Finished Ceramic Pieces

Relief Carved Slab Tiles

I posted early about the clay carvings. The next step after that consisted of staining and patina. I had students stain the top and sides of the slab. The following day the students modge podged the owls. I think next time I will just use a spray close. Some of the students did not smooth out the globs of modge podge and the globs did not dry clear. The last day students used shoe polish to patina or age the slabs. I am very pleased with the outcome.

                                                               Kimmy Cantrell Faces

I saw a few of these on Pinterest. I have never used oil pastels on clay before. I love the finished projects. I watered down india ink and students used the resist method for the finished piece. I then sprayed a gloss finish on the faces.

Fish Design

TEACHER EXAMPLE



TEACHER EXAMPLE

I always enjoy doing this lesson. It is one of my favorites. We talk about lines, pattern, and contrast. The students this year got a kick out of this lesson too. They were all into the fish drawing. I have fish tracers for students to pick from. They also enjoy picking out their fish. First students trace the fish tracer and then I have students break up their fish into 7 sections. Then the fun begins! I love patterns and line. I have students use a black sharpie and one color crayola marker.

More CLAY!!!!

 These clay owls turned out better than I expected and yes I have a thing for owls at the moment. I first had the students crumble up one piece of newspaper page. I then walked around and taped the newspaper into a ball. This acted as the mold for the owls. I gave each student a small block of clay. The students wedged and rolled into a ball. I then had the students flatten out the clay with the palm of their hand. I told the students that the clay should not be thinner than a finger width. Students draped the clay over their newspaper mold. I gave students extra clay for their eyes and beak. Students flattened out their clay again and used bottle caps for the shape of their yes. Students used a needle to cut out the white of their eyes and the pupils. Students then made a beak and then used the needle to create the texture of feathers. I have them make U's for the feather texture. I had students score and slip to attach all their pieces.

CLAY!!!!!!!

 I have many clay pieces to show and I am hoping I can get to all of them tonight. I am so excited about all of the work my students have been creating.The owls slabs are a first for me. Students created a clay relief slab/tile by carving away the clay. I first had students draw out their owl on paper. They were to use their drawing as a reference for their clay drawing. Students are very familiar with drawing owls. I had the students first sketch their drawing into the clay with a needle. The students used bottle caps for the eyes and a loop tool to add the texture for feather. These are not finished. I am going to have the students stain the clay pieces. I also made it a point to not have perfect rectangle slabs. It gives a look of the piece being worn. I can't wait until these are finished.

FuNnY BIRDS

TEACHER EXAMPLE

I have seen many bird lessons on blogs and Pinterest. One blog that really inspired this lesson was Deep Space Sparkle. I had the students use very little water when using the watercolors. I called the lesson funny birds because of the long legs and large eyeballs.

More Birch Trees

The students did such an amazing job I wanted to show more examples.

Birch Trees

I had been inspired to create a project on birch trees. I pinned many examples of birch trees on Pinterest. My students used black construction paper, liquid glue, and oil pastels. The first day I showed pictures of birch trees and the class dicussed the characteristics of this tree. Students then created 4 to 5 trees using a pencil and then liquid glue was used to trace over the pencil lines.

The next day the students used shapes and color to create the knotches on the birch trees. Once all the color was added with oil pastels the last color that was used was white. Students did have to touch up the shapes of color after the white pastel. I am very pleased with the outcome of the project. A pre-school teacher loved the project so much she asked me to create a version of it for her students. I had the preschoolers just make 2 trees and no branches. The students used a white crayon to color the tree. The colorful knotches used where pre-cut construction paper that the students just glued onto the tree.