Ceramic Slab Technique

Handbuilding is an ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel using the hands fingers and simple tools.

Ceramic slab technique.

Once the clay is leather hard cut out your pieces and join them by scoring and slipping. Liz zlot summerfield is also an excellent resource for slab building techniques. Today slab pots and slab building techniques are experiencing a renewed popularity. Slabbing clay is a handbuilding pottery technique that has been around for centuries.

If you have caught the slab pottery bug you ve come to the right place for inspiration. Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques. Jomon vessel 3000 2000 b c e on view at tokyo national museum tokyo japan. This technique offers less warpage than soft slab construction.

Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots. Handbuilding is working with clay by hand using only simple tools not the pottery wheel. Before potters had the wheel they were creating beautiful pots and clay forms using clay their hands and fingers and basic hand tools. Before potters began using pottery wheels simple tools were used to create clay pottery.

The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building. Use only dried and firm slabs of clay for this technique. Slabbing clay is a technique the includes rolling out slabs of clay and then cutting out pieces and attaching them together to create pots cups and urns. 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. More on soft slab pottery. Slab pots tend to be a bit tougher to produce technically speaking than those created using other techniques. Also joints in slab built pieces are more likely to crack or split during.