today

I've recently had a go at a few bits and pieces clay-wise and here they are on opening the kiln after their final firing. You should be able to spot the footy supporter from last week (quite pleased with him), some small pendants (an experiment that I might pursue with members of my weekly art club) and various parts of a bird (pigeon?) that I've got a crazy idea to make into an automaton piece!

 

Meanwhile in Y4 we glazed our polar bears and carefully added basic facial details.

For those who had finished we then went on to imagine that there was a polar bear who was not like other polar bears - essentially the 'Elmer the elephant' story by David McKee, but obviously altered. We drew and coloured them. The class teacher became very enthusiastic at the writing possibilities that this threw up and is keen to explore the theme with the children - altered stories, shaped books etc.

polar bears

 In y4, as a follow-up to our penguins, we made polar bears (but this time using 'proper' clay). We rolled out slabs of clay using battens to ensure a uniform thickness and then cut squares. We assembled the pieces using slip and added just enough detail to  make them recognisable as polar bears (pinched ears & tail, eyes). The final part was to cut the legs and bend alternate ones so as they could stand.

 

They are currently being bisque fired so they will be ready to glaze next week.

up and running

Back at school and back into the swing of things. Have decided that this year is going to be my breakthrough year (again!)!!

This week we are drawing as a gentle lead-in to the topics/themes we will be studying over the next few weeks.

In Y4 today we sketched polar animals - using the now legendary 'A is for....' as a starting point.

Hopefully the animals depicted should be recognisable which is what we were after, rather than a photo-realistic image.

 

 

Here's hoping that everyone has a wonderfully creative year!

(Hmm, not too happy with the photo!)

origami

As part of the Literacy unit on 'instructions' the y3 children have been creating origami pieces. These are my 'here's one I made earlier' and are all made from a very similar set of folds - in fact the tiger and polar bear are identical right up to the colouring in stage. 

 

All of them were made from a square piece of copy paper. The 'Pudsey' (Bottom pic - right) is in anticipation of 'Children in Need' on Friday.

arctic prints

 

Last week in Y4 we printed some arctic images - using polyprint (polystyrene tile that can be impressed using a pencil) but they didn't turn out as well as we expected. The paint/ink was a bit lumpy despite a good 'rolling' in the inking trays and didn't seem to sit on the tile surface properly.

This week, after they'd had a chance to dry, we thought long and hard how to keep the best bits (some great textures/surface patterns) whilst trying to enhance the original images. We settled on oil pastels and felt pens. Below is the work of one girl who, without any prompting, enhanced her 4 prints of a polar bear using different colours. It was too good an opportunity to miss to point out the similarities between her idea and the work of Andy Warhol. She was really pleased with the outcome.

 

 

 

It also provided a great opportunity to explain that what might at first be considered mistakes and failures (our initial prints) can often be adapted/altered into successful pieces. It really backed up my oft repeated mantra of  'you're allowed to make mistakes'.

 

ps. Over the weekend I sold the last copy of 'A is for Art' in my Etsy shop - but fear not, today I listed some more! Please feel free to browse both of my shops, Etsy & Folksy - just click on the links to the right.