Ceramic Slab Building Techniques

This broad approach to slab work shows a wide variety of building methods and shows the work of many high profile makers in this area.

Ceramic slab building techniques.

Before potters began using pottery wheels simple tools were used to create clay pottery. The figure s elaborate garb jewelry and headdress represent the. Basic pottery hand building techniques. Before potters had the wheel they were creating beautiful pots and clay forms using clay their hands and fingers and basic hand tools.

Slabbing clay is a technique the includes. In order to work a slab roller you lay your clay on a long strip of cloth. If you have caught the slab pottery bug you ve come to the right place for inspiration. Which is formed by joining flat slabs of clay together.

Found in indian and mesopotamian architecture ceramic tiles are believed to have been constructed from slabs of clay since 14 000 b c. Birdie boone works with super thin slabs to make. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. 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. Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools. Slab pots tend to be a bit tougher to produce technically speaking than those created using other. To get you started check out this article by daryl baird on using slump molds with soft slabs.

Beth peterson is a potter artist and writer with more than 30 years of experience crafting clay and ceramics. The aim is to explore and explain most of these methods through step by step images and text using a varied range of both pots and sculpture. Most ancient cultures gravitated to the pottery wheel for the creation of vessels. 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.

Most do not realize the infinite world of hand building and the artistic possibilities it opens. Next you turn a giant wheel and the slab roller rolls over the clay like a steam roller. More on soft slab pottery. Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots.

The machine then has a piece of cloth connected to it which you lay on top of the clay. How to slab clay. Modern potters and ceramic sculptors have embraced the slab creating works using both soft slabs and stiff leather hard slabs. Today slab pots and slab building techniques are experiencing a renewed popularity.