Clay Cityscapes

This is a good lesson to demonstrate create texture in clay and how clay and molds work. This lesson does have a lot of up-front work so that is a little warning.

I roll out small slabs of clay for each student about a quart of an inch thick and place each one on a sheet of Masonite.

At each table I have a small cart of random things that create texture.

 

At a community table I place stamps with letters and sea shells. I have each student get a small cup of water, a leather cloth, and a pen a pen tool and paper towels.

 

This year I had the students use straight edge rulers to cut off and extra clay, with a pen tool, that caused the bottom of the slab to not be straight. This is a very important step because if the bottom isn’t straight then it won’t stand and hearts will be broken.

When I demonstrate I talk about not pressing to hard with texture items or the clay will break. I also talk about shaping the cityscape to the shape of the clay, as to not waste it.

Once they have finished creating their textured cityscape I have them get a paper towel and we place it on a bottle (the mold) to mold it to a curve shape.

I lift the clay from the Masonite and carve their name and class on the back before it goes on the mold.

A few things I have learned from doing this project:

1. Keep empty paint bottles through-out the year to use as molds.

2. Use clay slabs at least 1/4″ inch thick. This helps to keep the clay strong.

3. Use a smaller mold (bottle) than you would think. The clay dries and bows out a little. Also, a curvier shape helps stand it up once its completed.

 

Once everything is fired and ready to glaze I pass out the ceramic work and warn them to be very careful, because if they drop it I cannot fix it.

After many different trials of glazing with kids I feel like I have come up with a good method. First, I use One Stroke, which is closer looking in color to a paint. Because of this it helps ease the anxiety of how the work will look like once its fired. At each table I let each student choose one color of glaze. Once everyone has a different color (at each table) I put a little glaze into a plastic cup, have one watercolor brush per glaze color and then place the glaze color chip on top of a tray in the center of the table. If you have a ton of students, but not a lot of colors to choose from this might not work, but maybe you could repeat a few (or all) colors at each table. Some days not all students are in class so this tends to work out fine. Clean up is a big reason I like to do one cup and brush per student. Every time I glaze with kids there is this massive divide of students that finish quickly and ones that really take their time. So, having the 1 to 1 ratio allows me to ask each student to clean one cup and one brush at the end of class. Having the tray just gives everything a home.

 

I have also learned to have the students glaze on paper towels. This can protect the area that the clay will then be place on in the kiln. Still, check the area before you place it in to fire!

 

Here are few pictures of how they turned out!

 

Clay Loom

This lesson has two parts and can take some time.

I like to start by having the students create the clay loom so it can dry and I have time to fire it.

I roll slabs out thick about half an inch.

Then I give them tons of random things I have collected to create textures with. Once they create textures on their clay slab they cut the shape they want. If they are creating a circle loom they need an odd number of holes, if they are creating a rectangle shape it is an even number of holes. I like to have them use straws to create the holes. The clay will fill up the straw so if you do this keep in mind it will be about one straw per kid.

 

 

I actually show the students that they can either create the textures first then cut or they could cut the shape and add texture second.

Here are a few examples:

I have the students work on Masonite sheets. This isn’t always great because it can warp. Once the clay is dry enough to handle I carve their name and class into the backs.

This year, so to not waste clay and to experiment, I had them create smaller looms with the left over clay. We will see if it works!

Next is practicing weaving. Here is a great tutorial that helped me out a ton!

 

Once the students finished building their looms we wove! Along with the link to the wonderful tutorial on weaving here is a great book that I would take a look at if you can, Kids Weaving.

 

Once everyone has practiced weaving and the clay looms have been fired to bisque, they use watercolor to paint it.

 

Then they start the weaving process using the clay frame as the loom.

 

Here are a few examples of finished pieces!

I forgot to pierce holes in the tops of the clay frame to string ribbon and hang them. Next time I will remember! Even without hanging these look cute!

 

 

Pumpkin Blanket

This lesson starts with reading the book The Pumpkin Blanket by Deborah Turney Zagwyn. It is a great book and the kids love to have stories read to them!

There are two products that the students will produce from this project. One is a clay pumpkin and the other is a paper blanket. I always start with the clay pumpkin because it needs time to dry.

First they start with a lump of clay that they roll in to a ball.

 

Once they have their pumpkin shape I have them poke two holes in the clay, one and the top and one a the bottom. This gives them a start and stop place when they are drawing the lines or grooves for the pumpkin.

Once the lines are drawn and smoothed out they add a stem. Sometimes I show them the slip and score method and other times I show them the wet on wet method. That decision comes with the personality of the class.

Here is an example of a finished, but wet pumpkin.

 

 

I have first graders do this lesson and I quickly learned that it is best to have a tray for them to put their complete work on. Depending on the classes personality you might consider writing everyone’s name on a piece of tape and putting them on a tray. This gives them a specific destination and there is no question where they need to put their work.

Usually, I have to insert a different lesson once they finish building the pumpkins. I do this because of dry time and the size of the kiln. The clay pumpkins are a great size for small hands, but even with a large number of them they do not fill the kiln up. I try to have a number of classes working on clay at the same time so they will all dry and fire around the same time.

 

When I have them glaze I set four colors out on the tables with one random. So each table got them same orange, brown, and green but the fourth color might be blue or purple. I also have them use just one brush per color and tell them to layer on top of dry glaze, but never mix the glaze in the containers.

This year what really helped was having them glaze on paper towels. I use to tell them anything that touches the table will stick to the kiln (them I will use a hammer to get it off) but the paper towels worked even better- maybe because it was a visual thing.

 

 

This year I had the students weave their pumpkin blankets using half a sheet of 9″ x 12″ paper for the warp and strips of decorative paper for the weft.

 

In the end it looks really cute and they learned a ton of processes and mediums!

Clay Thumb Owls: Part 1

This lesson was lifted from another art teacher who runs the blog Art Smudge. Great blog so check it out sometime!

I like to start off showing different images of owls so the students won’t get hung on how I create my owl. I found this great power point online: owlspowerpoint-110201184159-phpapp02

Quick note, Dillo White is my favorite clay and Mayco One Stroke is my favorite glaze to use with kids.

Here are a few great preparation tips:

1. Cut cubes, two per student.

2. Have boards, pin tools, water cups filled (small plastic punch cups), texture trays
per table ready to go.

3. Have the students get 2-3 paper towels as they enter the room and sit down.

4. It is good that have the supplies, minus the clay at the tables before they enter the room.

5. Because clay is not suppose to go down the drain place bucket with water at the sinks so
the student can wash hands off before they wash their hands at the sink.
Dump the water outside.

 

For this post I will show all the steps then list the steps.

 

With one of the cubes of clay roll a ball.

2. Cup your hand (non-dominate) into a “C” using your dominate hand with that thumb punch
or pierce about half way through the ball of clay.

3. Using your thumb and hand (in and alligator shape) press and move around (in a circle)
the ball of clay till it makes and pinch pot shape. For students not as strong they can
place the clay on the boards and use both hands.

4. Once the pinch pot is formed, stuff some paper towels in it so it won’t collapse when they
are working on it. Turn it upside down on the board.

5. With the second cube of clay pinch a little off for the head and roll a ball.

6. Slip and score the ball to the “bottom” now top of the pinch pot. Use your finger to dip it in water as the slip.

7. Smooth the head to the pot. Use your fingers and a little water and or a Popsicle stick.

8. Add beak and ears and other things if you like.

9. Add texture.

10. Write names and class on the bottom rim of the pot.

After they are fired to bisque I like for the student to use One Stroke glaze to finish them off.

 

Here is what it looks like when the students are working…

  

 

It seems to work well to have small plastic containers for each glaze color and to use just one brush per color.

 

A few finished owls!

This project has a part 2, which is creating a nest for the owls using wool.