Forming covers how a workable clay body actually becomes a piece: on the wheel, by hand, or cast from a mold.
Wheel throwing shapes a piece from a single lump of clay centered on a spinning potter's wheel, including variations like throwing off the hump and altering an already-thrown form; trimming refines a thrown or handbuilt piece once it is leather-hard. Handbuilding is an umbrella term for shaping clay by hand rather than on a wheel, covering the pinch pot, coil building, slab building, extrusion, and press molding. Slip casting pours a deflocculated clay slip into a plaster mold rather than shaping a plastic body directly. Reclaiming clay covers turning scraps and dried-out clay back into usable material, a routine part of working in any of these techniques.