Working with Clay 1 Hand Building

Pinching

Pressing clay with two fingers is the easiest and most intuitive way to form it, and pressing clay together makes it stronger – up to a point. Be careful not to pinch too hard or the clay becomes thin and delicate – it will likely break, even after firing. At the same time, don’t press it too thick together or it will dry at an uneven rate (slower in the center) and the outer edges will crack. This is why larger vessels need to be hollow.

 

NOTE: the opposite of pinching – pulling – makes the clay weaker and more prone to tearing. Avoid stretching the clay, where possible.

 

Pro-Tip: If you make a ball and press your thumb into it, it’s easy to pinch it into a bowl or pot. You can also make a teacup or small animal.

 

Coiling

Roll out long snake-like coils of clay, then layer and press them together (possibly over a flat clay base) to make a vessel. The coils can be left visible or smoothed with a wooden tool for a seamless finish.

 

Slab Building & Joining

You can use a rolling pin or a mechanical slab roller to press the clay into sheets of uniform thickness. You can cut them into precise shapes and join them at the seams. You can work with soft slabs over a mold, which is great for making dinner plates with the exact same size and shape. Or you can build stiff, leather-hard slabs for boxes and similar structures. Slabs are great for tile making.

 

Joining

You can join pieces that are leather hard by scoring the joining edges and adding slip to each side. This is how you join walls for boxes, and also how you add handles to vessels. You have to be careful with this, because every joint is a weak spot. It has to be perfect or it will crack – pressed nicely, with the right consistency.

 

Handles

 

Handles should be fairly thin and fluid. You want the clay to feel “pulled”. They should have finesse and delicacy.

 

Molding

You can press clay into a press mold, or drape a slab over a slump mold, letting gravity shape it. These are for mass-producing identical plates, bowls, saucers, platters, etc.

 

Slip-Cast Molding

A plaster mold (possibly with several different parts) is fastened together. Slip is poured in and allowed to sit for half an hour to an hour. Excess slip is then poured out. And the remaining clay inside dries and shrinks. When it’s ready, you open up the mold and carefully remove the greenware to dry and fire.