Slip Casting as a Machine for Making Textured Ceramic Interfaces

Ceramics provide a rich domain for exploring craft, fabrication, and diverse material textures that enhance tangible interaction. In this work, we explored slip-casting, a traditional ceramic technique where liquid clay is poured into a porous plaster mold that absorbs water from the slip to form a clay body. We adapted this process into an approach we called Resist Slip-Casting. By selectively masking the mold’s surface with stickers to vary its water absorption rate, our approach enables makers to create ceramic objects with intricate textured surfaces, while also allowing the customization of a single mold for different outcomes. In this paper, we detail the resist slip-casting process and demonstrate its application by crafting a range of tangible interfaces with customizable visual symbols, tactile features, and decorative elements. We further discuss our approach within the broader conversation in HCI on fabrication machines that promote creative collaboration between humans, materials, and tools.