Most of my past menorahs have been constructed of large blocks of clay. They take a long time to dry, are potential explosive in the kiln, and the finished product is very heavy. Last year I experimented with a few slab menorahs, made from flattened slabs of clay attached using slip (liquid clay). The only drawback is that the dimensions of the menorah have to be planned in advance and the components must be dry enough to hold their shape and wet enough to allow scoring (scratching the clay to increase surface area for a more permanent attachment).
I spent a good amount of time planning out the dimensions, but they still didn't come out exactly right. This may be because, as it is manipulated, the dimensions of the clay slabs can change.
Here are the component slabs.
Here is the assembled menorah.
This project took about an hour and a half this morning and another two hours this evening. It's a very reasonable time commitment.
