The book I read to research this post was Pottery On The Wheel by Steve McDonald which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This is a how to guide to doing pottery on a potter's wheel and also things like glazing, firing in a kiln and also there are quite a few projects where you are guided step by step. The type of potter's wheel you should use is just a 1/4 horsepower one for small items, a 1/2 horsepower one for intermediate items like vases and if you are doing 4 foot vases a 1 hp or 1 1/2 horsepower wheel. When you finish you will normally glaze it and then fire it in a kiln. The kiln will usually work by using special cones that disintegrate at a set temperature and in the process activate a liver that turns off the kiln. In this process the temperature is the important thing not the length of time it is heated for. Some people make pottery that isn't fired in a kiln but none the less goes pretty hard as it dries out. You also need tools and alot of these you can make yourself if you can't find a pottery tool supplier. For example a piece of piano wire can be used to cut the clay and for shaping it on the wheel a piece of shaped segment of an old broken cd can be used. When using the wheel the clay must be kept wet and a sponge can be used to help with this. Of course water has to be added as well. I very much enjoyed this book and didn't want this book to end but as it was it was quite a short book of about 80 pages.