Clay House Assignments

I love that architecture can be an umbrella to teach 3D techniques and 2D techniques, such as drawing. For the clay house assignment, students were focused on learning to rolling slabs and using scoring and slipping techniques, but they had a lot of leeway for their own concept development: craftsmanship and originality.

Each student took their freedom seriously and came up with an idea they could get excited about. 

We talked about the concept of a house: a tree house, a light house, a gingerbread house, a fairy house, etc. Students paid attention to form an color to communicate their idea, while adding doors and windows to something like a mushroom or beehive to make it a house where a human could live. For students who were totally blind, I used painters tape to stop out all of the parts of their sculpture they didn't want to be a specific color, so they could work as independently as possible.

Using the Potter's Wheel for Cups and Bowls

various shaped and glazed cups with handles

 We've already worked with clay this year, but I saved throwing pots on the wheel for the craft unit. Some students made cups and others made bowls. Some pressed texture and pattern into still wet clay, while others carved it out of leather hard clay.

Students who were waiting their turn on the wheel, created small dishes or salt cellars, using a pinch pot technique. Some made two pinch pots to enclose small dried, clay balls to make a shaker or rattle. This is a favorite object among my blind student.

In one week, some students made three to four objects, each with a different purpose. It's just the tip of the ice burg in terms of what can be done with clay.

 watermelon bowl