This document provides instructions for working with clay, including proper handling and storage of clay, cleaning procedures, and various hand-building techniques like slab building, coiling, and pinching. It discusses using slab techniques to create parts of a goblet like the cup or stem, and coiling or pinching to form other parts. The document emphasizes being patient, experimenting to solve problems, and not worrying about surface design until building the basic form is complete.

1. Intro to Clay

2. Please do not throw, misuse or waste clay – it is
very expensive!
DO NOT DUMP SLIP DOWN THE DRAINS!!!!!!!.
Scrape excess slip into the slip bucket
Please scrape clay from tools, wooden trays and
tables into garbage can at the end of every class
Keep your clay wrapped in plastic every time you’re
not using it. Don’t leave it unwrapped for more
than 15 minutes or it will crack and split
ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD OR DRINK IN CLASSROOM.
This is more for your health than anything else

3. Tools you may need to work with clay:
• A fettling knife
• A fork
• A water container with a little water in it
• A rolling pin (not a mallet)
• A board to work on
• A needle tool or white plastic tool with a sharp
end
• Ribbon tools

4. Safety and Clean up
• Do not get clay on the floor to prevent excess
dust
• Do not take clay out of room
• Do wash the table with a sponge and water 3
times drying with towel in between
• Wipe tools down after using

5. Wheel‐Throwing (In a few weeks)
Handbuilding
Slab Technique
Coiling
Pinching

6. Surface Design
Piercing
Incising
Applique
Impressing

7. Preparing the clay for use
by kneading. This removes
air bubbles, and aligns the
clay particles, which
increases plasticity.
Plasticity is the property of
clay that allows it to be
worked and reshaped. Old
clay that is unfired can be
re‐wedged and re‐used over
and over.

8. Hand building technique:
Joining flat sheets of clay together to create a
something out of clay

9. Slabs can be wrapped and draped to
create round and curved objects as
well as straight sides

10. Slabs can be
used overtop
molds to create
the shape of the
mold

11. What part(s) of a goblet might we use
the slab technique to create (cup, stem
or base?)
How would we do this?

12. Cut a rectangle out of a piece of scrap paper using a
ruler. Make the horizontal measurement of it the size
of your goblet stem’s height.
Roll out a slab by semi‐flattening a piece of clay onto
the board. Set up the slab sticks on either side and
use your rolling pin to roll out a slab. The sticks allow
for a consistent thickness throughout.
Flip your slab every few rolls of the pin to keep it from
sticking to the board

13. Make sure your slab will fit the size of
your rectangle template.
Put the template on the slab and use the
fettling knife to cut the rectangle.
Save any good size slabs you have left for
practice later. Re‐wedge small scraps and
place at the edge of your board for
reinforcing seams later on.

14. Bevel the edge of your rectangle
by holding the fettling knife at a
45 degree angle and sliding it
down the edge of your slab
Beveled edges, when aligned,
create a tighter seam than two
90 degree angles pressed
together

15. Beveled edges, when aligned, create a stronger
seam than two 90 degree angles pressed
together
Bevel A 90
degrees

16. A very wet form of clay, used as an adhesive
between two pieces of clay to join them to one
another.
Make slip by adding tiny bits of unfired clay into a
little bit of warm water. Stir together until it has
the consistency of thick tomato soup. You may also
use scrap clay in water left overnight to create slip.

17. This is what you do to connect two pieces of clay
together. It is done by scratching the two surfaces
that are to be connected with a fork, applying slip
to both with your fingers or a spoon, and then
pressing the two together to adhere them.

18. Score the two edges of your rectangle you plan to
slip together to create the stem
Score deeply enough to give a real tooth the clay
so that the two edges can bond together
Add a good amount of slip and carefully align the
two edges to form a cylinder for your stem
Once created, set aside to let the air cure the clay
and bit to make it less fragile to work with

19. Handbuilding Technique
Typically used to make bowls,
cups and other vessels
At first try, coil built vessels are
crude but after some practice
they can be very well crafted
and sophisticated
Among the oldest techniques
for building with clay

20. Use very thin scrap clay to create coils to
reinforce seams. Roll a thin coil and slip
and score it overtop the seam. Blend and
smooth away the coil with your fingers.
Do this to the cylinder stem you created.

21. Cut several even sized pieces of
clay onto your board .
Use a light, quick, back and forth
motion for rolling with only your
palms, not your fingers. Every so
often dip your fingers in water to
moisten the snake. Otherwise the
snake will crack and break.
Start at the center of your clay and
work outwards

22. Repeat several times to create a stockpile of about 5
snakes each about a ¼” in diameter.
Cut the snakes with a bevel edge (angled edge) to
ensure they will stick together

23. Begin by wrapping a snake
into a spiral. Score and slip
along the top of the spiral
you’ve created and at the
end of snake where it’s cut
at an angle. Continue to
stack, score and slip coils to
create a bowl shape.
Smooth the coils together
with your fingers to begin
to make them disappear.

24. What part of your clay goblet could we
create using the coiling method?

25. Handbuilding technique.
Typically used to make semi‐circles that
can be manipulated into round objects

26. What part of your goblet could we create
through pinching?

27. Begin to build and assemble the different pieces of
your goblet. If you don’t like what you have, re‐
wedge and re‐work it
Everyone will encounter different challenges so
please be patient and try/experiment to solve your
problem if I can’t be with you
Don’t worry about surface design of your piece yet.
We’ll look at that in a few.

28. Use these techniques once you’ve built the basic
solid form of your goblet
These are the ‘jewelry’ of clay handbuilding. It’s
the place you can really let your creativity go and
perfect your clay piece
These surface design techniques take a good deal
of patience and practice to master

29. Many different
tools to incise or
carve into clay
A ribbon tool is
used to gouge out
areas of clay.
Different size
ribbon tools create
different size
carvings

30. Practice dragging the ribbon tool
through a scrap slab. Vary the
pressure you apply to see how it
will affect how much clay you
gouge out

31. Use a needle tool or other sharp implement to
carve designs out of your clay piece

32. This takes patience to do cleanly.
Oftentimes you’ll have many clay ‘boogers’
that will remain on your clay piece. Slightly
wetting the area you’re carving with a
damp sponge will help remove these
boogers
Practice this on a scrap slab using different
tools.

33. Poking holes in clay piece whether as part
of a design or as part of the function of the
piece.

34. When creating hollow forms it’s highly
recommend to pierce holes in the clay to allow
air to flow through when being fired in the kiln.
Oftentimes piercing is more successfully
accomplished when the clay is a slightly harder
otherwise the pressure of piercing can skew your
form
Practice piercing a scrap slab as a part of a design
AND as a functional air hole

35. Slipping and scoring additional
shapes and forms onto a clay
vessel
Draw and cut templates from
scrap paper prior to cutting your
shapes from clay
Use the same techniques we
used for cutting the rectangular
slab pattern. Bevel if you wish
but it’s not necessary here as we
aren’t seaming anything
together

36. Draw and cut a few random shapes from scrap
paper
Put the template onto a scrap slab and cut
around with a fettling knife
Slip and score the back of your applique piece
and the spot you want to apply it to on your
scrap slab. Reinforce the edge with a thin coil
you smooth from sight.

37. Press different
textures or objects
into clay to make
marks
There are an infinite
amount of things out
there to impress into
clay so be creative

38. You can even create your own. One idea: using
hot glue on a solid surface to create a design.
Impress the dried glue into clay and see what
happens.
What can you think of to impress into clay?

39. Tin Foil Foods
Leaves Comb/Hairbrush
Sticks Keys
Buttons Rubber Stamps
Wire Yarn and Fibers
Fabric
Lace