How To Decorate Pottery With Slip

If they learn nothing else from working with dirt, nosotros hope our students call back the phrase "slip and score." This method is key to keeping pieces securely fastened. It's why so many fine art teachers proceed slip on hand in the classroom. But, did you know slip tin have diverse exiting applications beyond joining dirt pieces together? Information technology's true!

Check out These v Creative Ways Y'all Can Use Slip in Your Fine art Room

1. Colored Slip

colored slip

Students love adding color to their clay pieces, peculiarly with glaze. There's only something magical about that dull, chalky color turning into colored glass. Unfortunately, glaze tin be expensive and eat up an art budget.

If you're looking for ways to add color to your clay without coat, coloring slip with Mason Stains is a beautiful culling. You can acquire more virtually using Stonemason Stains here. The dandy matter about colored slip is that since it becomes part of the dirt body, it can exist used in the plastic and leather-hard stages with success. All of the following techniques can be used with both colored or non-colored slips.

And, if yous're looking for even more creative clay processes to use in your classes, take a wait at the Studio: Ceramics course. You'll experiment with a wide range of basic and advanced techniques all while learning how to make historical and interdisciplinary connections for your students.

two. Slip Marbling

clay slab with colored slip

Traditional marbling with paint or inks ever interests students. Using colored slips or different clay bodies with the same firing temperature, you lot tin besides try this process on dirt!

Yous can create a marbled effect by following these steps.

Roll out a slab of clay.
Encompass the slab with a thin layer of sideslip.
Using pipettes or eye droppers, drib small amounts of slip of another color on superlative.
Use the back of a paintbrush to marble the colors together.
Cover the marbled slab until the colors have set and the top layer of slip is dry.
When the slab is in a workable plastic state, build with the clay.

marbling with colored clay

three. Paper Stencils

paper stencil with colored clay

1 of the simplest means to add detail to clay pieces is with stenciling.

You can just follow these 4 steps.

Cut the desired shape from a slice of newspaper.
Identify the stencil on top of the clay trunk.
Paint sideslip over the stencil.
Do not remove the stencil until the slip has dried and will no longer spread.

This technique is wonderful for students who are looking to create more circuitous designs. They can utilize the stencil technique without worrying about etching directly into the dirt and making a mistake.

4. Sideslip Trailing

slip trailing

Slip trailing is perfect for your ceramic students who honey to draw. With this technique, students can create intricate designs and details using a precision bottle. The best function of this procedure is that if students brand an error, they can wipe away the wet clay and start again.

Brand certain to encourage your students to practice on a examination piece of clay get-go to master the technique. Information technology is besides essential that this procedure is washed on a piece of clay in either a plastic or leather-difficult state.

5. Sgraffito

sgrafitto with colored slip

Sgraffito is a elementary decorating technique where slip is layered over a contrasting colored dirt body. One time the sideslip layer is dry, students tin scratch into the surface to depict in a design. Utilizing tracing paper or stencils can assistance students attain fifty-fifty more detailed results with this procedure.

Using any of these five slip techniques can aid teach your students avant-garde ceramic techniques while exploring their inventiveness. If you've been looking for ways to add details and designs during the dirt building process try out one of these techniques for fun results.

What is your favorite way to apply slip?

What techniques and process exercise yous apply to add designs and details to clay?

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