We had made these fun rattles in Ceramics and I went off on my own and created this one.
It is made of red earthenware clay.
I constructed it by first creating the cube shape, then cut it in half and hollowed it out. While trying to piece it back together, it began falling in on itself so I made 3 coils, stuck them in to support each opposing side, and rejoined it by scoring, slipping and sealing with a small coil of clay. While it was in the middle stage of leather hard, I cut a small hole in the bottom to put the clay beads inside to make it rattle when shaken. I sealed that hole and then put my needle tool in the middle of the bottom to make the air hole so it wouldn't act like a bomb in the kiln. I found the designs in a Moorish archetecture book, traced them, retraced them onto the soft clay and handpainted with underglaze. Each side except for the bottom (which actually has a unique design of it's own to hide the air hole) has an Islamic design engraved into it and is painted with the underglaze.