Carving is a way of decorating pottery that creates nice textures on your piece.  It also creates a nice visual design. 

There is an endless number of ways to carve into your pottery.  Rather than carving very soft fresh clay, it’s best to wait until the clay has firmed up a bit.

Different potters will carve their clay at different points in the drying process.  Some prefer to wait until the clay is really quite leather hard.  Some prefer to carve when the clay is a little softer. They say that when the clay is soft leather hard that it is easier to carve on.

The other advantage to carving when the clay is soft leather hard is that you create less clay dust.  The drier the clay, the more dust you create in the air.  Because of the health concerns associated with clay dust, it’s best to minimize it in your environment. 

You can carve into your clay with whatever implement works for you.  There is a large array of clay carving tools to buy from pottery suppliers. 

However, you can use whatever feels comfortable to you and achieves the effect you are looking for.  I’ve heard of potters using Kirby grips and pen lids to carve their pottery. The author of thePotteryWheel uses a loop tool to carve some of their pots. Carving is open to the imagination and we can be creative.

Reference -  thepotterywheel.com -