making sculptures with legs!!!!

This week at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School,
I got to open Art Week with a speech, and give workshops in making figurines and sculptures with legs. Here are some of the sculptures with legs in progress.
Thought it might be good to have a look at the various ways that the the legs can be supported whilst the students continue to work on them.
Sometimes we can make the whole platform and legs upside down and leave it to dry that way. At other times we need to turn it up the right way with little supports to hold the soft legs up, whilst we work on the other parts of the sculpture.
I like to use a coffee cup which might be cut and adjusted to make it narrower or smaller.
The support also needs to include some softly scrunched newspaper for a bit og give as the sculpture shrinks inwards during the drying process.
Usually I try to remove the support the next day, when the legs have become harder and can hold themselves up. That way the support won't get in the ay and cause the clay to crack as it dries.
I have really enjoyed working with the girls as they are doing some wonderful creations and challenging themselves.
Great work girls!!!!

 

textures in ceramics

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Imprinting techniques with clay

• Lino cuts

• Making your own stamps

• Using Leaves and natural resources

  leaves made from pressing real leaves into clay.

• Textiles, rubber stamps, plaster and clay casts
• Impressions on slabs and three dimensional objects (spoon, rolling pin, )
• Inlaid slip and flooding colour techniques to bring out the textures

Popular ceramic projects, using textures:

Slump moulds, tiles, cups and bowls,

8 weeks crash course for primary aged kids

 

primary school class ideas and courses

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8 weeks crash course for kids plan

I have been taking 2 classes from Croxton Special School in ceramics on an 8 week course and I thought that I would outline the course and keep it as a resource. Its a crash course in the most important skills and students should come out of it with the confidence to be able to invent and make their own ceramics and a good understanding of building techniques. Each lesson goes for an hour.

lesson 1
pinch pots
Demonstrate pinch pot.
Give students clay each. Then demonstrate as everyone makes a pinch pot together.
Demonstrate adding textures and patterns to the pinch pot using stamps, a skewer, other tools
Later demonstrate how to roll a sausage and add the sausage to make a larger pot. Show how to add clay using scoring and slip.
tips: for students who dry out their clay by handling the clay too much, have a wet sponge sitting next to them, that they can wet their fingers on. This dampness transfers gradually to the clay, keeping it soft and pliable.

lesson2
Coils in moulds
Have a variety of moulds, plates, bowls etc.
Demonstrate how to roll sausages of clay.
break off a small piece and squish it into a basic sausage shape then begin to roll it. Roll with two hands on a flat board. Put pressure where the sausage needs to be thinner. Use sausages to line the mould. YOu can make patterns or a design with the sausages. Join sausages with your finger by scraping the clay across. Then use a kidney tool to make the surface smooth. Kidney tools can be made by cutting up icecream lids into shapes. ( good for people who lose their tools)

lesson3
Underglazing and glazing

lesson4
Faces - wall hanging
Demonstrate how to roll the clay out. When rolling clay, roll on a wooden board. Stand up so that you can more easily transfer your weight and strength towards rolling the clay. move the clay after each rolling, to make sure it doesn't stick tot he board. Only roll the clay a little less than a centimetre thick. I always tell students that it shouldn't be thinner than your pinky. ( The little finger on your hand, not your fat foot pinky).
Demonstrate how to join pices of clay using scoring and slip.
Add features to the face, such as eyes, nose etc.
Lift the face to make it 3D by stuffing some crumpled up newspaper underneath the slab of clay.
Add more features and holes for hanging.
Can be decorated with underglazes.

lesson5
Two pinch pots joined together to make a creature.

lesson6
more underglazing and glazing

lesson7
Making decisions about what to make.
Introduce students to the idea of thinking about what they want to make and working out how to do it.
Remind them of the things they have made and the techniques used to make them.
Remind them of how to join things using scoring and slip - demonstrate this again.
Discuss ideas of what students would like to make and how they could go about it.
students have a go.

lesson8
Finish off pieces - underglazing and glazing.


Options for ceramics classes 



fish bowls with textures and coloured underglazes





I have made lots of leaves with kinder kids. Below is an example of one. It has just been made and is decorated with underglaze colours. Then it is bisque fired and glazed and fired again ( earthenware) to bring out the colours.

before painting it the children could make it bowl shaped by resting it in a support. ( a takeaway container and cloth)

1. 1. You could paint with coloured underglazes ( two firings and glaze needing to be painted on after the first firing, by northcote pottery employees.
2. 2. Use clay only and concentrate on working on the textures of the leaf. Debbie to add oxide wash when the clay is a little dry. This can be fired once only. It would be a bisque-ware finish. I would recommend making it out of terracotta and using a black oxide or a white clay with brown iron oxide ( see photo below)
3. 3. Make it out of clay only. After firing once, the children can paint their colours on with acrylic paint. This can be gloss spray varnished also ( by the kinder teachers, applied outdoors).

Above: example of leaf with oxide added and fired once.
Above photo from internet

Make Faces – with holes for hanging them

1. 1. The faces could be either underglazed with bright colours and then glazed. ‘
2. 2. Or you could use coloured slips which gives different earth tones and bisque fire only ( matt finish)

1. 3. Or the ceramics could be made with clay only concentrating on the texture and bisque fired, then the work could be painted with acrylic colours.

above: example of underglazes to decorate and a glaze firing
above photo from internet


above: example of clay face painted later with acrylic paint.
Above photo from internet



above: a slab of clay, two holes for hanging. Child has traced their hand onto the clay and added texture around it.
Above Photo from internet


another example of bisque fired work with oxides for decoration.
Terracotta clay with a black iron oxide.
Photo taken from internet.

Below: children holding up their artwork which is white clay with coloured underglaze decoration. This work has then been glazed and fired a second time.


above photo taken from the internet.


above: some hands that I did with Lincolnville kindergarten.
(everything shrinks when drying and in the kiln so the hands will become smaller)

 

pre-school claywork

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Pre-School clay in the classroom



Basic theoretical information about clay, ceramic materials and the firing process:
In schools usually earthenware clay is used because it can be fired at a lower temperature. Earthenware clay comes in two main colours, white and terracotta. I think its good to use pre-school kids. They can mix and combine both clays in their constructions.



Its useful to let children know that clay is used to make cups, crockery, toilet bowls and many other things. Clay is just special mud, mud that has the ingredients in it that make it hold together well. If you dig about 30cm deep into the ground in Melbourne, chances are that you will find some. When we heat clay in a big oven called a kiln, it turns into a rock. It’s a bit like throwing your pot into a volcano. The kiln fires five times hotter than an oven.
How to manage clay storage and re-use
Always open your clay bag carefully by peeling off the tape. This bag is your best friend for storing clay.
After use, I get the children to thump the clay on their boards into cubes, 10x10cm square. The thumping process is very enjoyable for them, and it also pushes out the air bubbles. Then the clay is put into its original bag with a damp cloth and the edge folded over and stored out of sunlight. The damp cloth allows the damp to spread evenly through the clay. Two days later the clay is usually ready for re-use. Terracotta takes a little longer to re-dampen. Do not squash a thumbhole into the clay, as this adds to the chances of getting air bubbles in the children’s work.
If you store your clay this way there is no need for kneading the clay, just pull out the cubes, pass one to each child and play again.
Firing the work and alternatives to traditional ceramic finishing methods
Clay is usually fired twice; the first firing is called Bisque - 1000 C degrees
The second firing is called the glaze firing and in earthenware it goes to a temperature of 1060 – 1080C.
Most work that blows up in the kiln is due to not being dried enough. Clay work needs to be dried thoroughly before firing.
If you don’t have access to a kiln, it is easier to fire the work once, to bisque temperature. This gives you a biscuit finish like a terracotta pot. Children can decorate terracotta at its raw stage with white slip or blue underglaze and it will look quite good with only a biscuit fire. Otherwise many teachers biscuit fire the work and then let the children paint it with acrylic or tempera paint. The work can also be sprayed with a clear gloss spray paint (outside, and wearing a face mask) to give it a glossy finish.
Managing the activity in the classroom and cleaning up
When I run workshops I usually cover the table with newspaper, as it absorbs spills and can be easily be disposed of by folding inwards and placing in the bin. Children are given boards (about 20x20 cm) to work on which are porous, so that the clay does not stick to them. ( Masonite, plywood, plaster board, particle board, mdf) Board is very cheap at the hardware store and can be very easily sawn.
A variety of tools can be used, ones specially made for ceramics, mixed with things such as forks, blunt knives, garlic crushers, rolling pins, gum nuts and seed pods, icy pole sticks and textures.
Slip is also good for joining things with, and also painting onto clay.
Health and Safety:
Clay dust is not good for your respiratory system. It is not good to eat either, as it may some bacteria in it.
Activity 1: Slab-built bowl with leaf textures
How to make the slab bowl, imprinting textures. What to use for a mould. Decoration with oxides
You will need:
Plastic bowls, cloths, leaves, textured material, rolling pins, oxides, soft paintbrushes. Water jars.
Roll out the clay about 1 cm thick (as thick as your pinkie)
Roll on textures
Place cloth over bowl, place clay slab over top of cloth and arrange into bowl.
Activity 2: rolling coils – coil made tree
Coils can be called sausages. Coils should be rolled with two hands and fingers splayed out to support the coil as you roll it. Coils can be joined together without slip if the clay is soft and the clay is blended over the join, otherwise, slip needs to be used.
Using slips and oxides to decorate.
Building with coils – bowls and houses.
Activity 3: dioramas. Installation activities
This session will explore ideas for group dioramas or installations where all the children will make a part of a larger artwork.
Activity 4: Low relief sculpture tiles or hanging plaques.
Methods of joining clay and building pictures on slabs.
Slabs should always be rolled out about 1cm thick and no thinner, so that they are strong. When demonstrating rolling a slab, it is very important to lift the slab after each attempt at rolling. Roll and lift, roll and lift. As when the slab is rolled it often sticks to the board, if children do not lift the slab, they will make rolling more difficult as they will only be dragging the top layer of clay across the board.
Change directions when rolling to get a more even slab.
They should be dried slowly, on their boards piled up about 4 high with a board on top of the top one.. A double sheet of newspaper on top of each work will protect it and aid with the drying.
Activity 5: Stamps and stamping,
making wind chimes. – Wind chimes, are a great activity. The children can try to make beads and bells and put a hole in them so that they can hang them. They can be decorated with white slip and alice blue underglaze, then they only need to be bisque fired. Or you can bisque fire them and then paint them.
Children also enjoy rolling out clay and cutting it with cookie cutters. They can use a knitting needle ( safer than skewers) to pierce a hole in the shape.
Other materials can be used in the wind-chime construction process, such as driftwood, raffia, buttons and shells.
Activity 6: Pinch pots
Decoration with decorating slip and blue underglazes – a useful combination that will give a good result for one firing.
How to make a pinch pot: make a ball of clay by cupping your clay from one hand to the other. Alternatively you may squeeze it into a ball shape or roll it.
Put your thumb in the middle like little Jack Horner did. Ideally the hole has to go in leaving a centimetre at the bottom. Begin to pinch the wall and turn the pot. Pinch and turn is an important refrain for making the children understand that it is a slow process of pinching and turning the pot until it becomes bigger and thinner.
For more information about clay products and processes please see the information sheets at Northcote pottery’s website. Just google Northcote pottery, open the website and on the left hand side choose the page - Tech tips/product info.
For information, tips and links to sites about using clay in the classroom, Debbie’s wikispace might be useful :http://ceramicsclass.wikispaces.com/

handbuilding animals with clay

 

handbuilding animals

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Here are some hints and tips about hand-building clay animals

Handbuilding clay animals with students.pdf

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Freestyle slab method ( good for animals that don't have legs or are stylised so they dont have separate legs. - e.g. chicken fish, bird)

freestyle method, fish with liquid underglaze decoration

In this method you roll out two slabs about one centimetre thick each. I use terracotta or white earthenware handbuilding clay.
On one slab draw the shape of your animal.
Cut it out using a needle tool or skewer. ( with young children a knitting needle can be used for this, or you can cut it for them)
Use the second slab to make the opposite shape. Lay the first slab (cut to shape) over it and trace it with a skewer. Then cut it out.

you could use precut templates made from cardboard or plastic.

So you have two slabs that represent either side of your animal

Use slip and scoring around the edges of both shapes.
One shape is laid flat, good side down, slip and scoring added around the edges.
Place a small scrunched piece of newspaper in the centre.
Place second slab over top of it and beginjoin them together.

Join them a little all around except for the bottom which must be open. then stand the piece up.
Join all edges nicely and then hold the work carefully in your hands upside down to reinforce the base with a coil.


to

terracotta fish with red and orange glaze

Two pinch Pots
- practice making pinch pots for the first lesson.
- make two pinch pots and jointhem with scoring and slip. Add a coil of soft clay around the outside and blend onto both sides to reinforce the join.
When adding legs etc, make sure that any addition is reinforced with a coil of soft clay around the join, well blended into each part. This will thoroughly join the two parts.


Coiling
Plan carefully for coil built animals.
sketches need to be made of what the animal will look like from all sides and perhaps a floor plan, which can then be used as a template.
draw and cut out template of the bottom of the animal.
Coils should always be a centimetre in diameter. They do not need to be joined with slip and scoring if the clay is soft and is blended to the coil above and below it as you build.
Coils should be added in a spiral, not a doughnut. The coil is blended in as it is added to the pot. Not even sat on top of the pot in a circle and then joined on. this causes wobbles in the pot building.
The artwork needs to be continually compared with the drawing to make sure it is being built to the correct shape.

 

Firing the kiln

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Usually at a school you only fire the kiln to earthenware temperature.
so you would buy an earthenware clay.

firing is not about baking,
Its about slowly bringing the clay up to the temperature required to change it into a rock.
It has to go slowly to allow the steam to escape and also if you go fast the heat shock can make things explode.
LIke if you put a hot thing into cold water it cracks.


WHAT TYPE of clay DO YOU HAVE????
this is VERY IMPORTANT
the firing temperature relates to the type of clay you are using.
And the glaze also has to match the clay and the firing temperature.
I always recommend using earthenware clays in schools. the colours of the glazes are much brighter and if you use underglazes, these colours also remain brighter.
In stoneware ( 1260) firings, some of the colours 'burn out'.

The process

There are two types of firings the first is called the bisque firing and the second firing is called the glaze firing.
Bisque relates to the first time you cook something - think biscuit. A bisque firing usually goes to 1000 celcius for both earthenware and stoneware clays.

The glaze firing is a bit like baked on icing, its for the decorating stage.
The glaze firing can go a little faster through its cycle because all of the stem has already been fired out of the clay, but still needs to go no more than 100celcius per hour. Earthenware glaze is usually fired to 1080 and stoneware glaze to 1260.
Again make sure you know what clay you are using. If you fire earthenware clay to stoneware temperature it will most likely melt onto your shelves and kiln shelves are expensive.



BISQUE FIRING
The bisque firing is where you fire the work for the first time.
The work goes as greenware (which means not fired yet)
It needs to be extremely dry. It should not be cold to touch and if you scrape the bottom with a fingernail it should come off as a dry dust.
It is VERY important that the work is dry as most explosions occur when it is not dry enough. Claywork exploding will damage your kiln.
Basically it gets cooked like a biscuit, becoming bisque or biscuit. It is fired to 1000 degrees farenheit.

Everyone has a different idea about the temperature cycle but this is the one that i use.

Earthenware bisque
Take the Kiln up 50 degrees per hour till the kiln reaches 700
Then take the kiln up 100 degrees per hour till it reaches 1000
The bungs should be out to allow the steam and moisture to escape the kiln.

GLAZE FIRING
Earthenware glaze
Take the kiln up 100 degrees per hour ( no faster) till the kiln reaches 1080
Then let it soak for an hour ( this allows the kiln temperature to be consistent everywhere.)
The bungs should be left in, as there is no longer any steam to escape, and to conserve the heat in the kiln and save energy.

NOrthcote Pottery have a tip sheet about firing
here is the link
http://www.northcotepotterysupplies.com.au/uploadedFiles/1359935598578-5180.pdf

coil building

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Coil Building


This page will go over some basic guideines for coil building and give you some ideas about how to use this building technique.

Coiling is the term for building ceramics out of coils or sausage shapes.

You should roll the coil on an absorbant board such as :

• as the rough side of masonite,
• unsealed mdf,
• particle board,
• cement sheet.
• plywood,

I also use a board for rolling and a smaller square board for building on. Because rolling the coils takes up a bit of room.
If you are working with students you can slip and scoring as joining techniques for coil pots. I tend to teach the technique without slip and scoring, using a moist clay. But if students work more slowly or have particularly warm hands, or it is a warm day, or they touch their pot too much, they will most likely have to use slip and scoring because their clay will become too dry to join.

scoring on a coil pot is best done with a thin potters knife.
Slip - can be made by mixing clay and water. It is more easily made by dropping completely dry clay peices into water.

The little jug above has been started off with a pinch pot. If you start with a pinch pot, you will have a rounded base. If you want a flat base for your coil pot, you need to make a slab base. The slab should be rolled out about 1 cm thick and cut to shape.
When joing coils without slip and scoring, I always blend the clay downwards on one side ( such as the inside) and upwards on the other side.
So I place the coils on the pot as a spiral, blending down on the insdie as I go around. When the coil has run out. I blend up on the outside, till I am happy with the shape of the pot.

Then I will add the next coil, continuing in the spiral.
If you work in a spiral it will make it easier to keep the shape of the pot how you want it.

decorative coiling

When you do decorative coiling work, you seal the coils on the inside but not on the outside.
In this method you can see the patterns of the coils.
It is really important to dry the decorative coil pots more slowly to enable the clay to meld.
If you dry the pots quickly they will be more inclined to crack between the coils.

right: open coiled jug with pressed decoration added, using a stamp and a skewer.
The feet were added last.

You can also do decorative coiling very easily in a mould.
Place your coils into the mould in a decorative manner, filling up all gaps with clay and then smooth the surface.

Adding colour to decorative coil projects.
Inlaid slip is also a good method to use, to add colour to the project and to bring out the decoration.
When the pot is hard enough to handle, you paint liquid underglaze or decorating slip into the the gaps between the coils.
You can do this quite roughly and quickly. Then you use a knife or a metal scoop tool to scrape back the slip from the top surface, so it is only left in the cracks. If you prefer a smoother look, you can use a damp sponge to wipe back. I personally prefer the scraping method as the edges have more definition. There is a clear edge between the colour and the natural clay.
You can also paint or sponge oxide into the cracks and wipe this off with a clean well wrung sponge.
below: a tile made in a mould. The back of the tile has been smoothed over so that the coils are well joined.
The two clays are terracotta and white earthenware handbuilding and have a similar shrink rate. 
I often use them together in ceramic peices and they fire well. Not all clays can be joined so easily.
The tile has been popped out of the mould while soft so that it could be decorated with little marks. These were made with a skewer - my favourite decorating tool.

clay theory

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Clay theory

Clay is usually formed naturally over a long period of time and usually from the erosion of rocks. It is made of very fine minerals and water but is different from mud because it is plastic. It also hardens when it is fired. It is mainly aluminium silicate but may have other things in it. 

When clay is cooked ( fired) in a kiln, permanent chemical changes take place. After it is fired in the kiln it is called ceramic. There are two main categories of clay - earthenware and stoneware. Earthenware describes clay that's correct firing temperature is 1000 degrees. Stoneware is clay that can withstand being fired to 1300 degrees. Stoneware is much stronger than earthenware and also becomes waterproof ( vitrified) when fired to 1300.

Uses
Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay, and one of the earliest artifacts ever uncovered is a drinking vessel made of sun-dried clay.[citation needed] Depending on the content of the soil, clay can appear in various colors, from a dull gray to a deep orange-red.
Clay tablets were used as the first known writing medium, inscribed with cuneiform script through the use of a blunt reed called a stylus.
Clays sintered in fire were the first form of ceramic. Bricks, cooking pots, art objects, dishware, and even musical instruments such as the ocarina can all be shaped from clay before being fired. Clay is also used in many industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production, and chemical filtering. Clay is also often used in the manufacture ofpipes for smoking tobacco. Until the late 20th century bentonite clay was widely used as a mold binder in the manufacture of sand castings.
Clay, being relatively impermeable to water, is also used where natural seals are needed, such as in the cores of dams, or as a barrier in landfills against toxic seepage (lining the landfill, preferably in combination with geotextiles).[3[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay#cite_note-2|]]]
Recent[when?] studies have investigated clay's absorption capacities in various applications, such as the removal of heavy metals from waste water and air purification.

resources for research on clay:
wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay