Terracotta Warriors

This project is a great way to tie art and history together, if you are studying China or Asian cultures in your classroom, you can create an army of terracotta warriors with your class.  The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta (a type of clay) sculptures depicting the armies of the first Emperor of China. The purpose of these warriors was to protect the emperor in his afterlife and to make sure that he had people to rule over.  There are over 8000  life-size warriors, horses and chariots that make up the collection.  It had been buried until  farmers accidentally found them in 1974 while digging a well in a remote area of the Shaanxi Province.  


Once you have discussed the amazing magnitude of the terracotta army with your students and shown lots of pictures, each student can easily create their own warrior. You can use terracotta clay for this project if you want (it contains a lot of iron and hence it stains everything easily!) but I used a low fire white earthenware clay and stained the surface of the clay afterward to get the rich red tones.  Start by giving your students a piece of clay that is about the size and shape of a hot dog bun.  With a knife, cut the bottom third of the clay down the middle.  This will create two separate legs.  Then cut from where the armpit would be on an angle towards the outer edge of the block of clay to create each arm.  Next squeeze the clay to create a neck and round out the head with your hands.  This should give students a basic human form.  They can change the position of their warrior if they want to by bending the limbs to make it kneeling or sitting.  Next have them use tools and their fingers to create the details and features. Remember that if they add any clay on, they'll need to scratch-to-attach.  Use lots of references to look at the details in the uniforms of the warriors.  Once they are dry, you can bisque fire them and then I painted mine with a red iron oxide wash to give them their terracotta color. If you've used terracotta clay, you won't need to color them.  To make the wash use 2 parts red iron oxide to one part gerstley borate (all available at ceramic supply stores) and mix with water to a thin consistency.  Paint on the wash and then use a damp sponge to wipe the surface off lightly.  Glaze fire the pieces and you can assemble your terracotta army ready for battle!

!!!B CR8IV!!!

Cave Art

These primitive cave art slabs are a great way to teach students about the earliest forms of art.  Start by showing students images of early cave paintings and have them find common themes, such as bison, humans and horses.  It is a good idea to have students practice their cave paintings on paper before starting on their clay version.

You'll need to prep some materials before you begin.  This cave painting sculpture was made with a slab of clay for the base and was decorated using colored oxides made from raw pigments which is very similar to how cave paintings were originally made.  The colored oxides will need to be made in advance but are simple to do.  You'll have to make a trip to your local ceramic supply store to pick up small amounts of oxides and a flux to make them stick to the clay in the kiln, here I used red iron oxide, burnt umber, manganese dioxide and Gerstley Borate (GB) as my flux.  You can get oxides in almost any color that are commercially made they are called Mason Stains, but for this project, I chose to keep the color scheme more natural.  In individual containers mix 2 parts oxide to 1 part GB and mix well with water until you have a little thicker than watercolor paint consistency to your oxides. If you keep your oxides in containers with sealed lids, the pigment will settle to the bottom, but once stirred they can be used over and over on other clay projects and if they dry out, you can always add water to reconstitute them. Now you are ready to go!

Students will need to roll out their clay flat, I like to keep this in an abstract shape so that it represents a rock form.  I also have students make 2 holes at the top of their clay to be able to hang it up later.  Next students can use brushes to paint on their cave painting with the oxides that you made.  If they make a mistake with their painting, just use a clay scraping tool to wipe off the area and try again.  Encourage students to look at their practice drawings for shapes and ideas.  The final results should be primitive and rough looking.  I just bisque fire these pieces and don't use any glazes on them, but if you'd like to add some shine and clear glaze over the top of everything would work too.

!!!B CR8IV!!!