Session 1: Grades 1-5
The Clay Creators (as they called themselves) started camp off with a lesson in basic hand modeling in clay. They approached of going from the whole to the parts to make almost anything was conveyed in the making of animal forms. From a lump of clay a sphere or ball was made, and then transformed into an egg shape and finally modeled into mice, hens, dogs and even an elephant. The children were encouraged to push and pull clay from the whole sphere instead of "adding pieces on" to realize their final animal form.
From there a pinch pot was made from the whole sphere opening up many new opportunities for realizing objects. The bells and beads project required a well formed pinch pot to form the bell shape, and the beads were formed from small spheres of clay. The work was painted with colored glazes and fired in the kiln.
The coil bowl was covered with the important skill of "score and slip" to attach coils. This score and slip skill was very important in building more complex sculptural forms. The Kusamono pot (a Japanese planter for planting humble plants) required well executed coils, smoothed to make solid walls. A footed bottom also had to be scored and slipped into place.
The final technique covered was slab built construction. Slabs of clay must be rolled out to an even thickness with no air bubbles trapped inside that could explode in the kiln. From these slabs we made tiles with found natural objects that we pressed into the clay, fired and finished with shoe polish and hung with cord and sticks. The second slab built project was a hand rattle. Formed around egg shaped newspaper two slabs had to be joined with the slip and score method, left to dry to a leathery hardness, cut open to take the newspaper out and clay beads added. Finally it was resealed using a coil with slip and score once again. Students had the option of using the technique known as "Sgraffito" - once colored slip is painted on an object a design can scratched away revealing the raw clay underneath.
In all the children were exposed to the basics of hand building, construction, glazing and kiln firing of ceramics for both practical and decorative uses. The campers held a showcase of their work the last day and invited parents to enjoy their work.
The Clay Creators (as they called themselves) started camp off with a lesson in basic hand modeling in clay. They approached of going from the whole to the parts to make almost anything was conveyed in the making of animal forms. From a lump of clay a sphere or ball was made, and then transformed into an egg shape and finally modeled into mice, hens, dogs and even an elephant. The children were encouraged to push and pull clay from the whole sphere instead of "adding pieces on" to realize their final animal form.
From there a pinch pot was made from the whole sphere opening up many new opportunities for realizing objects. The bells and beads project required a well formed pinch pot to form the bell shape, and the beads were formed from small spheres of clay. The work was painted with colored glazes and fired in the kiln.
The coil bowl was covered with the important skill of "score and slip" to attach coils. This score and slip skill was very important in building more complex sculptural forms. The Kusamono pot (a Japanese planter for planting humble plants) required well executed coils, smoothed to make solid walls. A footed bottom also had to be scored and slipped into place.
The final technique covered was slab built construction. Slabs of clay must be rolled out to an even thickness with no air bubbles trapped inside that could explode in the kiln. From these slabs we made tiles with found natural objects that we pressed into the clay, fired and finished with shoe polish and hung with cord and sticks. The second slab built project was a hand rattle. Formed around egg shaped newspaper two slabs had to be joined with the slip and score method, left to dry to a leathery hardness, cut open to take the newspaper out and clay beads added. Finally it was resealed using a coil with slip and score once again. Students had the option of using the technique known as "Sgraffito" - once colored slip is painted on an object a design can scratched away revealing the raw clay underneath.
In all the children were exposed to the basics of hand building, construction, glazing and kiln firing of ceramics for both practical and decorative uses. The campers held a showcase of their work the last day and invited parents to enjoy their work.