If you have spent any time building in Minecraft, you already know that not all blocks are created equal. Bricks stand out for their warm, earthy texture and their ability to make almost any structure look polished and intentional. But knowing how to make bricks in Minecraft is not immediately obvious, especially since the process skips the crafting table entirely and runs through a furnace instead.
This guide walks you through every step — from finding clay underwater to assembling a full brick block — and covers all the ways you can use bricks in your builds in 2026, including changes introduced in the Minecraft 26.1 Tiny Takeover update and the upcoming Chaos Cubed drop.
What You Need to Make Bricks in Minecraft
Before firing up a furnace, you need two things: clay balls and a fuel source. That is it. Bricks are one of the more straightforward crafted items in the game once you know where to look for clay.
Here is a quick overview of the required materials:
- Clay balls — obtained by breaking clay blocks
- Fuel — coal, wood logs, planks, charcoal, or any other burnable item
- Furnace — crafted from 8 cobblestone arranged in a ring on a crafting table
Step 1: Find and Mine Clay
Clay is the only raw material you need, so finding it efficiently is the most important part of the process.
Where Clay Spawns in Minecraft
Clay blocks are most commonly found in two locations:
- Shallow water — rivers, ponds, and lake edges are the most reliable spots. Clay appears as light grey blocks sitting on the bottom, often mixed in with sand and gravel.
- Lush Caves — underground biomes that generate below azalea trees. These cave systems contain significant clay deposits, making them one of the best farming spots if you can locate one.
- Ocean ruins and trail ruins — bricks (and clay) can also appear pre-generated in these structures, giving you a head start without any smelting needed.
A good tip: look for azalea trees on the surface. They only grow above Lush Caves, so finding one tells you exactly where to dig.
How to Mine Clay Efficiently
- Use a shovel for fastest clay block mining
- Each clay block drops 4 clay balls when broken
- Enchanting your shovel with Fortune does not increase clay ball drops — clay is one of the blocks unaffected by the Fortune enchantment
- If you are mining underwater, equip a helmet enchanted with Aqua Affinity to mine at full speed below the surface
Collect as much as you can in one run. You will need 4 clay balls to craft a single brick block, so gather in multiples of 4 to avoid waste.
Step 2: Smelt Clay Balls Into Bricks
Once you have your clay, head to a furnace. Unlike most crafting recipes, bricks are made through smelting, not a crafting grid.
How to Smelt Clay Balls
- Open your furnace
- Place clay balls in the top slot (the ingredient slot)
- Place fuel in the bottom slot — coal is the most efficient, but logs, planks, or charcoal all work
- Wait for the smelting animation to complete
- Each clay ball produces 1 brick item
The smelting process takes 10 seconds per clay ball with a standard furnace. If you need bricks in bulk, set up multiple furnaces side by side and split your clay and fuel across all of them. A blast furnace does not smelt clay — it only works on metal ores — so stick to a standard furnace.
Step 3: Craft a Brick Block
Now that you have your brick items, you can finally move to the crafting table.
Brick Block Recipe
Place 4 bricks in a 2×2 square in any crafting grid — either the 2×2 inventory grid or a crafting table. This produces 1 Bricks block (often called a “brick block”).
[Brick] [Brick]
[Brick] [Brick]
= 1 Bricks Block
That is the complete process: clay → smelt → brick items → craft → brick block.
All Brick-Related Crafting Recipes in Minecraft
Once you have brick blocks, you can take things further with additional recipes. Here is a full breakdown of everything you can craft with bricks in 2026.
Brick Block
- Recipe: 4 Bricks (items) in a 2×2 grid
- Output: 1 Brick Block
Brick Slab
- Recipe: 3 Brick Blocks in a horizontal row
- Output: 6 Brick Slabs
Brick Stairs
- Recipe: 6 Brick Blocks in a staircase pattern
- Output: 4 Brick Stairs
Brick Wall
- Recipe: 6 Brick Blocks in two horizontal rows (bottom two rows of a 3×3 grid)
- Output: 6 Brick Walls
Flower Pot
- Recipe: 3 Brick items (not brick blocks) in a V-shape — one on the left, one on the right, one at the bottom center
- Output: 1 Flower Pot
Decorated Pot
- Recipe: 4 Brick items in a diamond pattern (top, bottom, left, right of the crafting grid)
- Output: 1 Decorated Pot
Decorated pots are one of the most interesting additions in recent Minecraft updates. You can also get brick items by breaking a decorated pot without Silk Touch — the pot drops 0 to 4 bricks depending on what it was crafted from.
How to Get Bricks Without Crafting
If you want to skip the smelting process, there are a few ways to find bricks already in the world.
Natural Generation
Brick blocks generate naturally in:
- Ocean ruins — partially submerged structures found underwater in ocean biomes
- Plains village armorer houses — the building where the armorer villager lives will sometimes have brick construction
- Trail ruins — buried archaeological structures added in the Trails & Tales update
Mine these blocks with a pickaxe. Bricks mined without a pickaxe drop nothing, so always have one on hand.
Trading With Villagers
Stone mason villagers will sell brick items directly:
- Java Edition: 10 bricks for 1 emerald (novice level)
- Bedrock Edition: 16 bricks for 1 emerald (novice level)
This is a solid option if you are running low on clay but have a healthy supply of emeralds. If you are building at scale and need resources fast, check out our guide on the best Minecraft 26.1 servers where trading halls and automated farms are common community features.
What to Build With Bricks in Minecraft
Bricks have a warm reddish-orange tone that makes them one of the most visually pleasing building blocks in the game. Here are the best use cases.
Houses and Cottages
Brick is one of the best materials for residential builds. The block pairs naturally with wood, stone, and terracotta for a varied, realistic look. If you are planning your first real structure, check out our guide on how to build a house in Minecraft for layout ideas and building tips.
For design inspiration beyond basic construction, our roundup of Minecraft house ideas includes 30 builds that use bricks extensively — from cozy cottages to large manor estates.
Chimneys and Fireplaces
The classic brick chimney is a staple of Minecraft builds for good reason. Stack brick blocks vertically from a fireplace source and cap them above the roofline. The texture reads clearly even from a distance.
Pathways and Roads
Brick slabs and brick blocks make excellent courtyard floors, pathways between buildings, and decorative borders around garden areas. They are much warmer in tone than stone or cobblestone, so they work better for residential or village-style areas.
Arches and Pillars
Brick walls and brick stairs can be combined to build roman-style arches or classical pillars. Experiment with mixing brick walls, brick blocks, and stone brick blocks for a varied, textured look.
Decorative Pots and Planters
Flower pots crafted from bricks are a simple way to add life and detail to any interior or exterior space. You can place any flower, sapling, mushroom, or fern inside them.
Bricks vs. Other Brick Types in Minecraft
Minecraft has several brick variants, and it is easy to confuse them. Here is a quick comparison.
| Block | Source | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Bricks (regular) | Clay balls + furnace | Warm red-orange tone |
| Stone Bricks | 4 Stone blocks | Grey, found in strongholds |
| Nether Bricks | Nether Brick item + furnace | Dark red, found in Nether Fortresses |
| Deepslate Bricks | 4 Cobbled Deepslate | Dark grey, very durable |
| Mud Bricks | 4 Packed Mud | Earthy tan, added in Wild Update |
| Tuff Bricks | 4 Tuff | Grey-green, added in 1.21 |
For a full breakdown of where to find the raw materials for stone bricks, deepslate bricks, and more, our Minecraft ore distribution guide covers every material’s spawn depth and best mining strategy.
Tips for Farming Bricks at Scale
If you are planning a large build that requires hundreds or thousands of brick blocks, efficiency matters.
- Set up a clay farm near a river or lush cave so you have a renewable source close to your base
- Run 5–10 furnaces simultaneously and use hoppers to automate input and output — this dramatically cuts smelting time
- Use bamboo as fuel — bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants in the game and produces a decent fuel value, making it a great renewable fuel source for large smelting operations
- Keep a villager trading hall with stone masons so you can convert emeralds into bricks when you need a quick top-up
- Use silk touch on a shovel only if you want to carry clay blocks intact — if you need clay balls, break clay without Silk Touch to get the drops directly
Frequently Asked Questions
How many clay balls do you need to make one brick block?
You need 4 clay balls to make one brick block. Each clay ball smelts into one brick item, and four brick items are combined in a 2×2 crafting grid to produce a single brick block.
Can you make bricks in a blast furnace?
No, you cannot smelt clay in a blast furnace. Blast furnaces only work with metal ores and raw metal items. Use a standard furnace to smelt clay balls into bricks.
Where is the best place to find clay in Minecraft?
The best places to find clay are in river and lake shallows, where it appears as light grey blocks on the bottom. Lush Caves are another reliable source with large clay deposits. Look for azalea trees on the surface to locate a Lush Cave beneath.
What can you craft using brick items (not brick blocks)?
Brick items (the individual pieces before assembling a block) can be used to craft flower pots and decorated pots. You can also trade 10 brick items to a novice stone mason villager for 1 emerald in Java Edition.
Do bricks have the same blast resistance as stone?
Yes. Brick blocks share the same blast resistance as other stone-based blocks, making them reasonably durable against most in-game explosions, though not as strong as obsidian or crying obsidian.
Can Fortune increase the number of clay balls you get?
No. The Fortune enchantment does not affect clay drops. Every clay block will always drop exactly 4 clay balls regardless of your enchantment level.
Conclusion
Learning how to make bricks in Minecraft is a straightforward process once you have it laid out: find clay in rivers or Lush Caves, smelt clay balls in a furnace, and then arrange four brick items in a 2×2 grid to craft a brick block. From there, you can extend the recipe into slabs, stairs, walls, flower pots, and decorated pots — giving you a full suite of building options with one of the game’s most visually appealing materials.
Whether you are constructing a cozy cottage, a grand manor, or just decorating a fireplace, bricks add a level of warmth and realism that raw stone and wood cannot match. Now that you know exactly how to produce them efficiently, there is nothing stopping you from going big with your next build.
If you are looking for your next building project, check out our collection of easy Minecraft house designs for beginnersor explore the full list of 30 best Minecraft house ideas for some serious inspiration.
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