Art at Hosmer: Clay Projects

Friday, June 22, 2018

Clay Projects

This May and June, students in several grade levels have been working with and making pieces out of clay! 1st grade artists made pinch pot monsters, 3rd grade artists made coil pots, 4th grade artists made coil pots with lids, and 5th grade artists made independent clay projects. Clay comes from the Earth and is made up of different minerals. We learned that clay goes through many stages to become a ceramic object, starting with wet clay, drying out in the air to become bone dry, then getting fired in the kiln the first time to become bisque.

For pinch pot monsters, 1st graders started with a pinch pot. Students pushed their thumbs in the middle of the clay ball and then pinched around in a circle to create a pot or bowl shape. Then, we turned them on their side and added details to create monsters. Some students chose to add tongues, teeth, multiple eyes, and horns. Students made sure to score or scratch up the clay and use slip to add their smaller detailed pieces to their pinch pot, so that everything would stay on.

3rd graders made round coil pots and 4th graders made triangular shaped coil pots. The coil pot began with a flat bottom and rolling the clay into coils around the sides to form the walls of the pot. Students made sure to score and slip the coils. 4th graders also added slab lids to their triangular coil pots, like pizzas, cake and watermelon.

5th graders were able to choose from all these options and create their own independent project that took the form of a pot, flat slab or slab box. They began by sketching out their idea in their sketchbooks. The slab box involved the most measuring and scoring all the pieces. To make the slab box, students rolled out the clay to create flat pieces or slabs and cut them using a template to form the bottom and sides of the box. They assembled the sides by scoring the base and each side and using slip to attach everything together and smooth all the edges.

After getting bisque fired in the kiln, students used glaze to add color to their monsters. Students moved to different color stations depending on which colors of glaze they wanted to use and painted three layers of each color. Students had to carry their coil pots to the different stations very carefully! We got our projects back after they had been fired again, to melt the glaze and make it shiny. Below are examples of our various clay projects: