Ceramic Slab Building Techniques

Which is formed by joining flat slabs of clay together.

Ceramic slab building techniques.

Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques. Slab pots tend to be a bit tougher to produce technically speaking than those created using other. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. Birdie boone works with super thin slabs to make.

Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots. Found in indian and mesopotamian architecture ceramic tiles are believed to have been constructed from slabs of clay since 14 000 b c. Next you turn a giant wheel and the slab roller rolls over the clay like a steam roller. Before potters had the wheel they were creating beautiful pots and clay forms using clay their hands and fingers and basic hand tools.

Modern potters and ceramic sculptors have embraced the slab creating works using both soft slabs and stiff leather hard slabs. It flattens out the clay and makes it ready to use. Liz zlot summerfield is also an excellent resource for slab building techniques. More on soft slab pottery.

Before potters began using pottery wheels simple tools were used to create clay pottery. Slabbing clay is a technique the includes. Beth peterson is a potter artist and writer with more than 30 years of experience crafting clay and ceramics. To get you started check out this article by daryl baird on using slump molds with soft slabs.

The figure s elaborate garb jewelry and headdress represent the. Effigy urn in the form of the sun god from 12th 14th century mesoamerica is formed from a slab of unglazed clay also called earthenware. How to slab clay. Most ancient cultures gravitated to the pottery wheel for the creation of vessels.

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. Today slab pots and slab building techniques are experiencing a renewed popularity. 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. Basic pottery hand building techniques.

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. If you have caught the slab pottery bug you ve come to the right place for inspiration. In order to work a slab roller you lay your clay on a long strip of cloth. The machine then has a piece of cloth connected to it which you lay on top of the clay.