Porcelain Grace - Meryl Ruth

Hand building is a term that is applied to construction of ceramic objects from raw clay by the artist's hands alone or with the use of simple tools, all without using the potter's wheel.
Hand-building techniques are extensive and varied. Among many others, they include altering, pinching, coiling and, as shown here, clay slab construction process.
Clay slab construction is an important aspect of hand-building in which clay slabs, predecorated by silk-screening or photo silk-screening, are cut to fit previously-made templates. Each of these formed slabs is then scored and slipped to enable them to be assembled together, or joined, to create the three-dimensional ceramic form that will ultimately become the finished ceramic art object.

A clay slab, previously embellished by means of photo silk-screen technique, is being readied for cutting.
A a previously designed template is placed on the slab where the cutting will be done.

Various templates are juxtaposed alongside their corresponding cut clay slabs.
After they are dried, these predecorated clay slabs will be scored and slipped so as to enable joining them together to form a three-dimensional ceramic work.

All the cut slabs are kept from drying by being covered with impermeable plastic until they are ready to be joined and fired.

The clay slabs are allowed to dry somewhat Into their leather-hard state. The separate elements of the preformed slabs are then scored and slipped to prepare them for joining together to form a three-dimensional structure.
Scoring involves roughening the edges that will be joined. Slipping entails moistening the scored edges with slip, a semiliquid viscid suspension of wet clay which acts as if it were glue. The treated edges are then pressed and held together until they are joined permanently.
Here the cut slab components are assembled to form the base/bed for the teapot under construction, The Tea-Th Fairy.