How to Make a Craft-Foam-Textured Template Brenton Duhan

Craft foam is a wondrous material for the clay studio. It can be used as a work surface, a template for press molding, for creating a prop for photographing plates, and much more!

Brenton Duhan uses adhesive craft foam for imparting texture into his forms, and by sticking the craft foam onto his slab-building templates, he kills two birds with one stone. In this post, an excerpt from the November/December 2024 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated, Brenton shares how he creates his craft foam textured templates. –Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

PS. To learn how Brenton uses the templates to make a slab-built lamp, see the full article in the November/December 2024 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today!

Making Textured Templates

Start making the lamp template by cutting out simple shapes from a sheet of craft foam. Craft foam, also known as EVA foam, can be found at most craft stores. It is typically sold in letter-sized sheets and is 2 mm thick, which is my preferred thickness. When I’m making a large quantity of templates or especially large templates, I buy rolls of EVA craft foam online.

For a straight-walled cylinder lamp body, begin with a rectangle approximately 12¹/₂ × 7¹/₂ inches (31.8 × 19 cm) and two circles with a diameter of 4 inches (10.2 cm). These dimensions can be adjusted to your preference, including by tapering the walls of the rectangle as depicted. I recommend using an X-Acto blade and a self-healing cutting mat for the highest level of precision.

To add texture, cut desired shapes and patterns out of craft foam with an adhesive backing, which is also available at most craft stores. Carefully peel the backing off of the craft foam and stick the shapes to your base template pieces (1). I prefer continuous patterns, so I ensure that the edges of the template will line up once the rectangle is shaped into a cylinder (2).

Preparing Slabs

Helpful tools include rubber and metal ribs, paint brushes for blending, an X-Acto blade, a pony roller, clay slip, a small, round slump mold, and your new foam template pieces.

Roll out a slab of clay large enough to cut your template pieces from. I like to use a ¹/₄-inch (6.4-mm)-thick slab. Once the slab is thoroughly compressed with a rib, press the rectangular template piece into the clay, textured side down. Using a pony roller, apply even and firm pressure across the back of the craft foam template (3). Cut around your template using a sharp blade, making sure to angle the blade to 45° when cutting the short ends. This creates a bevel, which makes it easier to attach seams. Carefully peel the template away from the clay to reveal the textured slab with a beveled edge (4). Repeat this process for both circle template pieces (5).

Brenton Duhan is a designer and student living in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned his BA from Brown University and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in architecture at Yale University. You can find more of his work at studiobdu.com or @studiobdu on Instagram.