some shiny flowers.

A few weeks ago, I worked with the 1st graders on a clay project that was inspired by the fabulously textured and glazed ceramic pieces by Charity Hofert.

The first three 1st grade classes got to glaze their clay flowers last week. I had to wait the whole weekend to see what they turned out like:(

Today I cracked open the kiln and got to see these.

Upon closer inspection, they looked like this.

Some of the texture patterns showed up better than others, but in each piece you can see that the kids worked the surface of each piece they shaped. 

Five more classes need to glaze their flowers. I decided to have each class work with an analogous color scheme, or as I tell them, a color family. The kids selected one clay layer for each of the 3 colors in the family they were working with. The final step, was to lightly sponge a fourth color onto one of their layers to give the piece just a little more visual variety.

Once all the classes are done glazing, I would love to install them temporarily as a group installation somewhere. I plan on contacting some local businesses to see if they would help us put on a show near our school.

I think a flower field that had a natural flow to it would look pretty cool.

I played on the floor for a few minutes today:) 

Once again, our first graders have impressed me. Thanks for the inspiration, Charity.

I'll post more pics when all the classes are done.

playing with clay.

Whew!

I'm tired. The first grade classes and I have spent the last 3 days making clay flowers.  I rolled out at least 100 slabs during the time. I'm so out of shape, I'm sore:)

We focused on identifying and using different textures in art. I saw these flowers by Charity Hofert a while back and thought they would make a terrific way of introducing how things feel to the kids.

The kids got a a 3x3" piece a clay and a 6x6" one. They then pressed a plastic texture plate into the smaller one. There was lots of pounding going on. They really had to get their little bodies into it to make a good impression. In turn, I did a lot of pressing as well.

We then drew out the flower shape on the smaller piece and then cut it out with plastic carving tools.

We repeated the process for the larger piece and students switched plastic sheets so they would have a different texture. we then rolled up a small piece of leftover clay and pressed one more texture into that one.

We stacked the pieces and then used ONE FINGER to apply slip to the small and medium pieces to stick them together. Some kids followed this application rule, others did not:)

The kids loved doing this project. The cutting out of the shapes was challenging for some, but all of the pieces are unique and very cool looking.

Students will glaze the pieces the next time I meet with their classes. My plan is to show them as a group wall installation and then return most of them to the kids, and holding onto a number of them for our annual student art show. I'll share the finished pieces when we get there:)

Some samples I made.

All 8 classes.