. Two or three properly thrown rimmed bowls can stack to the same height as a single mug, actually improving kiln efficiency.

Visual Rhythm – When stacked, the repeating rim lines create pleasing compositional elements. Opening a cupboard to see evenly spaced rim gaps has an aesthetic appeal that goes beyond pure function.

Glaze Transitions – Rims create natural break points for glaze design. The horizontal surface allows for different glaze applications and creates strong visual lines in the finished piece.

Food Presentation – The rim frames the food, creating a boundary that makes plating more intentional and visually appealing.
Structural Reinforcement – A well-made rim adds strength to the bowl’s edge, reducing chips and cracks from everyday use.

Glazing Handle – Like a foot on a bowl, the rim provides a grip point during the glazing process, making production work more efficient.

The Making Process

My first ten rimmed bowls were disasters, as expected. I had to work out the prototype – weight, width, height, rim width, rim thickness, and overall shape. Each variable affects the others. Height matters because dried bowls need to fit on shelves with other short forms like mugs. Width needs to be large enough for a proper serving while not monopolizing kiln shelf space.

By the tenth bowl, I was starting to feel better about the process, though I couldn’t shake the feeling I was making clay women’s hats from the 1920s.

The Magic Happens After

The magic of rimmed bowls happens when they’re finished, not when they’re being made. The lines created by glazed rims stacked together create visual compositions that single bowls can’t achieve. Some makers even pay attention to whether rim gaps are consistent as bowls nest – when stacked with other stacks, what shapes emerge? What story does your cupboard tell?

I’ve also started filling finished forms with solid-color liquids like milk or black coffee to see how the negative space looks inside the bowl and how the rim interacts with the filled form. It’s another way to evaluate design beyond the empty vessel.

Design Considerations for Production

When making many pots, you need to think about how they’ll fit into your production process. Pots are often designed with features that make other parts of making and finishing easier. A trimmed foot, for example, not only elevates the form visually but also provides a place to hold the bowl while glazing.

Understanding these practical considerations doesn’t limit creativity – it informs it. When you know why certain design choices work, you can make intentional decisions rather than just following tradition.

Further Reading

For a deeper exploration of form and function in pottery, I highly recommend Functional Pottery by Robin Hopper. It covers many of these design principles in detail and explores the relationship between how pots look and how they work.

Final Thoughts

There’s no Department of Homeland Pottery that will tackle you for doing things your own way. If something works for you, why fix it? But it’s also valuable to work through new challenges and try things you think you won’t enjoy. Sometimes the forms you resist teach you the most.

I need to make about 50 more rimmed bowls to get good at them. I’m still working on the bowl shapes and rim finishing when throwing. But I’m no longer avoiding them, and that’s progress.

Everything we do is practice.

Alford Wayman
Artist/ Owner
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