Slip Trailing

Slip Trailed Advent Wreath

Slip Trailing. It's my favorite thing.

I thought I could never find anything I liked as much as throwing so I can't explain how exciting, life changing and refreshing it is to find another clay outlet that captures my heart like squeezing liquidy clay out of a bottle does.

I like to save slip trailing for Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings as it's almost celebratory and because I feel guilty for using my "high productivity" time for such an enjoyable step. Which is ridiculous.

Slip trailed Salt and Pepper Shakers

There is not much info out there on slip trailing. I've found some, but most of what I learned I learned on my own. So, here is a compilation of my findings from my trailing experience.

What you need

-Smooth, liquified slip. To make it, I toss slip (bucket slurry is perfect), a splash of vinegar, and H20 in a blender and blend like a smoothy (cross over skill from my Starbucks barista days). I was surprised at how much I needed to water it down. If you have to sweat to get it to come out of the slip trailer, its too thick. My blender can only make a little at a time so I do several batches and store the slip in a tupperware. You can also make slip using a sieve.
-A slip trailer. I use a Xiem precision slip trailer (pictured right) with interchangeable tips of different gauges. It allows you to switch back and forth from clay to glaze and adjust your line thickness.
- A leather hard pot

How to Slip Trail

-Squeeze and draw. I do really simple, free flowing designs. They are almost like doodles. You can also write, draw animals, numbers, anything really. It's fun to experiment.
-Don't like your line? Just wipe it off with a sponge. Paint brushes work great for touch ups.
-Let dry and sand down any sharp points very very gently once bone dry

Tips on the Technique

- A shaky slow dragging hand makes shaky slow draggy lines. Smooth lines laid on gently and confidently look best.
-My slip trailer does not touch the pot. There is a little space where the line "falls" onto the pot and has some air time. This ensures my slip trailer isn't botching up my line or the clay surface.
-Blow outs happen. Especially when the bottle is getting low on slip. Wipe away blow outs and keep going. Tapping it point down to allow bubbles to float to the top helps.
-Holding the slip trailer in one place and squeezing makes a nice dot. The longer you hold, the larger the dot becomes. Keep squeezing and move along and it will start with a fat dot, transition into a line, and end in a dot if you hold at the end.
- Your lines will look puffy when first laid on the piece. They will shrink down a lot so you want the puffy look, otherwise, they can look shriveled. The vinegar helps reduce shrinkage and prevents cracking so if you have a lot of that going on, add a little more vinegar to your slip.
- Gravity is annoying. I hold the piece in my lap and turn it so that gravity always works in my favor when slip trailing since my lines are literally falling into place on the piece. You have to work with the piece and see what works for you. I don't slip trail vertically. Some people do. But my pieces are always in some sort of tilted or horizontal position.
-Bands can be added on a piece while the piece is on the wheel and spinning. This works well on bowl rims and plates for me. Also, for glaze trailing, squeezing a little inside the rim while spinning makes a glorious dripping effect.
-If you tap a freshly slip trailed piece, the slip will flatten. Can be cool. Can be blah.

Glaze trailing. Glaze added while the piece was spinning slowly on the wheel.

More glaze trailing

Finding the glazes that break just right over the slip trailing is the magic ingredient.

I love that the lines add another 3 dimensional effect to already 3-D art. It's a tactile element to the piece as well as decorative. I had a visually impaired customer and he selected a slip trailed cup to purchase from me because he enjoyed being able to "see" the design on the cup. I love that people can see the same piece, but see it so differently. That's the mystery and beauty of art. It's in the eye of the interpreter.

-Lisa

PS- I'll do a video the next time I slip trail if I can talk Daisy into holding the camera or find my gorilla tripod. But, in the meantime, here are some of my favorite slip trailing videos:

Proof Vertical Slip Trailing is Possible
Making a Band and More
A "Loose" Slip Varation
Glaze Trailing by my Haystack Teacher, Sarah Jager