These sweet and simple boxes are a great way to introduce texture to young artists. I love using the textured rubbing plates from Dick Blick Art Supplies for this project.
Start by rolling out a flat piece of clay that is about 3/8ths of an inch thick (or about as thick as a pancake), then make sure that the surface is smooth. Next choose your textured rubbing plate and lay it on top starting at one end of your clay. Using a rolling pin, roll over the texture plate pushing down evenly as you go. You can peel up one corner to check if you have pushed hard enough, if not roll some more, if it looks good peel up the rubbing plate. If your clay is larger than your rubbing plate, you'll need to lay the rubbing plate down again in the blank clay area and roll in the texture again until the entire piece of clay is covered with your texture.
Next have your students cut out one square of clay (you can give paper templates for this if you think they need them). Once they have one square cut out, have them lay it down on top of their clay in a new area and trace the first square so that the second one is exactly the same size. Continue doing this until each student has 6 squares. If you run out of room on your clay to continue cutting out squares, squish all the small scrap pieces together, roll it out flat again and put the texture in again. Now its time to assemble the box.
Pick one square that will be the lid and put it to the side. Pick the square that will be the bottom and use a scratching tool to scratch all the edges, then scratch 3 sides of the remaining 4 squares. Now that everything is scratched, pick the first wall and attach it to the bottom of the box- it may be a little wobbly at first. Next, attach the second wall to the bottom square and then squeeze the corners together being careful to not smooth out your textures. Continue until all the walls are up. Using your extra clay, create a knob for the lid and scratch-to-attach it on top. You can also cut out a smaller square and attach it to the bottom of your lid so that it won't slid off the box. These boxes make great gifts and are ready to hold special treasures!
!!!B CR8IV!!!
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