Soft Slab Construction

Artist Statement

For this project, I made two sets of two mugs using the soft slab construction and pulled handle methods. This assignment was about creating unity amongst my pieces, either through glaze or form, and to create uniformity and consistency in the shapes of my mug sets. This project really was less for me about the creative aspects of doing something new and exciting artistically with my designs or shapes, but rather about working on the technical aspects of working with clay and how to make consistent, usable, and still aesthetically pleasing objects.

After vaguely figuring out the two designs of my mugs, I started off by wedging some clay and using the slab roller rolling out even pieces for the base and walls of my mugs. After cutting out even rectangles and circles, I used a plastic tube around which to form the sides of my mug, as this allowed me to get consistent widths. I then scratch and water-attached the base and the sides for each mug in a similar fashion. From there, the two mug types diverged in terms of creation process, as I allowed the base forms to set up to different hardnesses based on how much I needed to carve away, both fort he design as well as to smooth out and trim down the shape. Once I was satisfied with the forms of my mugs, and had brushed away bits of clay from carving, I bisque fired the mugs and consequently glazed and glaze-fired them. In terms of glaze choice, I chose the red simply because I wanted to try it out, and for the other set of mugs I chose a clear, semi-matte glaze to highlight the form and not distract from the carved details.

My first two mugs, the red ones, evolved quite a bit in their form from start to finish, as I trimmed and shaved them down significantly after the initial construction. I also practiced quite a bit with pulling handles, as it took some time to first make them and make them well and consistently the same shape and width, as well as experimenting with various forms to determine what would look best with my respective mugs. In terms of artistic choices, I added the vertical ridges to the red mugs for interest but also because they increase the grip of the form, and for the white mugs, I wanted to create a more classical, simple cappuccino style mug, so I kept the glaze quite simple and focused on creating a well made form.