Studio Art: Ceramics Unit Part 1: Slab

The current unit my Studio Art students are working on is a ceramics unit.  Ceramics is my ALL TIME FAVORITE!  It's actually what my concentration was in in college, so I always love to do clay units.  Here is the basic break down of this unit in three parts.  Students are creating a project using each of the three hand-building skills.

The first project they completed was a slab, slump or hump mold project.  Quite a few students wanted to do masks, something they did in 7th grade with the previous art teacher.  I didn't want to hinder that since they were SO into it, but other students didn't want to make masks again, so I decided to call it a slump/hump mold project.  I brought down my slump/hump molds from the elementary room and got out the mask forms. First, I showed students how to wedge and stretch the clay, roll it out, and drape it in or on their mold. Then they received the project guidelines.  The project had to (1)have a theme, (2)have multiple types of texture, and (3)have at least 10 scored and slipped pieces attached to the project.

I supplied students with texture rollers, texture stamps, and all of the other clay tools they might need to add interesting texture to their project.

Here are their projects during the last few days of construction.  Currently, they have all made it through the bisque firing and are in the process of being painted and/or glazed.

This one is meant to be Skittles and M&Ms...

Of course, this one is mine!

Extended Day Projects: Clay, Air-Brush, and Periscopes!

Here are some of the projects we've been doing in the Extended Day program.  I did a clay project with the students using my slump/hump molds and some new clay supplies that I recently bought after my trip to the NYSATA conference.  I've used these molds last year, but the foot mold and pattern rollers were new to try out this year.  I also let the students test out and try the Mayco cobblestone glazes that I purchased to try out.  Pretty cool effects!

Another project we did was to design t-shirts using Crayola's Airbrush Marker Set.  I bought 6 of them to test out.  Definitely pretty cool, but if I'm going to use them in class, I'll definitely have to give the students some direction with them.  And, it seemed like the sprayers went through the fabric markers pretty quick...we probably threw out 1/3 of the fabric markers because they dried up after two days of using them.  For the most part, though, the kids were pretty excited to experiment and air brush different colors together.

Finally, on the Thursday before break, we made these periscopes using a kit I had purchased a while back from S&S Worldwide.  We ended up only having enough time to put them together...some students started decorating them, but I had to have them take the periscopes home so they wouldn't be in the way of the cleaners over the break!

Clay Lady

I seem to be on a clay kick lately...which I'm liking and disliking.  I LOVE working with clay, but my patience gets pushed to the edge with students when they don't think while using it.  I HATE wasted clay, just as much as I HATE trying to reclaim all the wasted clay.  (Case in point, I have just finished the slab poinsettia unit with 4th grade, the checkerboard unit with 5th, and 6th is currently doing clay projects....I can't tell you how many kids were asking me how to score and slip clay!  I hate to admit it, but I nearly lost my patience!)

When I started teaching in this classroom, there were 3 FULL bins of dried out clay, plus 6-8 boxes of unopened, dried out clay.  How do you deal with dry clay?  Do you reclaim it?  How do you reclaim clay?  My first two years, I hate to admit it, but I threw out some perfectly good, hard clay.  I just didn't have the room!  This year, though, I've decided to grit my teeth and bare it.  I've started wearing jeans to school so I'm not ruining my good clothes, and I'm getting down and dirty!  (I'd take a picture to show you, but I'm sure you don't want to see my clay covered bottom! ;)  )

Today I pulled out my first batch of red clay from the slop bin.  I'm trying it two ways here...I filled two empty clay bags with the wet clay and I've laid some out on one of the wedging tables the art department has here.  That red barrel was full to the top with clay...  Here's hoping I don't make too much more of a mess while I try to save some money! 

Anyways, I decided to do a clay project with the extended day kids (which is what got me motivated to try and reclaim clay...I already seem to be running out of clay from wastefulness!).  Last year I purchased four sets of slump and hump molds in different shapes (square, circle, oval, rectangle) and then this year, I purchased two foot sprig molds, a handle sprig mold, clay texture rollers, and some clay stamps.  I figured it was time to use them!  Plus, I used my new slab roller as well, which works awesome!

I have already loaded the projects in the kiln to save on space, so I'll have more pictures to come once we get around to glazing them next week.  I'll be firing my kiln on Tuesday next week, and then I will also be able to share the latest 6th grade project, which was creating an Egyptian artifact out of clay.