3-D Clay People

To begin this project I have students identify the names of basic 3-D shapes (sphere, cylinder, cube, pyramid, cone, rectangular prism & egg).   Then each student gets a small piece of clay to practice making all of these shapes using only their fingers and the flat surface of the table to make them.  Once everyone has practiced making each of these shapes we discuss how we can attach them together to create a person.  For example: a cone for a body, an egg for a head, cylinders for arms or legs, a cube to sit on to help them balance etc....  I give students more clay and allow them to make larger 3-D shapes and multiples of the shapes to start to build their sculpture.  Remember that all of the shapes need to be scratch-to-attached together or they will fall apart when the clay dries.  The shapes can also be given textures and patterns using tools to add details to your sculptures.  Challenge students to keep adding on parts using only these basic shapes. 

B CR8IV!

Mad Hatter Tea Cups

Inspired by Alice in Wonderland's the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, these cups are also a lesson in texture.  Students needed to create 3 different textures one for each of their cups, they could push texture in, add texture on or a combination of both.  I give lots of examples of texture before we start building.  


To make the cups, start by rolling out a slab of clay that is about 10" x 5" long and about 3/8th's of an inch thick.  You can give students a template for cutting out the basic rectangle or let them decide on the size. For these smaller cups, I cut out an arced rectangle that is about 8" long on the high side and 6" long on the bottom side x 2" tall.  The short edges of the rectangle need to be scratched and then it is wrapped up into a cylinder, attaching the edges together.  To create the bottom, you'll need another slab of clay.  If you have enough clay left over from your rectangle, use that, if not re-roll out all of your scrap pieces of clay.  Then take the cylinder and put it on top of the slab of clay and using a pointy tool or a knife, trace around the perimeter of the cylinder to get the exact size needed for the cup.  Once it's cut out, go ahead and scratch-to-attach it on, I find it's easier to do this when the cup is upside down or if you put on hand on the inside of the cylinder and connect it with the other hand on the outside.  HINT: Make sure that you don't leave any holes when your attaching the parts of the cylinder together--your tea will leak out!!  This creates a basic cup shape which could be used for a variety of projects but since we're making tea cups, the next step is to add a handle.  

Using the extra clay that you have, roll out a coil of clay that is about as thick as a pencil.  Fold the top of the coil over so that from the side it looks like half of a heart shape.  Scratch-to-attach the top and bottom of the heart shape and the top and bottom of your cup.  Press the handle on using your fingers on the inside and outside of your cup making sure it's secure. (Don't pick it up by the handle until its fired!!)   

Your cup is complete and you're ready to decorate with textures.  You can use the extra pieces of clay to create strips or polka dots to add on (remember to scratch-to-attach!) or you can use tools to push in the texture. Be sure to cover the entire surface of your cups.  

!!!B CR8IV!!!

Masking Tape People

I created this project when I accidentally ordered too many rolls of masking tape and I didn't know what to do with all of it. I had more than enough for each student to have their own roll, so the masking tape people came to be!  You will need a roll of masking tape, 9 pipe cleaners, a stack of newspaper and scissors for each student in your class to do this project.  This will also happen over the course of several sessions depending on how much detail is added to your projects.  I created my examples ahead of time so that students could see how much detail could be created with just newspaper and tape, it keeps them inspired to push for more details on their own projects.

This is also a simple anatomy project for students, the pipe cleaners are the bones, the newspaper is the muscle and the tape is the skin.  To start making the bone structure, you need 9 pipe cleaner wires (color doesn't matter here).  Loop the first one into a circle for a head that is about 1 1/2" wide, twist the pipe cleaner to itself so that you have a lollipop looking form.  Then bend the pipe cleaner over the loop the opposite direction so that it looks like a basketball and twist the ends together so that becomes the neck.  Take the next pipe cleaner and twist it to the neck of the first one.  Now make the shoulders from the second one by bending it out to one shoulder and then all the way back to the second shoulder and then back to the neck again (basically the shape of a hanger) then twist to connect the end.  Connect the third pipe cleaner to the middle of the shoulders by twisting it around on the end and let it be straight down for a spine then make hip bones the same way we made the shoulders.  Add the forth pipe cleaner for the arm by looping it through the shoulder and folding it in half, then give it a twist at the elbow and wrist joint.  Do the same with the fifth pipe cleaner for the other arm.  Now loop the sixth pipe cleaner through the hip joint and fold it into thirds to make the thigh bones, twist the ends to make it stay.  Do the same for the seventh one to make the other thigh.  The eighth pipe cleaner gets looped through the bottom of the thigh, at the knee and folded in half, give it a twist at the ankle and bend forward to create the foot.  Do the same with the ninth pipe cleaner for the other shin bone and foot.  Check out the photo above if you get confused on this.

Now you need to start tearing and crumbling up newspaper into pieces to start building your muscles. You'll need the tape to hold the newspaper in place so I like to have students tear off (or cut with scissors) a whole bunch of pieces of tape and stick them to the edge of the table so that they can grab them with one hand easily when they need them.  Start with a ball of newspaper that you can fit into the basketball shape of the skull and then tape around to hold it in place.  Then crumble up and large puffy triangle shape to fill out the torso and tape that into place.  Sometimes its good to take strips of newspaper and twist them and wrap them around the legs and arm muscles.  Have students really think about where the bigger muscles are and what shape they are, then use the newspaper to build that shape.  You can continue adding on newspaper muscles until you are satisfied with your person's build.  Remember that the tape will stiffen the overall form, so position your body they way that you'd like to as you continue to tape.  Make sure that all of the surfaces are covered with the tape. Then you can create details like clothes, hair and accessories out of the newspaper and tape.  The newspaper lady at the top has a skirt, shirt, jacket, shoes, a hat, a bag with a book, wallet and water bottle in it and she's reading the paper.  The skydiver has pants, a shirt, helmet, goggles and of course a parachute. If you'd like to make your person standing, you can take bamboo skewers and push them through the newspaper up into the legs leaving just a tiny bit poking out of the bottom of the feet.  Then find a wooden base (sand and paint the base) and drill two holes the size of the skewer where the feet will be positioned put a little wood glue in there and stick in the end of the skewers.  You can also add support by staple gunning the feet to the wooden base and taping over the staples so they don't show.  Masking tape people should be painted with at least a coat or two of clear spray paint to keep the glue on the tape from drying out and peeling off, but you can also give students acrylics and paint them completely with color.

!!!B CR8IV!!!

Tiki Heads

These fun tiki heads are a perfect lesson in symmetry for students. I show my students lots of examples of symmetry in art and nature before we start this project.  I also have them sketch out a plan on paper of what shapes they will use to create their clay tiki head.

Start by rolling out a 3/8ths of an inch slab of clay and cut out a rectangle that is about 5" x 10".  Wrap the rectangle up into a cylinder and scratch-to-attach the edges together.  Trace the bottom of the cylinder onto another slab of clay and scratch-to-attach the circle onto the bottom of the cylinder. Now its time to start building the tiki face.

Take your scrap flat pieces of clay and roll them out a little thinner with a rolling pin.  Use a knife to cut out each of the shapes that you need to build the face and scratch-to-attach them onto the cylinder.  I challenged my students to choose at least 6 completely different shapes and to use at least 15 pieces to build their tiki faces.  I also challenged them to create two unique faces, one on each side of the cylinder.  You can adjust the challenge for your students ability and age level.  Dry your pieces, bisque fire them and then glaze.  You can also challenge students to use at least 10 different colors on their pieces if you'd like to get some super rainbow tiki heads! Once they are fired you can also put plants in your tiki heads to make them grow hair!

!!! B CR8IV!!!

Self Portrait Busts

These cute self-portrait busts are a great way for students to learn about basic human face proportions.  Take time to show them the proportions on a paper drawing or paired up with a partner that they can stare at.  I usually divide this project up into two sessions.  Students will start with building the base shapes and then add on the details of their faces.  You can also offer mirrors to your students for help with the details in Part II.

PART I

Start by giving students a piece of clay the size of a grapefruit plus a little bit of extra clay.  Cut that piece in half and then cut one of those pieces in half, they should have 3 pieces (two small ones of equal size and 1 larger one).  Make spheres out of each of the pieces and form them into pinch pots.  The larger pinch pot will be for the shoulders, squeeze it so its a little bit oval shaped and then place it upside down on the table. HINT: Its helpful to stuff a little bit of newspaper into the shoulders to help it keep its shape.  Scratch-to-attach the two smaller ones together to create a hollow sphere, this will be the head shape- it may look more like a potato, so have students take their time to shape it and make it more egg shaped.  Use a little bit of extra clay to roll out a snake of clay that is about as thick as your finger and wrap it into a cylinder shape, this will be used for the neck.  

To attach all three of the parts together, (shoulders, neck and head) position them where you think that they will look best to make your bust, then scratch-to-attach all of the connection spots well.  I like to attach the neck onto the shoulder and blend the coil of clay into the shoulders, then place the head onto the shoulders and blend those two together well.  Next use a tool to poke through from under the shoulders, through the neck and into the hollow space in the head, so that they don't explode in the kiln.  You can also write students names on the inside of the shoulders while you have them flipped over.  If you've used newspaper here, just pull it out to make the hole and then replace it.  This is usually where I will stop the first session, so if you need to stop here too, wrap up all of your students work in plastic until your next session.  

PART II

Now have students use a pointy tool or a pencil to lightly draw onto the clay the center line of the face, the eye line, the nose line and the mouth line.  This should help students give placement for all of the features.  Using a small amount of extra clay, shape each of the features in clay using tools and their hands.  Make sure that each part is scratched-to-attached on well.  HINT: A great way to make eyes that are the same size is to make one the size you like and then trace it onto another piece of clay.  HINT: A great way to make ears the same size is to make a flat pancake of clay and cut it in half, each half is an ear.  Hair can be added onto the head in flat pieces, coils or texturing the clay, depending on the style and type of hair they are trying to create. Once all the features are attached, erase the lines with a finger or smoothing tool. Have students think about clothing or other items they might want to add on to the shoulders (like a parrot or a pocket!).  Encourage students to turn their sculptures around and look at them from all sides before letting them dry.  

!!!B CR8IV!!!

Day of the Dead Shadowbox

Inspired by the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, this year my students made nichos or shadowboxes with clay skeletons.  This was done in a two day workshop.  I show students lots of examples of day of the dead folk art and we discuss the events of the holiday.  On the first day, we made our clay bones, all of the parts are hand built separately except for the spine and ribs which are scratched-to-attached together.  Some students added hats to their skulls and some added guitars or dresses to add to the festive skeletons.We also painted the box on the first day with acrylic paints.  I used cardboard boxes but you can use any interesting box or container you find.  Cigar boxes, wood packing boxes or even small drawers will work great.  Once the bones have been fired in the kiln and the paint on the box is dry, you are ready to decorate.  Each student will need a good tacky glue to use to glue the bones in position to the back of the box.  They other elements can be added using found objects or other materials.  I used glitter paper, rickrack ribbon, cut copper foil, beads, found plastic pieces & cut fabrics.  You could also use sharpie markers to decorate on top of the painted box or right on the clay bones.  Wall paper or wrapping papers with festive colors or flowers would be a great addition too.  As students finished their nichos I punched two holes in the top of the box and pulled a ribbon though tying knots on the ends so that they could hang their shadowboxes on the wall for decoration.  There are so many colorful and creative options for this project, so enjoy and B CR8IV!!

Mugs with Mugs

Start by rolling out a slab of clay that is about 10" x 5" long and about 3/8th's of an inch thick.  You can give students a template for cutting out the basic rectangle or let them decide on the size. For this smaller mug, I cut out a rectangle that is about 9 x 4.  The short edges of the rectangle need to be scratched and then it is wrapped up into a cylinder, attaching the edges together.  To create the bottom, you'll need another slab of clay.  If you have enough clay left over from your rectangle, use that, if not re-roll out all of your scrap pieces of clay.  Then take the cylinder and put it on top of the slab of clay and using a pointy tool or a knife, trace around the perimeter of the cylinder to get the exact size needed for the mug.  Once it's cut out, go ahead and scratch-to-attach it on, I find it's easier to do this when the mug is upside down or if you put on hand on the inside of the cylinder and connect it with the other hand on the outside.  HINT: Make sure that you don't leave any holes when your attaching the parts of the cylinder together--your hot chocolate will leak out!!  This creates a basic cup shape which could be used for a variety of projects but since we're making mugs, the next step is to add a handle. 

Using the extra clay that you have, cut out a long thin rectangle, about a inch wide by 4" long.  Fold the top of the rectangle over so that from the side it looks like half of a heart shape.  Scratch-to-attach the top and bottom of the heart shape and the top and bottom of your mug.  Press the handle on using your fingers on the inside and outside of your mug making sure it's secure. (Don't pick it up by the handle until its fired!!)  

Your mug is complete and you're ready to decorate with the faces.  I like to make 6 spheres, flatten them into a pancake shape and scratch-to-attach them onto the mug.  Then using clay tools and some examples of different emotions, I challenge students to come up with 6 different emotions using just dots and lines.  This challenge helps keep the faces simple and helps students focus on just the expression. Sometimes students like to put a face on the inside bottom of their mugs so that when you drink, you get a surprise face at the bottom!   ; ) 

!!! B CR8IV!!!

3-D Clay People

3-D Clay People

To begin this project I have students identify the names of basic 3-D shapes (sphere, cylinder, cube, pyramid, cone, rectangular prism & egg).   Then each student gets a small piece of clay to practice making all of these shapes using only their fingers and the flat surface of the table to make them.  Once everyone has practiced making each of these shapes we discuss how we can attach them together to create a person.  For example: a cone for a body, an egg for a head, cylinders for arms or legs, a cube to sit on to help them balance etc....  I give students more clay and allow them to make larger 3-D shapes and multiples of the shapes to start to build their sculpture.  Remember that all of the shapes need to be scratch-to-attached together or they will fall apart when the clay dries.  The shapes can also be given textures and patterns using tools to add details to your sculptures.  Challenge students to keep adding on parts using only these basic shapes. 

B CR8IV!

Clay Planter Heads

Clay Planter Heads Project
To create these expressive planter heads we started by talking about 3-D shapes and discussed how to build a cylinder from a flat piece of clay.  Students rolled out their clay in an even and large flat slabs using rolling pins or a slab roller if you have one then they cut out a large rectangle. You can use a paper template for them to trace and help make a uniform size (they can be large or mini pots).  Next wrap up the rectangles into a cylinder and scratch-to-attach the edges together.  To make the bottom of the planters, students trace their cylinder onto another slab of clay, cut it out and scratch it onto the bottom.  Now for the creative building!  Students were encouraged to be creative and use their extra clay pieces to add on facial parts, hair and accessories. Think about the entire piece (not just the face), turn your sculpture around and make sure that it is interesting to look at from all sides.   Remember that anything added on needs to be scratched on so it doesn't fall off when the clay dries.  You can use this project to discuss human facial proportions or mask making.  Once the pieces are dried, fired, glazed and fired again they can be planted to have grassy hair or a spiky cactus growing out the tops of them.  

B CR8IV!! 

Clay Emotion Heads

Create a human head expressing any emotion you'd like using the pinch pot method of building and scratching-to-attach your parts on.

Sessions: One 30 min - 1 hour session

Age: Kinder and up

Materials:

Low Fire Clay
A Variety of Clay Tools
Photo examples of different human expressions
Low Fire Glazes & Brushes
Kiln

Steps:

1. Cut off a piece of clay that is about as big as a baseball.

2.  Cut it into 3 equal pieces, two will be for the head and one for adding on parts.

3.  Make two of the pieces into spheres by rolling them in your hands. 
Put the 3rd piece aside for now. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4.  Push your thumb into each sphere and start to squeeze around the side to create a small pinch pot, repeat this with the other sphere. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

5.  Using a scratching tool, "scratch-to attach" the edges of both pinch pots so they will stay connected together.  Anytime we attach two pieces of clay together, we'll be using scratch-to-attach techniques. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

6.  Gently press both halves together and blend the seam until the shape is smooth, be careful not to dent in the sphere as you smooth.  You can shape the sphere to be more head shaped but make sure that you are keeping a hollow space inside the clay--if it is squeezed to the point where its a solid piece of clay, it can explode in the kiln.  HINT:  You can use steps 1-6 to build a base for building a lot of projects.
 
 
 

7.  Now its time to be creative and start adding on your human head parts using that 3rd piece of clay we put aside in the beginning.  Just break off small pieces to start shaping eyes, ears, nose etc.... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

8. Remember that any parts you add on must be scratched-to-attached on--think velcro!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

9.  Use your tools to help you create a lot of emotion in your face. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

10.  Add unexpected elements, like this bee on the nose of the clay head to create a story about what is going on with your sculpture.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

11.  Adding hair, hats or other items to the back of a head can make the whole sculpture more interesting to look at by adding an element of texture.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

12.  Once all of the parts are added on,the last thing you need is to make sure that there is a hole into the hollow space of your head (in this case the mouth is the hole), you can use a pointy tool and just poke a hole through in the bottom of your piece.  HINT: If you forget this step, there is a really good chance your project will explode in the kiln because you are trapping air!!  Let your piece dry completely, fire it in the kiln and then use glazes to enhance your sculpture and finally fire it again to complete your piece.
 
 
ENJOY!!!