How to Make a Decorated Pot in Minecraft (1.20)

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Craft a decorated pot from any four pottery sherds and bricks in a diamond pattern - each item you use becomes one face of the pot. It stores a single slot of items and breaks open to reveal them.

What you need

Pottery sherds and/or bricks x4
Crafting table
Brush (to find sherds)

Step by step

Gather sherds and bricks: brush suspicious sand and gravel in ocean ruins, desert temples, wells and trail ruins for pottery sherds; smelt clay balls for plain bricks.
Learn the pattern: place four sherds or bricks in a diamond - top, left, right and bottom of the crafting grid center.
Design the faces: each slot maps to one side of the pot - mix sherds and bricks freely; plain bricks make blank faces.
Collect the 20 sherd designs: each pottery sherd shows a different symbol, and there are 20 patterns spread across the archaeology sites (16 at launch, more after).
Store items inside: the pot holds one inventory slot of items - right-click to insert, but nothing comes out by hand.
Break it open: smash the pot to get the contents back - or use a hopper to insert and extract without breaking.
Choose your break style: break it with a normal tool and it shatters back into the four sherds and bricks; use Silk Touch or bare hands and it drops itself intact.
Watch for projectiles: arrows, tridents and other projectiles shatter decorated pots on impact - do not use them as target practice backdrops.

Java vs Bedrock

Crafting, storage and breaking behave the same in Java and Bedrock. One Java-only detail: a pot with the cracked block state always shatters into sherds regardless of the tool - relevant mostly for mapmakers.

Versions: Added in 1.20 Trails & Tales (23w07a experimental, fully available from 23w12a) with the archaeology system. The 16 pottery sherd side textures arrived in the same release.

Frequently asked questions

What is the decorated pot recipe in Minecraft?

Four pottery sherds or bricks in a diamond shape: top, left, right and bottom around the center of a crafting table. Each ingredient becomes one face of the pot - bricks make blank faces.

How do you get items out of a decorated pot?

Break the pot - the stored items always drop. A hopper can also insert and extract items without breaking it. You cannot retrieve items by hand.

Do decorated pots break without Silk Touch?

It depends on the tool: pickaxes, axes, shovels, hoes, swords, maces and tridents without Silk Touch shatter the pot into its four sherds and bricks. Silk Touch tools - or bare hands - drop the pot itself. Projectiles always shatter it.