Coil Pot Hack

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I use terracotta flower pots for my students to create their coil pots in.  It gives structure to the sides as they are building upwards.  I was having so many students not able to control the amount of pressure they were using.  This would cause their pots to become more like plates.  This prevents that!! Plus, it speeds up the drying process. 

The students will build their pot up toward the top (depending on how much clay you provide them. You may have some students make "cookies" and stack them.  

You can tape the bottom of the terracotta pot to keep this from happening, but if you catch it the next day...it is super easy to cut off with a clay tool!

POOF! GONE! ha ha  This is also a great time to knock down any sharp edges the pot might have around the lip.

Carve the student's name into the bottom while the clay is still leather hard(next morning). 

You could use a sharpened pencil, but I love this handy dandy nut picker thingie(I have no idea what it is actually called. I just know we used it to get the nut out of the shell growing up! ha ha).

 

Black Glue Debacle

I haven't done black glue line projects in forever! I love the look, but always struggled with the glue bottles I used clogging up(I used regular glue bottles and just mixed up the paint and glue and poured it in!).  I found some bakery bottles at Dollar General the other day, and thought they might work really well for this project. They were $1.50 for two 4oz bottles.

So this morning I was excited to mix up a batch and give it a try.  I decided to use donated glue(Washable) & donated black tempera paint(Washable).  I really need to learn to do a test/sample first?!?!  I mixed up a huge cup of the mixture and poured it into the bottles I purchased.

I'm a hot mess when it comes to pouring stuff?!?!??! 

 I drew out a turtle, and traced him out.  Now I will say the glue does squeeze out generously from these bottles, but that was not the real issue.  The glue mixture seemed extremely "wet".  It started blobbing out from the initial line I drew.

When I picked it up( TRYING to keep it flat)...the black glue mixture ran.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!  I JUST MADE 8 BOTTLES OF THIS STUFF!?!?!

So I mixed up enough for one bottle using REAL Elmer's glue(except no substitutes) & a good brand of black tempera paint(not washable!!!).  You can see the difference!!!  I picked up the one on the left and moved it...and it did not run at all.  So...LESSON LEARNED!!!! Use the good stuff...because you almost always will get what you paid for!! 

(Now I have to go empty the other 7 bottles and make a new batch!!!) 

Too Big Erasers

When the back to school sales started...I found these amazing large erasers at Wal-Mart for .20 a piece!  They were bright green & blue...which are the colors of my room this year.  HAD TO GET THEM!  I though that the larger size would be great because they'd last longer.  

However...there are some issues with them!  

Here is the eraser beside a standard eraser I have in my classroom.  They aren't the jumbo ones like you find at Dollar Tree, but they are about an inch larger than the standard ones.  The problem is that they they are soft & bendable....and a bit larger than small hands seem to be able to manipulate easily. I've seen many of my younger artists struggle.  This is not what I wanted!!  Erasing should not be a struggle for them.  

I saw a few of the teachers buying the large jumbo erasers from Dollar Tree cutting them down into 4 to 6 erasers.  I decided cutting my erasers in half would probably be enough to make them easier to manage!  Here is hoping!