I am teaching a new course this year... Ceramics for fifth graders! I have always done a clay project in my regular fifth grade art sections in which we use the slab method of clay hand-building, and so I am focusing our work in this course on slab work as well. It's nice that I see them so often that we can really delve more deeply into the difference between different clay bodies, modes of building a piece and surface decoration and glazing. For the first couple meetings of this class, we constructed one-day bowls using three different techniques. They spent a few more periods glazing them after the bisque firing also...
Slump
mold
After rolling a slab, students pressed a leaf into the
clay and traced around it to create their shape. The clay was then pressed down
into a disposable bowl (a “slump” mold is one that is concave) and allowed to
dry. High fire stoneware clay and glazes
were used on these pieces.
After rolling a slab, students traced the open side of a
plastic bowl to create their circle shape. Then they flipped the bowl upside
down and the clay was draped/pressed over the bottom of it (a “hump” mold is
one that is convex) and allowed to dry. Low fire white clay and underglazes
were used on these pieces.
Templates
After rolling a large slab, students traced around a
template to create their shape. The clay was then lifted and scored/joined at
the seam before a circular foot was added. Some texture may have been added.
Low fire white clay was used and the pottery was left white to show the
texture. I didn't get pictures of the process, but the templates were something similar to this one, found here:
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Here are some shots of some of the groups of bowls created by the kids, currently on display in the lobby!:
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