Mosaic Mandalas

My students loved making these mosaic mandalas, especially the messy grouting part!  I showed my students lots of examples of mandalas and we discussed using symmetry in art before starting in clay.  The rules of the project are simple; any shape is allowed but the overall design must be symmetrical and the shapes can only have a little bubble room around them (not huge gaps), other than that--b cr8iv!

Start by giving each student a plastic plate (paper ones will get too wet and loose their shape).  Next roll out a large slab of clay that is about 3/8th of an inch thick and lay it over the plate and press it into the plates shape gently. Use a knife to cut off any extra clay around the edges and save the scraps of flat clay.

Next scratch up the entire surface of the clay with a fork or scoring tool.  Now start cutting out your shapes from the extra scraps of clay.  Scratch the backs of your shapes with a tool and begin attaching them onto the surface in a symmetrical design.  I encouraged students to work from the middle out to the edges.  HINT: If you have younger students you can use cookie cutters for this part to ensure symmetry!  Be sure to keep the thickness of your clay even as you attach them onto the base piece. Once all the spaces have been filled with shapes, let the mandala dry on the plate, they will pop apart from the plastic plates as they dry and shrink.  HINT: If you want to be able to hang these on the wall when they're finished, cut a small length of high temperature wire and bend it into a loop, then stick it halfway into the clay before it is dry to use as a hanger once the clay is fired.

Bisque fire the mandalas and then have students glaze only the surface of each of the shapes and the outside edge of the plate NOT the spaces in-between, the grout will not stick to a glazed surface.  You can make this a color wheel or color theory lesson with the glazing if you'd like too.  Be sure to keep the colors symmetrical too.

Once the glaze firing is finished, mix up some grout in any color you'd like according to the package's instructions.  Be careful about not adding too much water to your grout, a little goes a long way!  Spread out some newspaper and give out plastic gloves to students--this will be messy!  I give students a handful of the grout and let them start pushing it into all of the spaces, I usually have to help everyone out a little bit to make sure they've packed it in tight and filled all the spaces.  Then have them rub the grout off of the tops of all of their shapes using just their hands to start with or a wooden clay tool can be helpful, then use a dry paper towel to start to wipe the surfaces clean.  Once the grout has dried a bit, you can go over the surface with a damp sponge to get any residual grout off. Let the grout dry for 24 hours before hanging it up on the wall.

!!! B CR8IV!!!

Wire Trees

These copper wire trees are simple and beautiful. Start with at least 15 strands of wire (or more!) all the same length (at least 6" long), this will be the height of your tree.  Bundle all the wires together and twist tightly in the middle to create the trunk.  Little hands may need help with this part, you can also use pliers to help twist.  Next we'll build the roots, so decide which end is the bottom of your tree and divide up the 15 strands into groups of 3 or 4 wires.  Twist each of those groups a little bit and then divide them into groups of 1 or 2 strands.  The single strands can be left alone and the double strands can be twisted a little more.  Then separate them into single strands so that it appears your roots are thicker towards the trunk and thinner towards the tips.  The same process is repeated for the branches.  Bend the branches and roots to simulate natural tree shapes and to balance the tree on its roots.  You could also find a small stone to wrap the roots around and anchor the base of it.
Next I used small seed beads on the tips of the branches and bent the end of the single wire strands to hold the beads in place.  The beads could be a lesson in color theory using on warm or cool color beads.  Or you could have students pick out colored beads for the birth stone of each family member and make these family trees.  Or use pink and white beads for cherry blossom trees.  Or celebrate Arbor Day with these wire bonsai trees!  So many options....

!!B CR8IV!!

Nature Fossils

These fossils are made from plaster poured into a clay mold and then finished with watercolor paints and bees wax. This is a two day process to allow the plaster to dry throughly.

First I have students choose a selection of natural objects, we may go on a walk to find these pieces.  Shells, leaves, twigs etc. all work great for this project.  I also let them choose from some plastic toy bugs, frogs or dinosaurs I have in the studio.  All of these pieces are pushed into a slab of clay so that they leave a texture and fairly deep indent in the clay.  This is a great opportunity to discuss negative and positive space in art. 

Next students build a wall around the sides of their slab, attaching it on so that there are no holes or weak spots on the edges where plaster may leak out.  Then I mix up the plaster, I don't generally measure the plaster to water ratio, but try to get a consistancy similar to pudding.  If I have a large class, the plaster is mixed in batches (maybe 5 students at a time).  I then pour the plaster into their mold filling it so that the plaster is about 2 inches deep.  Students are asked to gently tap the sides of their mold and the top of the plaster to wiggle out any air bubbles that may have gotten trapped.  Once the plaster has started to hold its shape but it still soft a wire loop can be placed in so that the fossil can be hung on the wall when finished.  The plaster takes about 20 minutes to set but 24 hours to cure completely.  Once the plaster has set, the clay can gently be removed from the sides and the "rock" of plaster can be flipped over to remove the clay from the bottom.  This will reveal the positive shapes of all the nature items that were pushed into the clay.  Write students names on their plaster and let cure until the following day. 

Once the plaster is cured you can paint it will any type of paint, I like to use watercolors for this project.  This is a great opportunity to pull out your handy-dandy color wheel and discuss warm and cool colors.  I usually let students choose which they'd like to use and then challange them to mix up 10 colors that are either warm or cool to use on their project.  Once painted, the plaster will dry rather quickly as it sucks the water out of the paint and then I like to use a bees wax furniture polish to seal the surface.  It also gives the surface a semi-gloss sheen to it.  If you've included a wire hanging loop on the back of your plaster, you fossil can be hung up for display!

!!!B CR8IV!!!

Clay & Copper Sun

This summer sun is a great project to build in two stages.  The face of the sun is built with clay while the rays are made of a thick copper foil.  I had my students cut out the shape of their sun's face and then we talked about 3-D shapes that we could add on for the features (spheres for eyes, pyramid for the nose and a cylinder for the mouth), we also created texture with the clay tools on the surface of the face.  I also added a kanthal wire loop in the top of the clay so that it could be hung later.  The clay pieces were fired and then in this case I had students use watercolor paints to add color to the clay, they could be glazed just as easily.  We looked at a color wheel and discusses the various names for the different colors.  I had students use a palette of warm or cool colors to paint their sun faces with.  For the rays of the sun, each student was give a retangle shaped piece of thick copper foil, a stack of newspaper and a dull pencil.  If you use the dull pencil and push into the foil using the newspaper as a cushion underneath, you can tool the foil with a variety of patterns and designs.  I have my students divide up their rectangle into 5 or 6 different shapes and then each shape is filled with a different pattern.  The result is a textured surface on the opposite side of the foil.  Once the entire piece is covered with designs, student will cut up the foil into their rays.  PLEASE NOTE: The foil can have sharp edges when cutting, younger children will need help with this part.  Each ray is glued onto the back of the sun using a hot glue gun and a ribbon can be looped through the wire loop at the top to hang your clay and copper sun!
!!!B CR8IV!!!