the Vikings are coming!

The y5's have completed their Viking longship sculptures. The hulls are made from terracotta clay - using the coil method, which simulates the wooden planking. The mast and spars are wood (dowel & lollipop stick) whilst the sail is a piece of cotton. They even made some crew members from short lengths of paper dowel. Size? About 15cm stem to stern.

clay

In y3, as a follow up to their pop-ups last week, we decided to sculpt some penguins (and seals) out of clay. We modelled the penguins around our thumbs! Dowels and broken lollipop sticks complete the look. We'll let them air-dry before painting.

I love the modelling and detail of these back flippers.

nearly there!

Frantically trying to complete art pieces before the hols so we can start afresh in the new year.
These are some of the finished, grouted mosaics created by our y4's.

Pottery

As a final project in ceramics club this term we made tee light 'holders'. Very simple slab construction, plainly glazed.

busy, busy, busy

Have been rearranging and updating the displays in our entrance foyer today.

Y5 automatons (with a WW2 theme). As you turn the handles the tanks in the foreground piece go round the explosion as do the doves in the back left, whilst the aeroplane goes both around and up and down.

Y1 card sculpture tigers (inspired by the Henri Rousseau work 'Surprise'.)

And the y6 (James Rizzi inspired) clay city blocks.

pottery

Today I had all of our y4's for the whole morning. We made 'Roman funerary urns'! We used the coil method to construct basic cylindrical pots before adding rims and facial details. Hopefully most of them will survive the kiln - if not then we can pretend they are authentic artefacts that have just been found, unfortunately broken, by a team of archaeologists.

mugs

In ceramics club we have been making mugs/beakers. We used rolled slabs formed around tubes. After bisque firing, yesterday we glazed them and today they are being fired for a final time. Fingers crossed that they don't split (or leak when used!).

tigers & dishes

Yesterday the y1's created some pieces based on Rousseau's painting 'Tiger in a Storm'. They've also been reading 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' by Judith kerr. We used techniques from the last couple of weeks in that we wove, using paper strips, the tiger's stripes and then stitched the grass, using coloured wool.

Meanwhile in ceramic club we took home our completed and fired dishes.

leaves & buildings

The y1's followed their paper weaving exploits of last week by stitching some Autumn leaves. The shapes/holes had been pre cut so they could concentrate on the sewing! Wool and big plastic needles were the order of the day.

The y6's have started to paint their bisque-fired, James Rizzi inspired slab, city block containers. They used acrylic paint and we'll probably varnish to further protect and give them a glossy finish.

leaves & city blocks

In y1 we wove, using paper strips, some 'Autumn' leaves.

Today the y6's made slab container city blocks (after James Rizzi). We'll bisque fire them and then carefully (!) paint using acrylics.

self portraits 2

The clay faces sculpted by our y1's are dry and have been mounted on thick card. They've also received a coat of thinned down PVA to help keep all of the bits together, especially the finely modelled hair! Here's hoping they remain intact when they're hung on the wall.

Self portraits

Today the y1's rounded off their short project on self-portraits by creating semi-relief sculptures using clay. We used air-drying clay so here's hoping they don't crack and fragment as they dry. We'll give them a good coat of PVA to seal and glue any stray bits together before attaching them to a piece of card that can then be hung for display.

masks & tiles

The y4's have been busy completing their papier mâché 'Aztec masks'.

And the y3's have finished painting their ceramic tiles.

masks & tiles

Today we added 'tiles' to our Aztec masks;

And started to paint our bisque-fired, semi-relief 'Victorian' tiles;

fire & flowers!

The y2's have begun to collage all the bits and pieces (printed buildings and painted flames) together for their 'Great Fire of London' pieces.

And here's a pic of one of the finished pieces that the members of the ceramics club made as Mothers Day gifts.

clay

As part of their topic about Victorians y3 recently looked at the work of William Morris. As he was also a collector of ceramic tiles we've begun to create our own - using natural, organic, animal designs. We're making them in semi-relief for added interest. Each child is aiming to make 4 identical tiles.

In ceramics club we glazed our flowers. Here they are, ready for the kiln.

pots

Yesterday afternoon the y5's, all 31 of them (!), made 'canopic' jars out of clay. We used the coil technique to build cylindrical pots. We'll be making the sculpted lids next time!

And then in ceramics club we made flowers - to be glazed next week - to put in our vases that we've already created. The whole piece will then be a Mother's Day gift.

ceramic club

In ceramic club this week we made vases. We used the coil method around a cardboard tube former.

Next week we'll glaze them. After the half term hols we'll be making ceramic flowers to go in them - ready to give the whole package as 'mother's day' gifts.

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.