Naughty & Nice Clay Gremlins (Version 2)

Bronte B (Year 3)

I decided to try a different version of the Gremlins, using the wonderful pinch-pot monsters from Art Lessons for Kids as inspiration.

Before we began we spent some time discussing our gremlins.... Gremlins are creatures (according to the movie) that are cute and cuddly during daylight hours.... but after midnight they transform into creatures that do all sorts of unexpected things! We decided that, like people, they probably all have very different personalities, and as artists (because they are fantasy creatures and not real!) we get to decide what the personality of our own gremlin will be. 

Some kids have decided to make naughty gremlins that creep into the kitchen and eat all the left-over cake and ice-cream while everyone is asleep! Some of the older students (who have seen the movie and were quite eager to share until I intervened) are making their gremlins a little bit darker! Lots of kids have decided to make nice gremlins, who happily sit on their bookshelves during the day, but at night, when their owners are asleep, do all sorts of helpful things like completing unfinished homework!

The kids have so many ideas they want to share, and I love it when the discussion starts to piggy-back, with one idea sparking 3 or 4 others ... to me, this is creativity in action, not in isolation, but in lively discussion! But eventually I have to cut it short or we won't have any time left to actually make our gremlins!!

This time, after completing our pinch-pots, we flip them onto their sides, flattening and twisting until we are happy with the mouth shape. We then add eyes and other features using the score and slip method as in Naughty & Nice Gremlins (Version 1).

We're still going to add ribbon legs to our Gremlins with clay bead feet to dangle over the side of a desktop or bookcase shelf (because we really like this idea) but with this version I will use a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon legs to the underside of the gremlin body.

I'll post the finished works when they have been bisque fired and painted in a couple of weeks :)
# To see our finished Gremlins go here ....