Christmas ornaments

Air dry clay with sparkle paint and yarn! They made cycles and wreathed. Super easy and great fun:-) I let each student make two. I also gave some upper grades to do candy canes. Just forgot to take pics!

Clay characters continued

Here are some more characters, and some of their predrawings. There is also some of the Christmas pottery included:-)

Christmas Slab Pottery

My Art classes had a clay day of slab pottery right before Thanksgiving Break. I like to do this project at the end of the year, so students have an opportunity to create a beautiful gift for someone:-)

Here are the steps:

wedge and compress about 1.5 -2lbs of clay

pat into a ball

roll out on canvas or newspaper into a circular shape about 1/4 inch

use dollar store snowflakes, angels, stars, lace burlap, etc to print into clay

write name on bottom of clay

lay clay in a paper or plastic bowl - you can mold it all of the way or just give a slight impression

let air dry and buff (I use the green rough side of sponges)

fire

glaze- With the imprints of snowflakes you can do two tone by painting dark in the crevasses then wiping clean with a sponge and doing a lighter color on the outside.

fire again!

and Wa LA:

Sugar Skulls Finished Part I

The sugar skulls have been painted, glaze dipped and fired and I am so excited to share the results! I have some more pictures I need to up load, but here are a few that one of my students took with my camera. She's artsy fartsy:-)

Sugar skulls are out of the kiln!

And ready to paint! I can not wait!!!! I love them already:-D

slab pottery

I am not much of a clay artist, but of course that is most students favorite thing to do. At the beginning of the year, I get asked at least 5 xs..."when do we get to do clay?" I usually save it until late in the year, for many reasons. At the intermediate school where I teach, we have TONS of clay stuff, because the previous teacher was a clay queen. So here are the steps to slab pottery:
You will need:
Large pieces of canvas
Two thin strips of wood these same height (1/4 inch)
Rolling pin
2-3 lbs of white clay
Plastic snowflakes, fake leaves, or anything else with a neat texture(lace)
Diff. Sized Bowls, leftover styrofoam from frozen meats- cleaned of course!
Steel wool
Kiln
Glaze

Steps:
Wedge and compress clay on canvas
Roll out clay between sticks on canvas. The sticks are to prevent your clay from being rolled too thin or thick, and help to achieve a more even slab.
Initial bottom of slab
Stamp in snowflakes, leaves, lace, etc until you have desired look.
Place slab in bowl or styrofoam platter to give slab a dip or to mold the slab into bowls/platters.
Let dry in molds until bone dry.
Sand down until smooth with steel wool or synthetic rough kitchen pads.
Fire on bisque setting.
Dab a darker glaze into snowflake grooves- its ok if it gets on the smooth part of your pottery
wipe down with damp sponge
Paint with a lighter glaze the rest of your pottery or dipp it in clear if you want it to be white.
Glaze fire
Wahla! Beautiful pottery awaits you!

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