Painting And Drawing On Hand Built Slab Pottery

Note: This piece is actually bright red, not terra cotta as it is showing up on my blog for some unknown reason!

My twelve year old son and I are spending one evening a week together at a local pottery studio, and having a wonderful time! There is no wheel, so we are forced to hone our slab building skills, which is actually a really great way to make a very wide variety of items, even for the novice potter (like me). If you are not familiar with slab building, it simply means constructing items from pieces one cuts from a slab, a piece of clay rolled out to the desired size and thickness. Of course there are some basic rules that one needs to know, and clay is clay and not say, leather or wood, so things don't always go as planned, but that is part of the learning process.

In addition to learning to work with slab building, the aspect of glazing the pieces after the initial firing is another art unto itself, and there are really many ways to go about glazing pottery. Of course I titled this post "painting and drawing on hand bulit slab pottery" so that is what I'm going to talk about, makes sense right?

If you take a good look at this little ceramic salt dish, (which in our home also currently is serving as a spare change bowl) you'll see that the black lines look hand drawn, as opposed to painted, And guess what? That is because they are. This may be a creative light bulb moment for you, and if so, don't walk, run with it. There are special pencils that allow one to draw to your heart's content on ceramic pieces, and then add colored glazes if desired! So this little piece, whose design I wish were just a bit smaller (maybe next time I make a small vessel I try this design again, only aiming for a more sophisticated result) was quite simply decorated by drawing the geometric design with the aforementioned pencil, and then painting the shapes with glaze. Got it?

And just for your information, there is also a glaze that one applies from a squeeze bottle just like Tulip fabric or puff paint, and that is what I've been using for a whole set of hanging planters that I'm hoping to share with you soon. If you love crafting, and you've never delved into ceramics, do treat yourself, it may just open up a whole new world you've never dreamed of!