I built a slab roller following Dales plans carefully and my costs were between $150 and $200.  I am very happy with the results and find the tool to be sturdy and very useful in my studio.  If anyone has questions about the project I'm happy to fill in any gaps.  Dale has worked hard on the plans.  His site at www.mypotterytools.com/index.html is where the plans are located.  You can also download the plans from my blog at www.mudismymedium.com  I also just uploaded a video of my slab-roller to the video archive at http://cone6pots.ning.com/video/home-made-slab-roller

Thanks I appreciate your help.  Tim, I visited your website and loved your dragonflies.  I tried this shellac method and found that the shellac would peel -especially if the design had small places.  Am I just not putting enough shellac on the design areas?  Have you ever tried wax as a resist?  Love the results but wanted cleaner lines than I got when I was doing it.

Hi Lisa - The shellac resist technique was a lark for me.  I tried it out on the two pots you saw in my photos, but my experience is very limited.  I applied the shellac in one or two coats to bone hard clay and allowed it to dry.  I then used a soft sponge to slowly remove the clay around the design.  You have to work away from the resisted area with the sponge.  I did a very little bit of abrasion with a pin tool to dislodge any pieces of grog that stood proud around the design.  The edges were actually too sharp when I was done, and I broke the edge after bisque with a small grinding stone to allow a smooth break to the glaze.  I've worked with wax resist for glaze resist, but not for surface decoration like this.