Clay Gingerbread Houses

Winter Ceramics Club members created whimsical little gingerbread houses as their first project this session. We used red low-fire clay to create the building, adding texture for shingles, cutting out windows and doors, etc. Students added details like icicles, candy, shutters and more using white clay, which they later glazed with lots of festive colors. Many of them splattered white glaze on their house to look like a fresh dusting of snow!

Clay Clocks!

Round two of my Ceramics Club's clocks in clay... I had a super small group this Spring but it was super special and I think their ideas were very creative! :)

Slab Birdhouses

Third trimester Ceramics Club members made these beautiful birdhouses just in time for spring:

Clay Clocks

I am so excited by the results of the latest Ceramics Club project! Members created unique themed wall clocks out of clay, and yes, they actually work!

Handbuilt Japanese Tea Bowls

The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called chanoyu (茶の湯) or chadō (茶道). The manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called temae (点前).

Tea bowls (茶碗) used for the ceremony are available in a wide range of sizes and styles, and different styles are used for thick and thin tea. Shallow bowls, which allow the tea to cool rapidly, are used in summer; deep bowls are used in winter. Bowls are frequently named by their creators or owners, or by a tea master. Bowls over four hundred years old are in use today, but only on unusually special occasions. The best bowls are thrown by hand, and some bowls are extremely valuable. Irregularities and imperfections are prized: they are often featured prominently as the "front" of the bowl.

Here is a selection of the tea bowls that Ceramics Club members created before winter break. I couldn't photograph a lot of them, since students wanted to take them home as Christmas gifts!

Slab Mirrors

Ceramics club members created these whimsical mirrors by rolling long slabs using a rolling pin and wooden slats. They decorated their mirrors any way they wished. The inside mirror portion measures 5"x7", so they are pretty large pieces and they look great on display above the 5th grade boys' lockers!

Pumpkin Projects!

I LOVE FALL!!! As a result, I love using pumpkins, gourds, leaves (you'll see these in some projects coming up!), etc. in the art projects kids are doing at this time of year... Here are a few examples of some recently completed ones and works in progress.

Below are photos of the blown glass pumpkins created by the 8th graders on Wednesday. They turned out GREAT- these photos really don't do them justice- they are so delicate and beautifully colored:

Below are the clay pumpkins created by Ceramics Club and a few photos of them glazing the bisque pieces. These are on display along with the glass pieces in the 'pumpkin patch' that has become the glass display case!

Lastly, 6th grade artists are in the middle of drawing pumpkins and gourds from observation. We turn the lights off and shine a spotlight onto the still life to create interesting shadows and highlights. The goal of the project is to draw realistically from life and add a range of value to shade the piece and give the drawing depth. Here are some photos of them working on their drawings this morning during class: