What to do with pottery sherds in Minecraft 1.20 update

Minecraft's pottery shards, now known as "pottery sherds" after recent snapshot/preview updates, are new items being introduced in the 1.20 Trails & Tales update. These items can be found via archeology gameplay by brushing suspicious sand and gravel blocks spotted within the game's many generated structures.

However, at the moment, the use of pottery sherds is relatively limited. They can be used to create pot blocks with different patterns depending on the sherds being used and can also be used in a decorative context by being placed in an item frame.

Perhaps Minecraft 1.20 or its subsequent updates have more plans in store for these ancient items, but for now, there are only two real uses to speak of.

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How to use pottery sherds in Minecraft's 1.20 update

Currently, Minecraft's upcoming pottery sherds are primarily used to create decorated pot blocks. These new blocks operate in a particularly unique way, and they have etched designs on the side of them depending on which sherds are used to craft them.

Technically, you don't need pottery sherds at all to create a decorated pot since you can substitute any missing sherds with bricks instead. However, each side of the pot that is substituted with a brick will be blank when the decorated pot is created, and only the sides of the pot crafted with pottery sherds will display the corresponding pattern.

How to craft decorated pots with pottery sherds in Minecraft 1.20:

1. With at least some pottery sherds in your inventory, open the interface of the nearest crafting table.
2. Place your pottery sherd(s) in the top center, right center, bottom center, and left center slots of the crafting table UI. If you don't have four sherds to use for the decorated pot, you can substitute any slot with a brick instead. Keep in mind that based on the arrangement of the sherds/bricks, different faces of the decorated pot will either have different pattern placement or, in the case of bricks, not have a pattern at all.
3. Once you've placed the sherds and/or bricks in the arrangement you prefer, remove the decorated pot from the crafting table's output slot.

You might think that decorated pots operate largely like standard flower pots, but this isn't exactly the case. The top portion of the decorated pot block has no in-game collision mechanism, meaning you can place just about any block you like atop the decorated pot, including other decorated pots. Additionally, if you don't particularly like the current arrangement of sherd patterns on your decorated pot, you can break the block with a tool to retrieve the sherds and clay bricks used to craft them.

Not only this, but Myou can also break a decorated pot bare-handed, with a non-tool item, or with a Silk Touch-enchanted tool to have the pot drop itself instead. This is particularly useful when you need to move your pot to another location without breaking it into its core crafting materials.