Thursday, May 24, 2018

Clay Coil Design


The 5th-grade district standards say that we should teach coil method and most of the time, clay is the perfect medium for this. This project was created to be exploratory and students had the option to add a hole in the flat piece to hang the projects as well. They are decretive pieces that really taught a ton of skills.


Tracy Hare, our visiting Artist, had tons of pre-recorded videos and handouts to help the 5th graders understand how to create so many wonderful shapes using the coil method.  These works of art were created on a foam plate while making them, however, the end result was a variety of shapes and sizes. They only had the one hour to create with clay, so every Artist got done what they could get done.


Students were asked to decorate their fired work with oil pastel and a mixture of 1 part water and 1 part acrylic black paint. Take a look at the video to fully understand the process. The decorating of the clay works took one and a half class periods (60-minute classes). For one class... I tried it all in one day, I was rushed and short with the kids because of it. Live and learn, I would suggest all the oil pastel one day and as students are working on a second lesson, pull back small groups to add the black paint and rinse the work as it shows in the video.


I think this lesson was a hit with my 5th graders.  They seemed to really like the magic of rinsing away the black paint to reveal the color again.



To see all the lesson plans that Mrs. Hare worked on without students at Prairie View Elementary and Middle School, please click here.

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