The kids decided on a theme of Totem Poles in keeping with their First Nations Social Studies unit.
I brought in a lot of reference material for the kids to look through before starting on their projects.
We discussed basic forms and shapes and what they might want to add to their Totem Poles to personalize them.
Roll out a slab of clay to approximately 1/2 an inch thick.
As you can see I have the kids work on pieces of fabric or canvas. This stops the clay from sticking to their desks. Fabric placemats also work great.
From the slab you want to cut a shape like this, I told the kids it's kinda like a shoe or sneaker shape, we used penny nails to cut our shape with but you can also use a wooden skewer or plastic knife.
Score the edge all around except the top of the longer edge, rub with some water.
Fold over and smoosh the edge together. Add some crunched up newspaper into the pocket to help hold the shape while drying.
Make sure you can easily remove the newspaper without disturbing the pocket.
Trim off any excess and make sure to add a hole at the top for hanging.
You can use a nail, wooden skewer, or a plastic knife to help cut the clay.
With scraps of clay cut out shapes and add to the front to form your totem pole. Make sure to score and rub water on the two surfaces you want to stick together.
When finished set the clay aside to dry out undisturbed for about 2 weeks.
Remove newspaper and bisque fire at cone 04 in the kiln.
Glaze with at least 3 coats. We used Mayco Stroke and Coat which I finally got to work for me....in past projects I had been adding a clear topcoat to the projects which caused hardly any pigment to show...this time I only added the clear to any unglazed areas and it turned out perfectly.
After your glazes have dried cone fire 06 in the kiln and enjoy.
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