Clay Hearts

Students created these beautiful clay bowls in one 40 minute class period.  Here's how....

1.  Press a clay slab to about 1/4" on a paper towel, making sure to flip the clay often so it does not stick to the paper towel.
2.  Use one stamp to impress a design in the slab.
3.  Draw a large heart onto the clay with pencil and cut it out using the pencil.  You can use the pencil to also create an interesting texture for the edge of the heart.
4.  Flip heart over and attach 3 feet by welding (smoothing the clay onto itself).  Write name on the back of the clay heart with pencil.
5.  Roll up a ball of newspaper and slump or drape the slab heart over it.  You could also use a paper bowl.  Let dry to bone dry stage.  This takes a few days.
6.  I used a Dick Blick glaze to give the bowl 2 good coats on the greenware before firing once.

Clay Roses

It's that time of year again.....Yup, Valentine's Day!  Fourth graders used clay to sculpt their roses.  We started out with a cone shape and used a pencil to open the tip for the rose bud center.  We then proceeded to pinch out thin petal shapes and attach them around the bud, putting 3 petals around the center, then alternating more petals.  Welding the clay works well for this type of sculpting.  Welding is a way to attach wet clay to more wet clay by smoothing it together.

Next they are off to dry.

Once fired at cone 04, they become pure white.  We use acrylic paint to add color and a liquid glaze with glitter for a little sparkle.