handbuilding techniques - slab building

There are lots of ways to use slabs to build pots. Here are three ideas for creating a structure with slabs.

It is important to give your slabs a while to stiffen up before your use them. It makes handling the clay much easier. I’m afraid my slabs were a bit soft, but you’ll get the idea. Another key point is to make sure all your seams are really well joined together, scoring edges, using water to ‘stick’ them together and reinforcing with thin coils.

There are three videos in this series, I hope you enjoy them.

building a slab bowl

building a slab box

building a slab strip dish

Originally, these videos were part of a series of shorts for people participating in the Community Pottery Project in Walton-on-Thames in 2021 during lockdown, but I thought they might be useful for any beginner, especially if you are working from home. All you need is clay, your hands and an idea of what you would like to make, but a few simple tools might come in handy.