BRAIN BOWLS

This year I've changed how I'm doing 2nd grade's Coil Pots.  We are still learning how to create coils.  We are still learning how to join clay properly.  However, we're creating clay coil spirals, and then joining them side by side inside a bowl (PLEASE NOTE: If you are using plastic bowls..place a paper towel in the bowl so that the clay does not stick and ruin a whole class worth of bowls!  Not that I would know from experience or anything!??!?!)  

I sat one of my 2nd grade examples on top of one of my 4th grade examples....and the "BRAIN BOWL" was born!  The kids named it...I just was trying to make room on my demo table! ha ha

LINE THE BOWL WITH PAPER TOWEL!!!!!!!

 LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!!!!

The inside of the bowl is smooth, and the coily goodness can be seen beautifully on the outside!

At the end of class students brought me their unused clay.  However, some was too dry to put back in with the "good" clay.  I don't have an area to wedge and such...so usually too dry clay goes in the trash.  I decided to use their too dry clay to make this little turtle! 

Experimenting Again: As Seen On Pinterest...Bead Bowl

Here is the pinterest pin link!

http://www.wooz.dk/?page_id=2611

I saw a very cool melted bead bowl on Pinterest & wanted to try it myself.  The blog it came from was in a different language...and even with Google Translator...I felt I was missing some information.

I first rubbed the inside of my dish with veggie oil & heated my toaster oven to 200 degrees(this is info I got from the google translator).  I grabbed a couple handfuls of beads from my craft supplies and spread them out in the bowl. I "baked" the beads for 10 minutes, but could tell hey had not really melted.  I was concerned that the beads were too thick/hard, and may not be the type of beads used on the post I had seen.

After pulling the bowl out after 20 minutes in the toaster oven, I realized I probably was right.  The beads were not the kind used in the images I had seen on Pinterest.  Oh well...I was experimenting...so failure is fine. You learn from your mistakes and try again!

This time I went through my beads and found ones that looked like what I had seen.  These were thinner & seemed to be softer.  I had ones that had painted stripes & ones that were solid.  I placed the striped ones in the bottom and a majority of the solid ones on the sides (no reason..just how I did it?!?).  Back into the toaster oven at 300 (I upped the temp a bit).  I quickly realized the beads on the side were melting, but the beads on the bottom seemed to not be?!?!  I left them in for about 15 minutes, and here are the results.

The bowl worked this time!  However, I do not see this being a lesson I could really use with my classes during a regular school year.  It may be a project I file away for an art camp.