fabric soaked in slip

Fabric can be soaked in clay slip, the resultant mess shaped and dried can then be fired. During the firing the fabric burns away to leave a skeleton of very delicate clay.

An earlier attempt which I made using earthenware slip and hessian;

This worked in that it fired and showed me some of the potential of the technique. Earthenware clay is however not very strong and so the clay skeleton is very fragile. I originally made three but the other two - which were wound much more loosely and looked more interesting - dissolved and fell apart when I tried to dip them in glaze.

Now I am trying again using smaller pieces of hessian and some clay I dug from Poole Harbour. This is a ball clay which is extremely fine and extremely strong so I am hoping to be able to contort the hessian into more exciting shapes and for the finished result to look more refined.