Marbling Slip Ceramics

The marbling technique on this heart plate is fun and easy.

Marbling slip ceramics.

Wet slip inlay is a great technique for getting fantastic organic patterning on pots. This can be done by throwing on a pottery wheel or hand building a slab pot. Once you have covered the area you want marbling with foam and underglaze carry it to the sink. The effects achieved will greatly depend on the method of modifying the slip and also on how fluid the slip itself is.

If you feel a bit down about your first time doing this don t fret for it takes a bit of time and some effort to really understand how to marble. The same technique can be used by modern day potters using underglaze. You can apply the marbling technique to many pieces of pottery. Or you can make a marbled decorative effect on the surface of the pottery using underglaze or slip.

Here s how to do it. The pink and red colors of this marbled heart plate were inspired by what else love. Marbling slip after trailing slip over damp or leather hard clay slip trails can be modified by turning or shaking the piece of pottery or combing through. The history of marbling in europe dated back to around the 17th century and was particularly popular in staffordshire in england.

This versatile liquid form of clay can be used in a multitude of different ways to create and embellish ceramic art. This is even more important with slip pottery than clay marbling. Basically it consists of layering contrasting colors of slip on a slab and jiggling the slab to distort the slip layers into interesting marbled designs. You can marble pottery by either coloring the clay and making the marbled pattern with your clay.

If you re using slips it s almost like art in a sense. One such method involves using colored slips to create a marbleized look on pottery which is reminiscent of staffordshire style english marbled slipware. How to paint pottery ceramics. Liquified clay slip was colored and painted on the pottery before burnishing to create decorative patterns.