Ceramic Slab Technique

More on soft slab pottery.

Ceramic slab technique. Before potters began using pottery wheels simple tools were used to create clay pottery. Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots. Today slab pots and slab building techniques are experiencing a renewed popularity. Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques.

To get you started check out this article by daryl baird on using slump molds with soft slabs. The slabs of clay need to still be wet enough to produce strong seams yet also firm enough to be able to hold up their own weight when placed vertically. If you have caught the slab pottery bug you ve come to the right place for inspiration. Once the clay is leather hard cut out your pieces and join them by scoring and slipping.

The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. Handbuilding is working with clay by hand using only simple tools not the pottery wheel. To make a pinch pot one inserts a thumb into a ball of clay and continually pinches the the clay between the thumb and fingers while rotating to thin. Birdie boone works with super thin slabs to make.

Modern potters and ceramic sculptors have embraced the slab creating works using both soft slabs and stiff leather hard slabs. Use only dried and firm slabs of clay for this technique. Liz zlot summerfield is also an excellent resource for slab building techniques. Slabbing clay is a handbuilding pottery technique that has been around for centuries.

Also joints in slab built pieces are more likely to crack or split during. Slab pots tend to be a bit tougher to produce technically speaking than those created using other techniques. Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools. Jomon vessel 3000 2000 b c e on view at tokyo national museum tokyo japan.