Soft Slab Summative

In Process Photos

Artist statement:

For this project, I had to create a set of mugs using the soft slab technique. The formative introduction to this project allowed me to become comfortable with the soft slab technique. The first thing I did to create a mug was roll out a slab in the slab roller. After, I measured out the slab and rolled it around a tennis ball container wrapped in newspaper. For my mug set, I decided that I wanted to have no overlap in the slab connection. To prevent this overlap, I cut each side of the slab at an angle so there would be a smooth connection and no mark of where the mug was put together. Once I had the cylinder, I attached a bottom to it using the leftover slab I had. The hardest part for me was making and attaching the handle. We were only required to have at least two handles but I wanted all of my mugs to have the same basic form so I made all four of them have handles. To make the handles, I traced out a rectangle in my slab using a ruler. Once it was the length that I was hoping for, I used slip to smooth out the edges and create an indent in the center. Once this was done, I formed my handle into a shape that fit my mug, let it sit in that shape for about five minutes, and finally, attached it to my mug. For the finishing touches, I smoothed everything out around the handle attachments, made sure the rim was smooth, and removed the tennis ball container. I repeated this process four times until my set was complete. I was able to time out my project well so that I complete one mug in one class. The tools that I used the most to create my set were the needle tool and the wooden smoothing tool. The wooden smoothing tool helped me a lot when I attached the handles to the mugs because it allowed me to reach parts that I wasn't able to reach with just my fingers. Once my mugs were out of the kiln, I glazed them all of the same colors so that they would all match and look like a set.

Each of the mugs I created is different in size but the glazing pulls it all together into forming the set. Also, Each mug is the same shape. The mugs I created turned into great Christmas gifts that have been put to use. I think my entire project evolved the most when everything was finished and all the mugs were together. This project made me realize the importance of making sure your clay does not dry out because since I was using a slab, the clay seemed to dry faster. This project took a lot of time but I am happy with how it turned out.