Ceramic Slab Technique

Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques.

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. Slab pots tend to be a bit tougher to produce technically speaking than those created using other techniques. Use only dried and firm slabs of clay for this technique. 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. To get you started check out this article by daryl baird on using slump molds with soft slabs. Handbuilding is working with clay by hand using only simple tools not the pottery wheel. 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.

Jomon vessel 3000 2000 b c e on view at tokyo national museum tokyo japan. Once the clay is leather hard cut out your pieces and join them by scoring and slipping. This technique offers less warpage than soft slab construction. Also joints in slab built pieces are more likely to crack or split during.

If you have caught the slab pottery bug you ve come to the right place for inspiration. Liz zlot summerfield is also an excellent resource for slab building techniques. 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. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building.

Today slab pots and slab building techniques are experiencing a renewed popularity. Modern potters and ceramic sculptors have embraced the slab creating works using both soft slabs and stiff leather hard slabs. More on soft slab pottery. Below are the three most common forms of creating hand built pots.