Clay Building Basics: Techniques (Coil, Pinch, Slab, Carve, Slip & Score) Middle School Art Lesson / Project In this lesson students learn basic clay building techniques/ processes (slab, coil, pinch, carving & slip/scoring) via a series of video demonstrations. Students are then tasked with applying these skills to create a thematic, functional clay piece. This presentation uses a set of salt and pepper shakers as an example but students may opt to create other forms of functional pieces us