HOW TO MAKE A SLAB LANTERN #diy #decor #potter #ceramic

Hey gang, today we're going to take a look at how to make a clay lantern using the soft slab technique. For this project, I'm going to enlist the help of students from Billings West High to illustrate the process. Let's get started. What you're going to need for this task is about 3-4 pounds of clay, tar paper, some type of cylindrical structure or an armature, paper, a scalpel or exacto blade, a flexible rib, a needle tool, sticks that are about a quarter of an inch thick, a rolling pin, a plastic bag, and lastly a rubber band. So here you're going to see me preparing my clay to roll out a slab. It won't be easy to roll out a block or ball of clay, so I'm going to toss it down at the table at an angle to make sure it is easier to roll out. As I continue tossing my clay at a downward angle, it will get longer and thinner. Once my slab has thinned out some, I'm going to place it on tar paper and place my two sticks on either side of my slab. The sticks will assure that my slab doesn't get too thin and maintains a thickness of about a quarter of an inch. The tar paper will assure that my slab does not stick to the table. Once everything is in place, I will start rolling out my slab flatter and more even with a rolling pin. Make sure the rolling pin is clean, dry, and free of any dried clay as this will cause craters and pock marks on your slab. It helps to stand while doing this so that you can utilize your upper body strength when rolling. I'll typically stop rolling once I see my slab no longer moving. So now that my slab is flattened out, I'm going to use a piece of printer paper to trace my dimensions. The slab will be 11 inches long, which is precisely the length I will need for this particular armature, and it will be 8.5 inches tall. If we want our slab to be taller or shorter, we can modify the height at this point, but for the sake of ease, I'm going to stick with the parameters of my printer paper. Use a ruler or your flat sticks to guide your cuts while cutting away excess clay from your slab. A fettling knife or a needle tool is ideal for these steps. Do not use a sharp blade, as that will cut your tar paper. Also what you'll notice is that I'm saving my end pieces. I'll use those later to create the base of my lantern. And now that your slab is cut, check to make sure that it's even in thickness from end to end. Next you'll turn your tar paper upside down and let gravity do the work while peeling off your slab. This will assure minimal tearing while separating the tar paper from your clay. When preparing the armature, I use a plastic bag to wrap around the pipe. The plastic bag will have an opening and a bottom where all the seams are attached. The bottom of the bag is bulky and should not be used for the bottom of your lantern. Instead, find the midsection of the bag and use that to wrap around the base. Flatten your plastic as best as you can with minimal air pockets or bunches, and then secure the plastic with a rubber band. This next step is crucial when wrapping your slab around your pipe. It is important that the edges of your slab line up evenly with the base of your pipe at all times. Also make sure that you are supporting the slab tight enough to ensure that your clay makes it all the way around from end to end. If you've done this correctly, you might have a slight overlap at the end that you could either cut away or just blend together. However, and this is important, make sure the bag is not stuck in between the two end joints or your slab will be ruined when you pull the plastic out on day two. Once the slab is secured to the armature, clean up the outside joints with a metal or plastic rib. At this point, I'm going to check out my whole slab to make sure it is clean and free of any pockmarks or craters. If I do have some, I can likely get rid of those by smoothing out my surface with a rib tool. If you happen to have rips or tears in your slab, like I do in this instance, I've had great success by just simply patching them up with soft clay and blending it back in with the metal rib. To make the base of the lantern, I'm going to use some of the leftover slab I saved from earlier. Set your slab on top of your base and trace the base. It's important not to cut into your slab at this point, as you might accidentally cut into the lantern or create an awkward bevel to the base. After the base has been traced, try your best to hold your needle tool perpendicular to the table while cutting. Before attaching your base to the rest of the lantern, make sure the slab is tight around the pipe. If it wiggles or the bottom of the lantern moves up or down, that could cause stress and tension on the base that you're about to attach and create problems later on. Instead of slipping and scoring, I've had enough luck with simply just scratching and attaching the base to my lantern. Once attached, blend the two pieces together for a seamless transition. At this point, I might take the rib tool to the side once more, but I also know that I can clean this up a little bit better on day two, so I'll wait then. After I've blended my base, I'm done for the day. I'm going to pull the extra plastic out of my pipe and use that to wrap around my lantern to retain moisture and provide for an even drying. You can choose to store this sideways in your cubby. Just make sure to create a cushion of paper towels to support your lantern so that one side doesn't flatten too much. Or you could slow dry it by storing it right side up in the cabinets if it's a Friday or you know you'll be gone for a couple of days. On day two, peel the plastic back and make sure that your slab is now leather hard. At this point, you can fix and bevel your base by trimming it on the banding wheel. This part is a little tricky to do. Take off the rubber band and put your hand in the armature. Twist the hand in one direction, while with your other hand, turning the lantern the opposite direction and pull outwards to release the clay from your armature. If the clay was hard enough, you won't have warped the lantern at all. Now carefully pull the plastic bag out. What you'll notice on the inside is what appears to be a massive crack. All that is, is where the two ends of your slab met. They need to be blended together to make sure the lantern doesn't crack as it's drying. If the gap is large, you may need to add a small coil to the joint and blend it together. If you can't get your hand all the way down to blend, use a tool to help blend the base. What you'll also notice is that your rim may have been very unlevel. And that's totally fine. Simply trim it level on a banding or a potter's wheel and make sure to smooth out the rim so that it isn't so sharp. If at any point you have to clean up, or pause at this point, make sure to spray and bag your lantern. It's crucial to keep it constantly leather hard from here on out. Let's take a few moments to discuss what you're going to draw and cut away from your lantern. Carving into the lantern is much like carving a pumpkin, though a heck of a lot easier and with a lot more precision. Either way, we need to think in terms of positive and negative space. You could draw your design on freehand, or you could print imagery out and paste it onto your lantern. Either way, I wouldn't just improvise your design. Put some thought into it first. If you wing it, and make one wrong move, you could end up starting completely from scratch. If you're printing your design from a web search, while looking for ideas, I usually type in the word vector or silhouette after my search to get black and white imagery. This helps me see the design in positive and negative space. Here we're looking at a vector from the movie Tangled, or the sun from the movie Tangled. So this image right here is a good image. I like to think about this when I think about the positive and negative space. I think of the black area as what's being cut away, and the white area as the clay itself. As you can see, it's really, really thin in these areas right here, so it's conceivable that this could break easily and fall through. This image right here would be a lot more successful. The lines are a lot more separated apart, and it would likely hold together much better. Once your design is printed, spray your lantern and your paper so that they stick together well. Once your paper is stuck, begin poking holes intermittently throughout the contours of your design. Remember, you'll be connecting these dots, so try to capture as much information as you can. Once you've finished poking holes, remove the paper and connect your dots. If your paper sticks to the lantern, just try your best to remove what you can. But remember that it will all likely burn out in the kiln anyway, so it's no big deal if some stays behind. When it comes to piercing the lantern, I would suggest tracing the line a few times with your scalpel first, as opposed to making the cut in one fell swoop. Of course, there's really no right or wrong way to do this step. Just make sure that your cuts are neat and clean. Once you've cut away everything you need to cut, take some time to smooth out the edges. You can do this with a wet brush or a sponge. This just helps the edges look smooth and refined. And that's it folks! That's how we make our slab lanterns in Ceramics 1. Thanks for watching!