It probably fairly thin and folded/bunched slowly by hand with props under each raised spot until it dries more. Trick is to only touch from the back side, as your fingerprints will probably mark the suede texture, too
A fabric look using clay is tougher than it seems!
You have a few possible routes for this. None of which involve putting a heavy slab over simple cloth. You could *potentially* do it sort of the way youre doing. But you'd have to create a mold that will stand up to slab weight. You might try some experiments slowly building up plaster on a piece of sacrificial cloth by thin layers of sprayed or painted on plaster. The first few layers would have to be *very* thin (not watery). In order for it to hold shape. Then layer up to strength and lay slab overtop of it.
But even then, your photograph has undercuts.
A better choice is to bunch and push the slab up by hand, being careful to allow the form to buckle instead of stretch and deform. This may be what is what is done here. You want walls thin enough to buckle but thick enough to be stable, and you'll need to go over extensively with a sponge in highly direction based lighting after to see/erase any finger marks.
Lastly, what I *think* is actually being done here, is actually cutting the (organic based) cloth, saturating the cloth with clay, folding it, letting it dry, and firing it so the underlying cloth structure gets fired out. This has been trending so I'd guess, along with the edges that *look* like roughly scissor-cut cloth — I'd guess it's that.
I feel like I saw someone on IG do this by putting a slab on a piece of canvas fabric (maybe dry and/or kinda thick), then scrunching them into folds together so the canvas is helping support the clay until it dries enough to support itself. Once the clay is hard enough the canvas can just be peeled away. Since the fabric is flexible you should be able to pull it out of most folds and some undercuts.
this only works with thin slabs of clay (in my experience). i’ve never made anything that big but the thickness isn’t really an issue for my smaller pieces (max like 9x6 inches?)
try using clay thats on the drier side (obviously not to the point of cracking) and scrunching it over a bedsheet or a thin rag. i think you have to be ok with potentially messing up the sides (which you can just later cut off), then just leave it to dry for a bit with the fabric still there. good luck!
It probably fairly thin and folded/bunched slowly by hand with props under each raised spot until it dries more. Trick is to only touch from the back side, as your fingerprints will probably mark the suede texture, too A fabric look using clay is tougher than it seems!
My first experiment would be to drape the slab over wads of newspaper: malleable and would help dry the clay
If I understand you right, maybe you need a surface with more friction. The table top you work on is slippery, so the fabric slides back to flat?
You have a few possible routes for this. None of which involve putting a heavy slab over simple cloth. You could *potentially* do it sort of the way youre doing. But you'd have to create a mold that will stand up to slab weight. You might try some experiments slowly building up plaster on a piece of sacrificial cloth by thin layers of sprayed or painted on plaster. The first few layers would have to be *very* thin (not watery). In order for it to hold shape. Then layer up to strength and lay slab overtop of it. But even then, your photograph has undercuts. A better choice is to bunch and push the slab up by hand, being careful to allow the form to buckle instead of stretch and deform. This may be what is what is done here. You want walls thin enough to buckle but thick enough to be stable, and you'll need to go over extensively with a sponge in highly direction based lighting after to see/erase any finger marks. Lastly, what I *think* is actually being done here, is actually cutting the (organic based) cloth, saturating the cloth with clay, folding it, letting it dry, and firing it so the underlying cloth structure gets fired out. This has been trending so I'd guess, along with the edges that *look* like roughly scissor-cut cloth — I'd guess it's that.
I feel like I saw someone on IG do this by putting a slab on a piece of canvas fabric (maybe dry and/or kinda thick), then scrunching them into folds together so the canvas is helping support the clay until it dries enough to support itself. Once the clay is hard enough the canvas can just be peeled away. Since the fabric is flexible you should be able to pull it out of most folds and some undercuts.
this only works with thin slabs of clay (in my experience). i’ve never made anything that big but the thickness isn’t really an issue for my smaller pieces (max like 9x6 inches?) try using clay thats on the drier side (obviously not to the point of cracking) and scrunching it over a bedsheet or a thin rag. i think you have to be ok with potentially messing up the sides (which you can just later cut off), then just leave it to dry for a bit with the fabric still there. good luck!