Hand Soapdishes

These hand soap dishes are a two part project that will teach students the concept of positive and negative space.  You'll want to cover your tables with newspaper to make clean up easier.  To make the hands, each student needs to hold a small amount of plaster in their hand until it hardens.  I recommend doing only one hand since they have to sit still for 10 min while it hardens.  

Once students are ready, mix up a small batch of plaster and put it into palm of the students hands, make sure to cover the entire top surface but DO NOT get plaster underneath the hand or their hand will be trapped in the hardened plaster!  Once their hand is full, have them hold still until the plaster hardens (about 10 min).  The stiller they can be holding the plaster, the less chances of major cracking or breakage off the mold.  While the plaster starts to harden I explain to students how this will be the negative space of their hands and that we will use it like a stamp to create the positive space of their hand in clay.  You can show examples of positive and negative space in art too.

HINT: You may need to mix up multiple batches depending on the size of your class, try not to mix up to much at one time or it will harden before you get to pour it into their hand.  If you have never worked with plaster before, I recommend trying it out on your own before attempting with a class--it's a very manageable classroom material if you know what to expect!  

Once the plaster is hard, have students remove their hand slowly, small pieces will break off of the edges.  Write their name on the plaster and put aside to dry completely (12- 24 hours).  All of the crumbles of plaster should be wrapped up in the newspaper that you used to cover the tables and thrown away.  Make sure students wash their hands in a bucket not at the sink --plaster will clog up your sink!

For step two, you'll use the students plaster hand molds as a stamp and press clay into the mold.  I have students flatten out a piece of clay about the size of a large hamburger and lay that over the plaster mold.  Press the clay gently but firmly into every contour of the mold and then gently peel the clay away.  You should have a perfect positive of the mold with every detail showing.  You can use tools to trim and clean up the edges, make sure that you write each students name on the bottom of the clay hand (they will all look alike!)  Let them dry, bisque fire, glaze with a translucent glaze and glaze fire.  These hands make great soap holders or business card holders and make great Mother's and Father's Day gifts too!

!!! B CR8IV!!!  

Carved Drywall Stamps and Textured Boxes

This project happens in two parts.  First you'll need a section of drywall (it's great to grab scraps from anyone who's doing a remodel project).  Then you need to get the paper off of one side of the drywall, if you soak it in a shallow container of water for about an hour, you should be able to peel the paper right off.  Next, you're ready for the carving.  I use clay tools to carve into the drywall and its rather easy to carve if its still wet from the soaking process.  HINT:  Make sure you clean your tools well before using them in clay again, plaster can make your clay explode in the kiln! 

Start by dividing up your drywall into sections so that that you have 6-8 different shaped areas, then choose a different texture to carve into each area.  When you've finished carving, let the drywall dry and if you get lots of little crumbs stuck from carving, use a paintbrush to clean them out. These carvings can be very interesting in their own right and can be painted with watercolors if you wish or you can use them as handmade texture stamps for clay.

Now for the second part, roll out a slab of clay that is about 3/8ths of an inch thick (about as thick as a pancake) and about 12"x 12" across. Lay your clay on top of your textured drywall and gently press the clay into the texture, if you need to move the clay to texture another area, just peel it off, move it and press again until your clay is completely textured.  This is when students will see the negative and postive shapes of their carving.  Any spot that they carved deep in the drywall will be popping out of their clay.  HINT:  The drywall may crack if you put uneven pressure on it but the paper backing will hold it together and your stamp will still work fine.  HINT:  If you see lots of pieces of plaster in your clay, you'll need to pick them out carefully with a tool, as they can make your clay explode in the kiln! 

I give students a paper template to trace and cut out the 4 walls for their textured box, this helps make sure that their walls will be straight.  The boxes that I'm showing here are about 6" tall by 3" wide, but you can make your box any shape you'd like. HINT:  Shorter cube shaped boxes are easier for small hands!  If you run out of room on your slab of clay to cut all your pieces, just combine all the little pieces together, roll out another slab, texture it and continue cutting the pieces.  Scratch-to-Attach all of the edges of your walls and carefully start to build them together making sure that the corners are attached really well here.  To make the bottom and the lid, trace the perimeter of your box on top of your slab and cut out one of these shapes for the bottom and one for the lid.  Scratch-to Attach the bottom on making sure that the edges are well attached.  Using your extra clay pieces create a handle for your lid (any shape or size you'd like) and scratch-to attach it onto the lid. 

Let the boxes completely dry, then bisque fire.  When you're ready to glaze, I like to put a glaze on and then use a sponge to wipe some of the glaze off of the surface which really enhances the texture.  The glaze will pool and be deeper colored in the texture and lighter on the surface.  

!!!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!!!