Almost There!

It's that time of year again... nearing the end of the semester. We are wrapping up things. We only have three more days left in this week and five next week. Normally, the last few days of next week are reserved for finals and/or more fun activities.

Iyanu worked so hard on the image above. It certainly paid off! She did a magnificent job of making the nose just so that it wouldn't break off, but also didn't look flat. Amazing!

Mayce S., above, is flat out an amazing artist as well. She will do whatever she sets her mind to do. She's intelligent in many areas and is a magnificent artist. Her Dad was actually a sculpture major from UGA! 

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I have really started trying to get all of the clay pieces fired in the kiln. Only 7th and 8th graders were able to make clay projects due to budgetary constraints (and large class sizes), but those should be coming home anytime from yesterday through the end of this week. The students are also cleaning out their portfolios and we are cleaning/have cleaned the hallways up. We have taken down almost all of the artwork in the hallways.

It is sort of refreshing as a teacher that we get to clean out/clean up and start over in January. My brain is churning with things that I need to revamp, things that worked, and things that I want to try. I am very excited about meeting new "friends" in January, but hate to lose these precious ones.

Glazing... not Donuts

The colors of glaze will look chalky now, but I will fire them (cook them) in the kiln (clay oven) for around 12 hours at 1250 degrees and they will turn beautiful and shiny! 

 

The Tiger

I had one student who truly worked and worked on her animal vessel for a month. She created her exquisite animal vessel in its entirety recently. I had to take pictures of it and make her swear to carefully pack it up to take it home. I was quite impressed and must share it with you!

Robert Arneson Portrait Sculptures

Oh, how I love these students. We had been studying Robert Arneson and his portrait sculptures (see below for unglazed pieces).  The students, 8th graders who don't care about anything in the world, tried so hard on these. I was amazed at how a majority of students really took their time. What blew me away more was that they created characters, Batman, the Joker, a theater face, and other faces that you might recognize. The colors of glaze that we had were much more vibrant this time. I was quite impressed with these folks. We did go over step-by-step instructions about how to create the faces, but many of them "ran with it"!

Burkina Faso Pottery

7th Graders studied Burkina Faso and the wonderful pottery that the men and women make. We discussed functional versus non-functional pottery. Here are the wonderful results. Thanks to our school system for providing the materials!