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. 

Clay Cactus Sculptures

A while back my grade fours completed these cactus sculptures, inspired by this post from Hope at 'Mrs Knight's Smartest Artists'. 

I began by having my students make a simple pinch pot for their plant pot. It was interesting to review the pinch pot process, which students had learned in grade one and two. 

I fired the pots and after studying various actual potted succulents from my house as well as different images, I asked students to sculpt their plant using Model Magic. I felt that the texture of Model Magic was perfect for succulent plants and allowed students to directly add other elements such as cut up toothpicks and matchsticks. 

Students were encouraged to paint their pots using bright colours and to attempt tonal variation with different greens when painting the plant.

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!