Saturday, May 8, 2010

Dabbling

Been a lot of dabbling with clay going on. It's been awhile since I've done a glaze firing so I was excited to get to work and open the kiln and take a peek. Here are the beads and textured clay balls I made for garden sculptures. I tried out a few glazes I didn't have samples of. The Kiwi green is by far my favorite.

Firing beads and round objects is new to me. Might seem easy but my knowledge is pretty basic. Anything is easy with the right tools and I tried out the bead tree for the first time.Things got a little fishy... Meet my "taco fish." We make these in second grade. I was going through my clay examples and got fed up with an over abundance of examples taking up a lot of good realty in the store room. I usually make one example per class during demos. This school got their coat of glaze and was destined for a spot in the garden.It may be hard to see but this is a little brown bird looking up at us. She's found her home among the herbs. Unfortunately, students move away and their projects are left behind. These have been stored in boxes for a few years never seeing the light of day.The bird and turtle are enjoying the sunshine in the herb "fountain." My examples from this year will be added after the next glaze firing.This is my first attempt at my clay "towers." I couldn't get to the hardware store fast enough to find a metal rod. I was disappointed that not all of the openings in the textured balls fit. I'm already paying closer attention to that detail to prevent that from happening again. I may get a narrower rod or find another way to use those pieces.

Batch two of textured balls, cylinders and beads has been made and are drying. After being inspired by some some decorative garden art pieces at the botanical garden store, I've added clay disks to the bunch.

Is it high art? Not even close but we're having fun. That's what counts!
Marissa
PS-Hi, Gwen!

1 comment:

  1. So glad your students get exposed to art.
    Which, by the way, with all the education cuts, is your position safe? So hope so. I know first hand how frustrating an education career can be.

    ReplyDelete