For most of human history, all pottery was what we would now consider traditional folk pottery. Not all artifacts go beyond the basic requirements of utility in pursuit of beauty, but Beautiful Clay considers those that do.

In Beautiful Clay, noted scholar of traditional ceramics John A. Burrison writes about how a potter applies aesthetics to utilitarian objects to transform raw clay into something beautiful. Though what is considered beautiful in art changes from culture to culture and person to person, there are universal techniques such as manipulating form, color, texture, and more that tap into clay's potential for beauty. Burrison uses an approach from a perspective of international artistry rather than an approach bound by history or geography. After beginning with more than 40,000 images that the author curated as a study resource, Beautiful Clay narrows it down to around 230 images that capture the artistry within traditional ceramics worldwide.

Beautiful Clay examines the aesthetic dimensions of what is essentially a traditional utilitarian craft, the ancient clay-based craft of pottery, from earliest times to the present.