Rock Slab Pottery (ceramic)

nite_owl_studios

Yamadori
Messages
72
Reaction score
79
Location
Western Kentucky
USDA Zone
7
image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg
I built this "Rock Slab" style pot for my mentor earlier this year and finally got around to firing it recently. It's the largest pot I've built to date. Can't wait to see it potted up next year.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    380.7 KB · Views: 7

Vance Wood

Lord Mugo
Messages
14,002
Reaction score
16,913
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
5-6
Very nice looks like Lava.
 

JoeR

Masterpiece
Messages
3,949
Reaction score
3,452
Location
Sandhills of North Carolina
USDA Zone
8a
Finally, a well designed slab with ample room! Awesome pot/slab.

Since you said it was your biggest pot ever made I am curious what the dimensions are.

I also would like to know how you made it. It looks as if you made a normal rectangular pot and then layered irregular slabs of clay on it and then shaped it to look like stone. Did you press real stone onto it for texture?
 

nite_owl_studios

Yamadori
Messages
72
Reaction score
79
Location
Western Kentucky
USDA Zone
7
Thanks you Mike, Vance and Zach! I appreciate your kind words. Not a bad first shot at this type of design. Definitely see things I will do differently on future slab designs. Looking forward to building more.
 

nite_owl_studios

Yamadori
Messages
72
Reaction score
79
Location
Western Kentucky
USDA Zone
7
Hi Joe. Thank you for your kind words as well. I definitely see a multitude of things that I will do differently in my future builds of rock/slab pottery.

This pot is large (for me) around 26x21" on the inside measurements. I've never measured the total length and width of the pots exterior, but you're looking at another 11-12" in width. The build of this pot involved 75 pounds of wet clay.

You're dead on...I started with a simple, rectangle pot. My original idea was to do like you said and build directly off the walls of the pot with slabs...this method didn't work out so well and was going to add even more weight to the finished pot. My solution to this was to basically build a double walled pot to cut down on weight, material and chances of cracking during drying and firing. I used a variety of tools to create the shaped of the rock form. Anything from pieces of wood, concrete and brushed were used to created the textures.
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
Messages
32,912
Reaction score
45,593
Location
Berwyn, Il
USDA Zone
6.2
That is......Damn! Mad skills!

Too nice!

Great texture!

You're definitely on to something!

Awesome!

Sorce
 

JoeR

Masterpiece
Messages
3,949
Reaction score
3,452
Location
Sandhills of North Carolina
USDA Zone
8a
Hi Joe. Thank you for your kind words as well. I definitely see a multitude of things that I will do differently in my future builds of rock/slab pottery.

This pot is large (for me) around 26x21" on the inside measurements. I've never measured the total length and width of the pots exterior, but you're looking at another 11-12" in width. The build of this pot involved 75 pounds of wet clay.

You're dead on...I started with a simple, rectangle pot. My original idea was to do like you said and build directly off the walls of the pot with slabs...this method didn't work out so well and was going to add even more weight to the finished pot. My solution to this was to basically build a double walled pot to cut down on weight, material and chances of cracking during drying and firing. I used a variety of tools to create the shaped of the rock form. Anything from pieces of wood, concrete and brushed were used to created the textures.
75 pounds of wet clay is impressive, thats a ton of clay! Very awesome
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
Messages
32,912
Reaction score
45,593
Location
Berwyn, Il
USDA Zone
6.2
Deserves topness.

Sorce
 

Smoke

Ignore-Amus
Messages
11,668
Reaction score
20,726
Location
Fresno, CA
USDA Zone
9
I used to make my own rock molds for model trains in the early eighties. I made them with a product called mold-it. It was a liquid latex stuff. I painted the appropriate rock with a coat, and let dry, like ten minutes. Then applied gauze into another wet coat for reinforcement. Then painted on about 6 more coats. This gave me a mold I could peel off the rock and fill with plaster and stick onto my scenery. They were about 1/8 inch thick rubber molds. You could press clay into them and affix them to the pot and just peel the mold off. The molds are so easy to make you could make dozens and never see the same rock pattern twice. A box of sand works well for pressing the clay.

Cool beans.
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
Messages
32,912
Reaction score
45,593
Location
Berwyn, Il
USDA Zone
6.2
I used to make my own rock molds for model trains in the early eighties. I made them with a product called mold-it. It was a liquid latex stuff. I painted the appropriate rock with a coat, and let dry, like ten minutes. Then applied gauze into another wet coat for reinforcement. Then painted on about 6 more coats. This gave me a mold I could peel off the rock and fill with plaster and stick onto my scenery. They were about 1/8 inch thick rubber molds. You could press clay into them and affix them to the pot and just peel the mold off. The molds are so easy to make you could make dozens and never see the same rock pattern twice. A box of sand works well for pressing the clay.

Cool beans.

That's awesome. I read about it, but never got around to using it.

You ever sell trees to Garden Railroaders our there in the sunny?

I figure there would be a high paying niche market for it!

Sorce
 

Frozentreehugger

Masterpiece
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
2,425
Location
Ottawa Ontario Canada
USDA Zone
4
That pot is bad ass . I am no potter . Keep thinking about it but it looks like a worse addiction than bonsai . 😂😂😂 keep thinking about building slab pot . There is plenty of people that use cement and cement fondue . But my concern is looking for something for hardy trees in the north . And others that have tried cement have failures in the winter . To water absorbing . Can’t take the freezing . I’m thinking of trying fibreglass it’s light strong water proof . One of the texture finish I’m considering is just sprinkle fine sieved . Rock dust on the sticky glass . Any thoughts from you pro pot people
 
Top Bottom