Learning to make a slab box

Another first in ceramics today for me – learning how to slab build.

With slab building you have to roll out the clay to your desired thickness  (using a clay roller, rather the by hand) and leave it to dry to the correct dryness.

If it is too soft the slabs will not be sturdy enough to build with, and it it’s too dry then with just crack and break. – this may take some time to get right!

Our task was to build a box with a fitted lid, a knob on the lid and feet on the base.

I thought I would do a hexagon shaped box,  I had to mitre the sides so they all fit together nicely – this was a good bit of guesswork to be fair, rather than mathematical preciseness.

My feet were a bit rubbish to be fair, a bit clunky – but it had feet so I had ticked that box.

The lid needed to fit without falling in – but because my hexagon wasn't a true shape, my lid would only fit if placed in one direction.   To solve this I added a knob to the front of the box and cut a gap in the lid, which means the lid can only be put on in the way it will fit.   (Hope no one notices !)

As I had cut loads of pieces of clay, I had enough to be adventurous and make a second layer, this one had slightly better feet (in my opinion) but again needed to be placed in the correct position to fit the lower box, so I added a signature button to show which way it should go.

I will be really interested to see how this turns out, I hope it survives the kiln firings.

These boxes are going to go into a Raku firing later on in the module.  Before then it will be fired in a biscuit fire at 800 degrees, then glazed with a Raku Glaze.