How to Make a Clay House
Let’s make a little ceramic house :)
We’re going to make a house using clay slabs!
Here we’ll use a slab roller to make the sheets, but you can also use a kitchen rolling pin.
Slab roller:
Wooden rolling pin for baking:
With either method, you’ll create clay slabs of whatever thickness you like.
Next, we’ll make a template for the shape of the clay house. You can draw it on paper or cardboard to see how it looks first. You can also download free templates online — for almost anything, including little houses and other objects.
Once you have your templates, cut the slabs using a ruler. If you don’t have a ceramic cutter, you can use any craft knife or kitchen knife:
Then score the edges where you’ll later apply the slip with a brush. (Slip is basically liquid clay — it acts as a glue. You can check our post about slip to see how easy it is to make from bits of clay and water).
Here’s a still from the video in our slip post, showing how it’s applied to the edge of a piece:
Then arrange the slabs according to your design:
Cut off any excess clay with the cutter:
Smooth over any gaps or cracks with your finger until the surface looks perfect:
Bisque-fire your piece in the kiln, and afterwards, you can test different glazes to see how the colors turn out on your little house.
You can also experiment with hanging houses, or place a light bulb inside so the light shines through windows or cutouts — it could make a lovely bedside lamp, for example. Another idea is to create small house-shaped boxes to store tiny objects.
Here are some house shapes we’ve improvised, in case they inspire you:
Thanks for reading :)
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Pottery tools and equipment used:
A slab roller (or kitchen rolling pin), cutter or knife, ruler, brush, and kiln.
If the houses don’t sit flat after firing, you can sand the bases by rubbing them gently against a board (for small irregularities) — or, for a more professional finish, use diamond sanding discs on the wheel.
If you decide to glaze the houses, you’ll also need the usual glazing tools (and even a spray booth, if you have one!).