Friday, January 7, 2011

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!


Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

what i woke up to today...

Closet: FAIL! Guess I'll be redoing my closet on this snow day!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Blog Soul Mates?

I found some amazing blogs today that are ALL ABOUT BLUES & GREENS(new blog name?)! They are great, great, great! I think they are all kind of linked together, but I don't care. I am in LOOOVE.




























Head on over and check them out!!!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

must take pics!

My camera is done...so I only have my camera phone...the good thing its 8megapixles and its always charged. However, the first semester is about to end and I have at least 10 projects I need to upload! I decided to do the celtic project with my art ones from now on.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Sew excited!

YAY!
For Christmas my mom past down her Kenmore sewing machine (which I have sewn one 5th grade dress, 15 years ago) because my Nana, amazin' seamstress, no longer sews, my mom got her sewing machine. I have been wanting a sewing machine FOREVER. I love it. Anyway, I couldn't decide what in the world to sew first, so I think I am going to use the left over fabric to make a valance for my teensy kitchen window, which looks like crap right now. I bought a pattern, and hope to start asap.

said window

Sunday, January 2, 2011

DIY Tutorials to fill up your New Year

I came across this list of tutorials on one of my favorite blogs The Lettered Cottage. Right now there are about 117 tutorials, of about 1/2 of them I want to try in 2011. I think my next DIY project is going to be transforming an old window frame into some sort of chalkboard/message center either for our office or hallway. First, I need to find I window frame...something like this???

We've got a furry houseguest!


My in-laws and hubby are in FL for the orange bowl (go Hokies)...and so me and Sadie have Max over at our house. Its nice to have a man in the house:-) If only he'd stop marking everything!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Art Directory

If your like me you use the blog-o-sphere for inspiration for your art classes. Well, I came across this on Vivid Layers blog and would like to invite you to join!