Back to school after a wonderful 2 week spring break! Halloween is
just around the corner, and although this isn't an event traditionally
celebrated in Australia, I'm finding more and more of my kids are
joining in the fun! I don't usually 'do' Halloween projects, but it does
provide an opportunity to delve into fun fantasy projects - so this
week we're creating Clay Gremlins :)
Maybe
it's the 3D aspect, or maybe they just love getting their hands dirty -
either way my kids LOVE working with clay - it's one of the standout
favourite lessons each term!
We're using a basic
pinch-pot construction method for our gremlins, and concentrating on
adding impishly naughty facial features .... we'll add legs later with
ribbon and beads (inspired by
Janet Burns' birds I found on Flickr via Pinterest).
First
we take a ball of clay and pinch it out to create the pinch-pot body of
our gremlin. The final thickness of the clay should be about the
thickness of our little fingers (I circulate around the younger students
here to make sure they haven't pinched their pots too thin), and then
crumble some newspaper into a ball and place it inside the pot. This
provides some support so that we don't push it out of shape when we're
adding the features. Overturn the pot and tap onto the table to create
an even rim.
Use thumbs to make a slight indent where
you want the eyes to be. Roll small balls of clay and attach into the
sockets using score and slip method. I have a small container of water
on each table so that children can add a couple of drops to the scored
surface, creating the slip that joins the pieces together. Wriggle the pieces together with gentle pressure until you feel it grip. Use a skewer to push a hole for the pupil. This also pushes clay
from the eye into the body of the clay, further strengthening the bond.
In a similar way, join any other features you want - ears, nose etc.
Use the facial features to give your gremlin personality, concentrating
on the eyes and the mouth.
The children then bring their gremlins to me to be named, and to skewer holes to add the legs after firing.
I always insist that I add the children's initials, for a couple of reasons:
1. If they score their initials too small or shallowly, I won't be able to read them later.
2. If they score too deeply, they further risk the integrity of the piece.
3.
All the children's work (from 5 different schools) has to be taken to
my car, stored in my garage to dry, taken to my friend's kiln, stacked,
fired, unloaded, and transported back to the schools. If I am to have
any hope of getting them back to their original owners, I have to be
sure that they are legibly named and numbered (1 through 5, 1 being
Monday group, 2 for Tuesday etc).
The final step is to
make beads for the feet. Roll 2 balls of clay about the size
of a 10c piece. Flatten slightly and skewer a hole through the center.
These will attach to ribbon legs and hang over the edge of a shelf or
table when the sculpture is complete.
The
kids have all done a magnificent job - we have a marvelous array of
naughty and nice gremlins.
With tomorrow's group I'm going to experiment with a different method of creating the body.
I'll post the results in a couple of weeks
when we've painted them and added the finishing touches!
# An additional note: In the following lessons I made some changes to the construction of our gremlins - look here to see
improved Gremlins Version 2!
# To see our finished Gremlins go
here....
