Last Saturday afternoon we created magical miniature doors from terracota clay.
Our group ages vary from 6 years up to teenagers.
We cover lots of different areas of art and craft but each month we seem to include clay.
Clay is messy, but its worth it.
And noisy, when you throw the clay to knock the air out of it!
I didn't take a finished piece to show the children. I wanted them to make their own versions.
So I showed them lots of images.
We also did a lot of chatting about what we wanted to include on our finished pieces.
We then drew a quick sketch plan to try and get down on paper the ideas that are being created in our heads. By the time we get to the clay this might be adapted again and thats part of the process too.
So looking at all the drawings together, I then showed them how they can achieve their ideas with clay.
How to roll to the right thickness? How to make patterns of the wood, or attach detail?
The children share their knowledge with the newer members of the group too. Its great to see them demonstrating how to score the clay and apply slip to connect the pieces together, or hear how they would make a pattern and discuss why they might choose a particular clay tool.
Whilst creating, lots of discussion goes on about how they might finish these when they are dry.
"Shall we fire them and paint or glaze?"
And this is what we do at a typical art and craft workshop. It is a time to chat about art and craft, our ideas and experiment. Not everything works, but that IS absolutely fine too.
There isn't always time in a school setting to do things this way and thats why we do them here.
We can chat about it, or not, and if you feel like it we have room to get comfy by laying on the floor to draw.
"This isn't school." I say, "It's your art studio, lets create."
