Studio Art: Coil Pots

This coil pot project was the last project in my Studio Art ceramics unit.  These have finally all been finished up and glazed fired.  For this project, students were required to make a simple vessel.  It did not have to hold liquid.  What they did have to show was movement through the vessel through the use of their coils.  Some did a really awesome job showing movement, while others didn't seem to understand.  Next year, if I repeat this project, I feel I will have to do a better job explaining movement.

Students used plain coils, spiraled coils, braids, and many other coil techniques to create these.

Love this one!  One of the best ones1

The one on the left has an awesome variety of coils!  No so much movement, but definitely creativity in the types of coils that were used.

The brown glaze with the blue specks is amazing on this piece!  I only wish this person would have coordinated the rest of their glaze choices to match that glaze a little better...

After I sit back and review these pieces, I see a need for me to better teach color choice.  As far as I can tell, these students haven't really had much training on color theory.  My current elementary curriculum teaches basic color theory in kindergarten (primary and secondary colors), reviews it in places as they move up, and touches very heavily on it in 5th grade, so hopefully my current students will have a better ability to choose colors as they move up.  As I look forward into next year, I think that I will incorporate a color theory unit early on in the school year, perhaps during my first unit of "What is Art?".

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!

Ancient Egyptian Artifacts

I finally have some of these to share!  One of my 6th grade classes finally finished their Egyptian artifacts.  It always seems to take a little longer to finish clay projects because I refuse to fire my kiln unless it's full.  Class B will be glazing/painting theirs when we get back from the February break.

You can see the basis for this project here.  Again, here are what the requirements were for this project:

     1. Create an Egyptian artifact out of clay using at least one of the three hand-building techniques.

     2. Artifact must include hieroglyphics.

     3. Artifact must somehow reflect yourself in it.

     4. You must turn in a sketch that tells me what your artifact will be, how you will build it, if you plan on glazing or painting it (or both), and you must tell me how you will be reflected in the project.

I'm sure you can tell which students either didn't "get it" or just didn't try.  For some students, this was one of their best projects and for others, I was a little disappointed in their output.  

This sarcophagus was this student's best work so far!  And, on the plus side, he actually built a larger artifact compared to others.

This one is supposed to be a cartouche-shaped box, however the tail broke off.

This student does really well with coil creations, but I think he wasn't sure (more like I think he gave up) on trying to completely make this box look like an Egyptian artifact, aside from the hieroglyphics.  Great craftsmanship on this one though.

Egyptian eye...this one is VERY small...about the length of my pinky finger.  

One of the best slab works!  This one is very delicate but a nicely done scarab!

Another great sarcophagus.  Awesome craftsmanship on this one, and I think she made a wise choice painting it with acrylic paint instead of glazing it.

This is a sarcophagus shaped vessel.  Originally this student was making it so it laid flat, but then for some reason she sealed the entire thing.  When I reminded her that she couldn't seal it without poking holes (and that it seemed like a waste of clay to me to have a hollow object like this that couldn't be used) she cut out a top and added a handle.

Again, another student who didn't really try to make an Egyptian artifact.  He carved a single hieroglyphic on each side of this box, but then he never made a lid and he glazed it so that it was hard to see the hieroglyphics.

Because we had to move onto the next unit before finishing this project, I gave them review questions about the clay itself instead Ancient Egypt.  The hand-building skills, even though they've done them with me in the past years and we reviewed them extensively before beginning this project, seemed to be a hard thing for them to remember, step-by-step, how to do.  So far, they've done a pretty good job remembering and writing down the steps for each of these questions.  If I have enough clay to do another clay project with 6th grade before the end of the year, I'll give them a similar quiz before beginning the unit.

Despite having a rough start with this project, I'm still happy with the results.  I will share the rest of these artifacts once they are finished!