Making a Large Draped Bowl

So much for my plan to make smaller items to fill the kiln. Yesterday I managed to roll out a huge slab of clay eighteen by eighteen inches. I decided the size was too nice to use for smaller pieces so I decided to make a large drape molded bowl.

I textured the slab with various texture tools in a random manner. Then I wondered if I had anything large enough to accommodate the draping of this overly large slab of clay.

I remembered I had a large stainless steel bowl I use to mix up my slip and decided it was a good size for the slab. Except the bowl had a lip. So I cut some foam into pieces to tape around the edge of the bowl to keep the lip from cutting the draped slab of clay.

The slab was so large that even on my banding wheel the clay would have draped all the way down to the table top. So I put a couple of four by fours on top of the turntable. After the bowl firmed up a turned it over onto a piece of sheetrock to dry on an open rack. Hope this one makes it. It's about 15 inches wide and four inches tall.