In this paper, we study harmonic mappings by using the shear construction, introduced by Clunie and Sheil-Small in 1984. We consider two classes of conformal mappings, each of which maps the unit disk D univalently onto a domain which is convex in the horizontal direction, and shear these mappings with suitable dilatations ω. Mappings of the first class map the unit disk D onto four-slit domains and mappings of the second class take D onto regular n-gons. In addition, we discuss the minimal surfaces associated with such harmonic mappings. Furthermore, illustrations of mappings and associated minimal surfaces are given by using Mathematica. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.