Hungry?
Bacon cheese burger with lettuce, pickles and onion, Ryan 5th grade
As part of my clay class, I offer a snack since the class starts right after the last school bell rings at 3:00pm. Despite feeding the kids and based on the projects shown today, I’m inclined to think that the kids are starving…. One of my students always makes food out of clay – and he’s prolific! Ryan doesn’t come from an impoverished background either, I am only left to wonder why he is obsessed with making food out of clay. Last year it was sushi – and no matter how much I beg him, he won’t make me any this year. Now he’s onto fast food – burgers, hot dogs and pizza. I never try to dissuade him, because secretly I like it – sort of ceramic Claes Oldenberg renditions – albeit life sized and not super sized.
Full sized Pizza was given to the art teacher
This was actually a collaborative effort on the part of my students, so when it came time to decide who got to take it home, they voted to give it to the art teacher – no not me (boohoo), but the full time art teacher at their school. (Between you and me, I was a smidge jealous….)
Personal Pan Pizza – Kaya 4th grade
Ryan made anyone who wanted one, a personal sized pizza – though each student glazed their’s independently.
Hot Dog, Laura 4th grade
Before the pizzas, however, came the hot dogs – hot dogs of all sizes including a foot long – Coney style one. (notice the relish, mustard and onions)
Lollipop, Brittany 4th grade
Dessert anyone? As a side note, my daughter taught me a little spelling trick because I always mix desert and dessert up. But, after she shared her trick, I have never forgotten how to spell either word. “You always want seconds of dessert.” Get it? the ss in dessert – seconds…. It works for me.
I wish I had taken photos of the sushi last year – it rocked. I’ll keep trying and may get some clay sushi out of my students before the end of the school year.
Meanwhile, I had a lengthy conversation with Anne Webb, a potter who lives in Alabama – by way of Canada, last week. It’s sort of weird, but cool to speak with someone whom you’ve never met in person before. We only know each other from online activities. Check out her site – her work & her that of her husband is fantastic! Anyway, she mentioned that I sounded, “hungry”. After thinking about it for a bit, I guess I am.
In a turn of events, I’ve decided to return to school. I’ve re-applied for admission to the Masters of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Colorado for fall semester – a program from which I took a leave of absence a few years ago to be a better mom. Now that my daughter is heading to middle school and is more confident & poised, it’s time for me to move on. Applications are due February 15th – and I squeaked mine into the office today in the knick of time. I’m not sure if the chair will let me back in or not, but if he does, I suspect that it will mean that I’ll be making a few changes ’round here. Stay tuned…. I don’t think it’s the end of pottery for me, but who knows?
Happy Valentine’s Day in advance and have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
Walk Write Like An Egyptian Clay Lesson
- My Cartouche
Cartouche generated by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology website.
Now that school is back in session for my daughter and a routine [of sorts] has once again been established after winter break, I have started teaching another session of my after school clay class. I don’t repeat lessons often, except for a few overwhelming requests that the kids want to make again and again such as cups – they love making cups for some reason. Last week, I substitute taught on Friday and I had an hour of free time while the kids were in PE to think about what kinds of projects I wanted to teach this time around.
As I scanned the teacher’s book shelves, I picked up a book titled, Write Like an Ancient Egyptian by Beth Levine which I found fascinating. My brain started racing and I decided to have a theme this time around for my kid’s clay classes – “Around the World with Clay”. Our projects are going to focus on the ancient cultures of Egypt, the Mayans and Africa for the next 8 weeks. I think a cup will enter the picture for the Mayan period – maybe a stirrup cup.
On Tuesday afternoon we began our first project – and you may have surmised from my photograph at top and the title of this post, we made cartouches out of clay. I found the U of Penn website and typed in each kid’s name in order to give each student a print out of their name in hieroglyphics to use for the project. We are going to make canopic jars next week.
Here are a couple of the kid’s cartouches from Tuesday afternoon, still green and in various stages of drying (as usual, many kids break the template, which I kind of enjoy):
Meanwhile, my daughter auditioned for Denver School of the Arts yesterday afternoon. It was a tough day, and I don’t know about her, but I am glad it is over. Parents were not allowed in the room during auditions and were left to wring our hands, bite our nails in nervousness and otherwise kill time in the hallway. When my daughter exited the audition room, I could see by her face that it didn’t go well and she had all she could do to hold it together until we were safely in the car where the tears flowed freely. What a tough process for a 5th grader to experience, and an even tougher one for me. My girl is growing up and I realized that I can’t protect her from every disappointment in life. A kiss, hug and a band aid just don’t suffice in times like this. I did ask her whether she wishes I had discouraged her from applying to the school, and she replied, “No.” I guess all I can do sometimes is just to be there and to support her no matter the outcome. Sigh….
She has been offered an interview at the Denver Center for International Studies which takes place at the end of the month and there is a third school in the running - so not all is lost – it only feels that way to her right now. Some of you may remember that Denver offers school choice – gone are the days of going to the neighborhood school. Instead, kids apply to schools that they want to attend which has created keen competition for many of the more popular schools. Consequently, the schools make kids apply as if it was a college or a job they were going after (recommendations letters, essays, transcripts, resumes, head-shots, and interviews etc. are often required). Although some schools, like the School of Science and Technology, have instituted a lottery system instead which takes away the competitive aspect of applying and leaves fate up to the “luck of the draw”.
At any rate, I’ll be back sometime this weekend,
~Cynthia
Pinch Pots
Terracotta pinch pot cold finished with paint and beeswax
No decals to share today – maybe next post…. This pinch pot is a sample project that I made for my after school kid’s clay class and was inspired by the book Finding One’s Way With Clay: Creating Pinched Pottery and Working With Colored Clayswritten by Paulus Berensohn. I thought it would be a great project for my students whose ages range from 2nd – 5th grade. I tried to make it a fun project by instructing the kids to animate their pots by adding noses and in some cases full blown faces on their pinch pots.
Terracotta nose pinch pot cold finished – my daughter's nose pot
I normally use low fire white earthenware for my kids classes and decided to mix it up and bring in a terracotta. You should have seen the kids reactions! Their whole clay knowledge base was turned upside down – they had no idea that clay comes in colors and of course I had lots of potty talk happening. “Ewwww - this clay looks like poop!” etc. etc. 
During our last class, we used acrylic paints to finish the pots and then sealed the exteriors with beeswax as an alternative to glazing since I won’t see the kids till mid January. We planted grass seed in the pots – which should be fun if it grows. The grass in my daughter’s pot is just now starting to sprout – I’ll post a follow up photo if it turns out. I think I’m going to make some more pinch pots – it was pretty satisfying.
Meanwhile, I added a WordPress Plugin that allows user to edit their own comments now for a set period of time in the event of typos etc. – if you have any problems with it, let me know. I also recently upgraded to WP 2.7 which allows nested comments, but it’s not functional on my blog yet because I need to update my theme to be compatible with 2.7. I just haven’t had the motivation to update it yet.
I have some errands to run right now so until later,
~Cynthia
Kid’s Sculptures and New Large Mug Design
Hello everyone! I apologize for being a neglectful blogger the past week thanks in part to how busy I find myself this time of the year. Also, I came down with a bug this past week and barely had energy to do the those tasks that I absolutely have to do every day. I’m on the mend now and hope to resume life as normal.
My after school kid’s clay club made these adorable little sculptures two weeks ago and when I pulled them out of the kiln, I was so darn excited to see how they turned out. The project was inspired by a fellow Colorado Potter’s Guild member who makes fun little ceramic and metal insects. I asked Penny Woolsey if she would mind if I did a similar project with my kid’s clay class and she gave her blessing.
The sculptures are hand built and then the screws are added before bisque firing. I was a little nervous about the metal melting in the kiln, and even called the screw manufacturer to verify the metal that was used to to make this particular screw to assure myself that I wouldn’t have a kiln disaster on my hands. Here’s a list of different melting temperatures of various common metals – so once I established that my screws weren’t lead, brass, aluminum or other low melting point metals, I fired the sculptures. I was so excited to open the kiln and find these gems and hated to give them back to the kids.
Porcelain unfired mug
In the meantime, I managed to get in a few studio hours last week and made a new type of mug (new for me). The body is thrown and the handles and base are hand built. I’m going to fire a bisque kiln this afternoon and am looking forward to seeing how this one will fare. It’s a large mug – 16 oz. capacity or so.
Porcelain doesn’t hold up well to hand building in general which is why I have been using a white stoneware clay for my hand built mugs. I like the whiteness of the porcelain clay better than the stoneware clay, so this might be a good alternative.
Have a good week,
~Cynthia
