Slab Rollers

Since I do mostly hand building, I have been looking for a used slab roller for some time. They don't often come up for sale used. Last week I saw an ad for a used slab roller and called right away, but, unfortunately the slab roller was already sold. I was so disappointed. So I did a search on the internet and was excited to discover a post about how to build a slab roller fairly inexpensively on a forum in Wetcanvas. Apparently the original poster found the instructions in a book Getting Into Pots: A Basic Pottery Manual by George and Nancy Weitlaufer, originally published in 1975 by Prentice Hall, this book is now out of print. The instructions were also reprinted in Ceramics Monthly in February 1977.

We had our last ceramics class for the semester yesterday and one of my classmates, Edwin Batsch (second page on the left), who makes kinetic sculptures and clay masks, agreed to build me a slab roller. Ed is very talented when it comes to anything mechical and he thought making a slab roller would be fairly easy. For him, maybe, but not me. Ed and I will get together in a week or so to purchase the supplies and then he'll build the slab roller. I can't wait to have my very own slab roller. I am dreaming of all the things I can make this summer with a slab roller close at hand. Not having to transport slabs in the back of my car and back again will make it possible for me to spend more time working with clay.