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Based on a video by KaransPotsAndGlass
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Draping a clay slab over a mold is one of the easiest ways to make a dish that looks wheel-thrown, with no wheel at all. Karan Witham of KaransPotsAndGlass, a high school ceramics teacher, shows three versions here: a narrow oval tray, a rounded square dish and a large round platter. Each one gets a foot ring that lifts it off the table.
The method is the same for every shape. Only the mold changes.
A slab of clay about 1/4 inch thick, a rubber rib, a needle tool, a scoring tool, a soft brush, a block of thick foam and a hump mold. Karan uses an oval MDF mold from GR Pottery Forms, a wood mold from Bamboo Tools and a plaster dome she cast herself. An upturned bowl wrapped in a layer of newspaper works as a free mold for your first dish.
A drape (or hump) mold is convex; the clay goes over the outside, and the outside of the mold shapes the inside of your dish. A slump mold is concave; the clay sinks into it. Drape molds make it easy to add a foot ring, because the base faces up while you work.
Bought molds are smooth and reusable, but you can start with things in your kitchen. A stainless mixing bowl, an upturned cake pan or a football-shaped lump of scrap clay wrapped in plastic all work. Cover anything non-porous with newspaper so the clay can release as it shrinks.
Drape the slab while it is soft and plastic. Then let it firm up on the mold to leather hard before you add the foot. Do not leave it there too long. Clay shrinks as it dries, and a slab left on a hump mold until bone dry can crack as it tightens around the form. Lift it off once the foot is on and holding.
Roll the slab to an even 1/4 inch. Thinner slabs warp in the kiln; thicker ones get heavy and can crack while drying. Stoneware and earthenware clays shrink around 10 to 13 percent from wet to fired, so a dish that looks generous on the table comes out noticeably smaller.
Dry the dish slowly under a loose sheet of plastic so the rim and the base dry at the same rate. Flip it rim-down on a board once it is stiff enough. Bisque fire, glaze, then glaze fire to your clay's cone. No kiln? Many community studios fire student work for a small fee.
Press lace, leaves or a texture mat into the slab before you drape it. Karan adds coil handles to the oval tray, textured with a thin towel. She fires those separately and fuses them on in the glaze firing, so each part can be glazed on its own. A small dish makes a ring holder or spoon rest; the big platter is a serving piece.
Foot ring cracking away? Score deeper, add more slip and compress the seam well. Dish warped? It dried unevenly; cover it longer. Rim lumpy? Shave it with a surform at leather hard and run a wet finger around it.
New to hand building? Start with a pinch pot or a coil pot, read our guide to hand building pottery, or try the same draping idea with air dry clay if you do not have a kiln.
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Roll a slab of clay to an even 1/4 inch thick. Karan rolls hers off camera with a slab roller, but a rolling pin and two guide sticks work. Run a firm rubber rib across the top in a few directions. Ribbing smooths the surface and compresses the clay particles, which helps the slab resist warping and cracking later.
Rib both sides if you can. Compression on both faces keeps the slab flat.
Move the slab onto a thick piece of foam rubber, smooth side down. The foam acts as a soft bed. When you press the mold into the clay from above, the foam gives way so the slab wraps evenly around the mold without thinning or tearing. It also keeps the smooth side clean.
An old couch cushion or a stack of folded towels works if you have no foam.
Set the oval mold upside down on the slab and press it down into the foam. Then slide a hand under the foam and flip the whole thing over, so the mold is on the bottom and the slab drapes over the top. Pressing and flipping gives you a clean, even impression of the mold's shape.
Work quickly while the slab is soft. Stiff clay creases when it bends.
Prop a narrow mold on something tall, like two jars, so the extra clay hangs free. Run a needle tool around the bottom edge of the mold to cut the excess away. Use the side of the needle, not the point, so you do not scratch the mold. For a flat rim instead, set the mold on a board and trim against the board.
Keep the trimmings in a bag. They make the foot ring and handles.
For a square dish, fold a piece of construction paper in quarters and cut a rounded corner. Unfold it and you have a symmetrical rounded square. Lay the template on a fresh slab and cut around it with the needle tool. Templates make it easy to repeat the same dish, or make a matching set.
Save the template. A set of four matching dishes makes a good gift.
Lift the cut slab and center it on top of the plaster dome. Let it settle over the curve, then rib it down gently so it hugs the mold all over. The edges can stay a little wavy; you will tweak them later. Set all your dishes aside until the clay firms up to leather hard, usually a few hours.
Plaster pulls water out of the clay, so check it sooner than you would on wood.
Karan made a foot maker from a block of wood with two nails in it, one straight and one angled. Drag it along a slab to cut a strip that is thicker on one side. The thick side goes against the dish and the narrow side is what the dish sits on. Cut enough strips to go around every dish.
GR Pottery Forms sells a ready-made foot maker if you do not want to build one.
Mark where the foot will go on the leather hard base. Score that track and the thick side of each strip, add slip, then press the strips on. Bevel the ends so they overlap where they meet. Compress every seam with wet fingers and smooth it with a damp brush so the foot ring and the dish become one piece.
Echo the dish shape. A square dish gets a squarish foot, an oval gets an oval.
Once the dish is fully leather hard, lift it off the mold and turn it right side up. Shave any uneven spots on the rim with a surform and begin to round the edge. Then drag a notched rib along the rim. The rounded notch cuts a clean, even profile all the way around.
Cut a notch in an old gift card to make your own notched rib.
Dip your fingers in water and run them around the rim, pinching lightly as you go. This compresses the clay and leaves a smooth, finished edge. Karan calls this step the key to a clean looking dish. Do the same on every piece, then let them dry slowly before bisque firing.
Use only a little water. Too much softens the rim and it can slump.
Keep going
How to Make Polymer Clay Earrings
How to Make a Slab Pottery Dish
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OLFA
OLFA 18" x 24" Self-Healing Cutting Mat
The pro-standard cutting surface. Gridlines for square cuts, self-healing so blades never leave grooves, and big enough for paper, fabric, and leather.
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