Shelter Pottery Sherd
Roof-and-figure motif from Trail Ruins, themed around home and protection on decorated pots.
Description
The item enters the plus-shaped recipe of a Decorated Pot as one of four side ingredients framing an empty central slot. The face the design appears on matches the cell where the sherd was placed, so a single pot can hold up to four different motifs — perfect for narrative shelves in adventure maps and lore-driven museums.
The finished pot is fragile to non-tool hits and drops as a complete item, preserving the artwork during relocation. The pot also stores one stack of items and accepts hopper input/output, which lets a quiet home-themed piece double as part of an item-sorting line in a settlement build.
Guide
How to find and use Shelter Pottery Sherd in Minecraft
-
1
Locate Trail Ruins
Trail Ruins are buried structures that generate underground in seven biomes: old-growth taiga, old-growth pine taiga, old-growth spruce taiga, snowy taiga, jungle, sparse jungle, and windswept savanna. Look for a cluster of mossy cobblestone, mud bricks, and terracotta near the surface—the bulk of the structure lies below ground.
-
2
Craft or find a Brush
Craft a Brush from 1 feather (top), 1 copper ingot (middle), and 1 stick (bottom) in a crafting grid. Brushes can also appear in Trail Ruins and Desert Temple chests. The Brush is the only tool that can excavate suspicious gravel and suspicious sand.
-
3
Excavate suspicious gravel
Right-click and hold (use and hold on console/mobile) a suspicious gravel block with the Brush. Each brush stroke advances the excavation animation; releasing too early resets progress. The Shelter Pottery Sherd is one of the possible loot drops from suspicious gravel inside Trail Ruins.
-
4
Craft a Decorated Pot
Place 4 Pottery Sherds or Bricks in a plus (+) shape on a 3×3 crafting grid—one in the top-center, left-center, right-center, and bottom-center cells, leaving the corners and the very center empty. Each cell position corresponds to one face of the finished Decorated Pot: top cell → back face, left cell → left face, right cell → right face, bottom cell → front face. Placing the Shelter Pottery Sherd in the top-center cell causes its roof-and-figure motif to appear on the back face of the pot.
-
5
Use the Decorated Pot
A Decorated Pot functions as a storage container that holds exactly 1 stack of any item. Hoppers, droppers, and comparators interact with Decorated Pots just like with regular containers. Breaking the pot with a tool drops both the pot and any stored item; breaking it by hand also drops the pot intact.
The design on each face of a Decorated Pot is determined by which crafting grid cell the sherd occupies, so you can mix up to 4 different Pottery Sherds in one pot for a unique combination of motifs.
Frequently asked questions
Where do you find the Shelter Pottery Sherd?
The Shelter Pottery Sherd is found exclusively by brushing suspicious gravel blocks inside Trail Ruins. Trail Ruins generate in seven biomes including old-growth taiga, jungle, and snowy taiga. You need a Brush to excavate suspicious gravel; mining the block without a Brush destroys it without dropping any loot.
Can you craft the Shelter Pottery Sherd?
No, the Shelter Pottery Sherd cannot be crafted. It is an archaeology loot item obtained only by brushing suspicious gravel in Trail Ruins. The Shelter Pottery Sherd is used as a crafting ingredient, not as a crafting output.
What is the Shelter Pottery Sherd used for?
The Shelter Pottery Sherd is used to craft a Decorated Pot. Placing it in one of the four plus-shaped crafting slots causes the roof-and-figure motif to appear on the corresponding face of the finished pot.
How many Pottery Sherds does a Decorated Pot need?
A Decorated Pot requires exactly 4 items placed in a plus (+) shape in the crafting grid. Each slot can hold a Pottery Sherd or a plain Brick; you can mix all four types freely, including using the Shelter Pottery Sherd in one slot and bricks in the rest.
Which side of the Decorated Pot does the Shelter Pottery Sherd appear on?
The face where the Shelter Pottery Sherd's motif appears depends on which slot it occupies in the crafting grid. The top-center slot controls the back face, the left-center slot controls the left face, the right-center slot controls the right face, and the bottom-center slot controls the front face.
What version of Minecraft added Pottery Sherds?
Pottery Sherds, including the Shelter Pottery Sherd, were added in Java Edition 1.20 (also known as Trails & Tales), released in June 2023. The same update introduced Trail Ruins, the Brush, and Decorated Pots.
Minecraft and all related materials are trademarks and copyrights of Mojang Studios © 2009–2026. This site is not an official Minecraft product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mojang Studios or Microsoft Corporation.