Self Portrait Pinch Pots

This is one of those grade one projects that nearly made me die of cuteness! As a twist on the usual introduction to ceramics, I was inspired by this adorable project from 'Handmade Charlotte'. After students learned to create a pinch pot, I had them make a lid for their pot by rolling out a small slab of clay and tracing the top of their pot to cut a circle to fit as a lid. They rolled and stuck on a small ball of clay to act as a handle for the lid/nose for their face. 

 

After discussing portraiture and self portraits, students were asked to use ceramic glazes to paint their skin colour, hair colour and facial features in very basic detail using a very small brush. 

Ceramic Cake Sculptures

 

Grade 5 students used slab construction and modelling techniques to create a small triangular box, which they were then asked to decorate and glaze to resemble a slice of cake. This was such a fun project, with impressive results. Displaying these sculptures on my vintage cake plates made them look good enough to eat!

A few years ago I did a similar project, making clay cupcakes with grade 4 and 5. You can see those HERE. Either project is a great tie-in with Pop Art and particularly artists such as Wayne Thiebaud.

 

 

 

 

Koi Fish Bowls

Every now and then I say that this is my favourite project ever. This is one of those times. As a follow on from their Koi Fish Drawings, I had my grade 2 students create pinch pots containing tiny koi fish sculptures. 

The idea for this project came from the lovely tea cups made by ceramicist Mochi Liu. You can see them on his etsy site here. I was a little unsure how my students would go with sculpting such intricate and tiny fish but they really surprised me. I guess having tiny little hands definitely helps.  

My instructions were to roll a tiny piece of clay into a cylinder, then pinch one end to create a long teardrop shape. I then asked them to make three tiny triangles and attach them to the body to form the side fins and tail. We pressed the lid of a texta (thin marker) into the clay to create the scaly texture and the eyes. Having already studied pictures of koi fish and completed drawings, the students seemed to have a much better idea about transferring these ideas into three dimensions.  

The fish were painted using gloss glazes. I had planned to melt glass marbles in the bottom of each pot to create the look of water, as I have seen this done on other blogs, but after experimenting and having a couple of pots explode (why did this happen? Can anybody tell me?) I got most students to decorate the inside of their pot with oil pastels and blue edicol dye (food colouring) to create the look of water in the pond. I think they are the most adorable thing ever!