Today's Lesson
In our final meeting with Cooper Home, the students finished their clay pots and sculptures they constructed in the previous meeting. Today's focus was to decorate their final work using acrylic paints, crayons, pastels, or a combination of materials. The students were asked to consider painting and drawing techniques we covered in previous lessons earlier in the year. Students explored the possibilities of how to decorate their fired clay pots in this final meeting.
Essential Understandings
- Artists and designers create art in a variety of forms to express ideas
- Artists and designers mix media and processes to create an art work
Outcomes
Students will be able to
- Create 3-D artwork that serves a function
- Combine 2-D and 3-D artistic techniques onto one art work
- Utilize 2-D materials in innovative and imaginative ways
- Understand the possibilities and limitations with applying 2-D materials onto a 3-D surface
Skills
- Identify different ways to decorate/finalize a clay pot/sculpture
- Creative problem solving
Between the last meeting and today's, students' pots were fired and ready for surface decoration. The final meeting was dedicated to students finishing their clay projects and finishing any projects from earlier in the semester. For this experience, students were asked to consider painting and drawing techniques that we covered in previous meetings. All materials available for students to use were laid out and organized on one table in the classroom. Students were encouraged to pick and choose from acrylic paint, oil pastels, and crayons. Each student went in a different direction; some students really liked the idea of painting their projects while others wanted to try something a little bit new like melting crayons. The students were all excited to complete their work from the previous class period. Since the decoration of pots didn't take the entire class period for every student, that reserved a perfect amount of time for them to work on projects from earlier meetings, or just explore more drawing and painting techniques! Scroll down to see how the final meeting with these students unfolded!
This student embraced the whole clay making and painting process. In the last lesson, she created coils and circled them around her slab to make her pot. During this lesson she explained how she mixed her paint using red and white to create pink, and she stated "I didn't make any pink for our painting project earlier in the year, so I think now is the perfect time!" After painting her whole pot pink, she questioned what designs to paint inside of her pot. She painted multiple designs in the middle before discovering one that she liked. She expressed that she enjoyed learning about both 3D and 2D art. Check out the video below of the student mixing some of her paint. |
This student explained that she created her pot for numerous different reasons. She wanted it to be a piggy bank, a vase, and a jewelry holder. While she painted, she held the pot in a way that demonstrated it was already functional. She said she liked holding and exploring her pot (as show in the photos [right]) because it was fun. She expressed a lot of excitement while she painted her pot gold. |
This student brainstormed ideas for how to paint her pot until she decided she wanted to paint the colors of the Mexican flag. She expressed that Mexico was her home country and that she planned on making stripe formations on her pot. She commented that she did not know which color to choose for the inside. She settled on white so she could paint the famous Mexico eagle and snake on the inside. She appeared very satisfied with her pot at the end of the lesson. |
This student created little eggs to go into her bird's nest pot. She expressed frustration with trying to paint them. She exclaimed "they're too small and I'm getting paint all over myself!". She then got a new plate to mic her colors. The change to adding more colors seemed to make her enjoy the process of painting more. The teacher talked with her about the color wheel and she became more curious about painting and colors. |
When asked about his art ideas, this student stated "I really like black and red. My wallet is black and red and I wanted to make something that matches the colors." This student demonstrated using his interests from the world around him for his art ideas. Check out the video below of this student painting his pot!
Usually when painting, other students put one layer of paint on at a time to make sure the colors remain the same the way they put them on. It's a trend that other people use, as well, but this student broke the norm by painting his pot completely red, inside and out, before coating the inside with blue. He was a student of few words but mentioned these were two of his favorites. |
Despite being absent for most of the other classes, this student didn't sit around doing nothing and actively accepted the offer to paint a pot an aid made. She wasted no time in mixing the colors she wanted and creating the dot pattern on the tray. One of the downsides to this was that she didn't have other pieces of artwork to return to, which is why it was a good thing to have a secondary pot and sculpture in case someone didn't have a pot or if one blew up in the kiln. Even though she didn't make the bear, she continued painting creating the same dot motif as the jewelry dish.
This student began decorating his pot by peeling the paper off crayons. He explained "I saw on a video once someone melting crayons, and I want to try that today!" He utilized the hair dryer in the classroom for a heat source. The student noted one problem during the class period. "It's hard to paint with the melted crayons because they harden really quick." After some brain storming and problem solving, the student exclaimed "I can hold the hairdryer in one hand and paint with the other!" Check out the videos below of this student melting crayons for his art project.
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As the remaining time for the class period came to a close, students cleaned up their work stations and returned all materials to their respective home. Since this was our last meeting with this group of students, teachers and students gathered for a group photo to capture the final memories with everyone. It has been so much fun and a joy working with these students this semester! Each meeting unfolded something new, and all of our students demonstrated incredible creative abilities. See the gallery below of some of out students painted and decorated clay pots!