clay cacti.

The 4th graders are finally getting a chance to glaze their clay cacti this week!

A few weeks ago, they slab built cacti and pots that were inspired by a series that Michael Pfleghaar created a few years ago.

This project was part of their texture unit. I have been looking forward to these being glazed since we made them. In my humble opinion, I think the final results are awesome:)

The only drag that I did not fully anticipate, is that with the cacti being glazed front and back, I would need a lot more stilts than we have:( We have 2 kilns, but not enough stilts for me to fully utilize their capacity...

On another note, this week the art team is in full art show prep mode. So much mounting, labeling, and tying up loose ends to do before our 27th annual Celebration of Art next Wednesday!

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.