ceramics 4

This term I'm running a ceramic club. For the first project the children made simple 'sitting' slab figures.

We bisque fired them and then used acrylics to decorate. In the time available it would have been very difficult to glaze them to the same level of detail. For our next pieces I've promised that we will be using glazes!

We might 'varnish' them for added protection.

ceramics 3

Y2 'rice' bowls all glazed, fired and finished.

I like the way the blue has run into the white.

egyptians

In y5/6 this week we've been completing our sarcophagi. Simple boxes, made from card and decorated with pens, house little booklets in the shape of a mummy! The children are going to add fascinating facts in the books about the gruesome process of mummification.

puppets

Today, as part of their studies about toys, the Y1's created some 'talking' and 'moving' puppets. They used clothes pegs to operate the 'mouths' and utilised paper fasteners to allow the limbs to move.

These are my examples that I used to show the principle features to the children. 

ceramics 2

Today, the y2's managed to underglaze and decorate their 'rice' bowls. They're in the kiln as I type - hope they turn out ok - the children are expecting to be able to eat out of them during their upcoming Chinese feast.

ceramics

Our y2's are in the throes of making rice bowls (to tie with their studies about China). They've been bisque fired and are awaiting glazing tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we've got some new ceramics pens in school so I thought I'd try them out on an old IKEA plate. Just got to put them in the kiln when it's on a 'drying' program to fix them.

draw like an Egyptian!

In y5/6 (we have mixed classes) we've been looking at Ancient Egyptian images. We talked about the common features and then sketched figures. We then had a go at drawing self-portraits in a similar style.

automaton

Here's the latest automaton to grace my workbench;

It's a gardener proudly watering a flower. As you turn the handle on the right the gardener bends to water the plant and, as he rises, so does the bloom. I made it as a try out rather than a completely 'finished' piece just to get the hang of the mechanism. Quite pleased with how it turned out.

toys

Y1's theme for this term is toys. Today, using simple shapes they had a go at drawing some traditional ones.

They also added captions.

bunting

Managed to make up the collaborative paintings from the other day into a couple of lengths of bunting. Each is about 2m long.

At the minute they're strung up over the windows in the art room and definately brighten up the dismal, grey views of the weather outside.

collaborative painting

Finally managed to do some 'real' art this week with the children. In y5 today they had a go at creating some paintings as a whole group. They each had one colour and were instructed to paint half of the paper. 

The 'painting' was then passed to another person who, using their colour, painted half of the remaining space. And so on and so on until the whole sheet was blocked in.

They then started to add stripes, again passing the paintings around. We had taped the sheets to thin boards to both keep the paper flat and aid easy movement.

Next, they added spots (using cotton buds to apply the paint.

To further enhance the pieces, the children used felt pens to draw lines, stars etc.

The resulting pieces were a riot of colour and pattern. 32 children = 32 abstract artworks.

 We're thinking of using them to create lengths of bunting.

Back

Back from the hols and back at school. This week is taken up with training and covering for colleagues so very little actual 'official' art has taken place. Have been having a good long think over the break about whether or not to change the online platform whereby I share my doings with the wider world! Am toying with going over to the dark side that is Facebook, as lots of creatives now seem to post (and sell) there. Although at the moment, from what I gather, FB seems to be trying to make it more difficult for the buying to happen. If anyone out there has an opinion I'd love to hear it.