How to Make a Texture Board for Slab-Built Pottery Creating your own custom texture board for pottery is a great way to put your own stamp on your work! Gale Batsimm

Texture can be totally addictive in pottery, and there are an infinite variety of tools that can be used to create texture - from texture rollers to clay stamps. Of course, the best texture tools are homemade because you can really make your own mark. 

In this post, Gale Batsimm explains how Larry Elardo makes a texture board and uses it to make slab built pottery. I must experiment with this! - Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

PS. Check out this pottery texture tool project in the archive! Also, Daryl Baird has a great slab built pottery project that you could try with your textured slabs!

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How to Create a Custom Texture Board

To create a custom texture board, start with a piece of plywood or tempered hard board; artist’s quality acrylic modeling paste, available at most art/craft stores; putty knife, trowel, and textured ribs, notched trowels or homemade texture tools. You can make your own texture tool by cutting step flashing (a light-weight galvanized metal used on roofs) with tin snips (figures 1). Spread the paste evenly on the wood with a putty knife or trowel. Then draw a design into the paste using one of the texture tools (figures 2). Allow the board 24 hours to dry before using.

 

Since the paste remains workable for only 15–20 minutes, Larry suggests readying all supplies before beginning. He spreads a layer of paste 3⁄16–1⁄4 inch thick, depending on the depth of the notch in the trowel. A design may be layered into the paste on top of a background texture (figure 3). Clean extra putty from the edges to leave neat borders or continue the texture to the edge of the board (figure 4).

Using Your Custom Texture Board

To use the texture board, roll out a slab of clay and smooth it with a rib. Spray WD40 or vegetable oil on the prepared texture board and use a toothbrush to work lubricant into grooves. This allows the clay to release cleanly with the most detail from the surface. Lay the clay slab on the board (figure 5) and, using a rib, smooth the clay down into the texture board.

 

“One of the tricks I’ve learned to get good, clean impressions is to work from the outside edges of the slab to the center, pushing the clay down into the grooves,” Larry says. “You want to get the clay attached so that the slab doesn’t move around. This way you don’t get a duplicated pattern in spots."

Flip the texture board over and allow the weight of the slab to gently release from the board. Sandwich the slab between boards and flip once again, laying it gently, design-side down.

Larry Elardo teaches pottery at Essex Art Center and Two Rivers Ceramics in Massachusetts. To view more of his work, visit www.mstreetpotters.com. Gale Batsimm is a freelance writer and arts enthusiast who lives in Massachusetts.

**First published in 2013