Takin' a Dip...

Here is a quick video to show you how we handle the "finishing" of the clay faces.  Years ago I went to a conference....and a professional clay artist gave us "permission" not to feel bad about not glazing in our elementary art rooms.  He said there are other options that are more time & cost effective.  The reality that when we do a clay project there will be over a hundred of that project makes glazing a bit daunting. This is just one way we finish our pieces in my art room.  The kids love it & it looks great.

More Clay Faces...

I'm loving the clay faces my 3rd graders created.  I hope you all don't mind me posting more of them(and I probably will do yet another post of them in a couple days as we finish them all up!!).

For those who didn't see my earlier post.....

My students used construction paper crayons on bisque fired clay.  We then dipped them in a bath of water downed black tempera & black acrylic. I don't have a ratio...sorry.  I just used a test piece to make sure it wasn't too grey.  

Clay Faces: 3rd Grade

Last week of school before Christmas Break...and I'm trying to get things finished, graded, and back to students to take home!  Yep..it is as tiring as it sounds! ha ha  However, I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing these projects completed....always amazed by the talent of my kiddos!!

I had done an underwater unit with my students, and encouraged them to created a clay face inspired by what they had previously been working on.  Some did.  Some didn't. Some...I'm not sure?!?  No matter...they are awesome.  We used construction paper crayons and watered down black tempera/acrylic bath.

  

Clay Masks:3rd Grade

Third Grade Emotion Masks

In our curriculum our third grade clay project is "masks".  I try to change it up each year...sometimes underwater themed, animal, crazy faces, self portraits..etc.  This year I asked them to consider an emotion.  We talked about exaggeration, expression, color...everything that goes along with emotion/mood art.  I really loved how most of them turned out this year!!  I do not glaze...no hood/kiln room.  Maybe someday...but for now we're happy painting them!

Even More 3rd Grade Clay Masks

Here are even more of the 3rd grade clay mask project.  

If you are just tuning in...scroll back and look at the other posts!!  

Hard to tell from the picture...but the owl is actually vertical! The student asked if he could have his mask stand up.....so I told him if he could figure out a way for it to stand up & be stable...GO FOR IT! So he did!! 

Some kids will always go rainbow!!! :)

  I'm sure if I had sparkles..they'd be all over that too!! ha ha

I really love this one...but mostly because it is kind of disturbing(in the best possible way).  The color seems kind of zombie/undeadish..  The black really helped to step up the creep factor!! 

African Clay Masks: 3rd Grade

I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING I KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THIS SPACE ABOVE HERE?!?!!?!?  I HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT IS DOING THAT???

This project started at the beginning of the 2nd 9 weeks, but just finished this week!  To kick the unit off, we looked at & discussed African Masks.  We looked at many from different parts of Africa...with many different purposes....and many different designs. We started by drawing our mask out & writing a description of what the meaning of our mask.  The following week students created their mask out of clay.  We went over all the wonderful clay techniques they could use in their masks: texture, addition, subtraction, piercing..etc.  

THEN WE WAITED!  It was a very wet start of the 9 weeks...so the clay took longer to dry than usual.  We moved on to our circle weavings(post coming soon).....so I had plenty of time to allow the clay to dry & fire it.  

This week students have been using oil pastels to "color" their clay.  We use paper towel to really rub the oil pastel into the surface.  

I then dipped the clay into a black paint/water bath.  I used both tempera and acrylic paint to create my "bath"...and it seemed to do the trick.  I had to add water each day(didn't have a closed container) and stir it up...but other than that...it was no problem at all!!  

After giving them time to dry...I'm brushing a quick coat of TEMPERA VARNISH on top.  I love tempera varnish..low odor...not very expensive...great results!!