October 23, 2010

Collaborative Clay

Throughout the years clay pieces break. It's how we learn about slip and score. Some of these clay pieces were interesting so I saved them in a box (see the coils) and put them on a shelf to be forgotten.

 Some students who came to help me clean at the end of the day were in love with my Starry Night poster. We were cleaning out the clay room when we came across the box of broken spiral pieces. They reminded us of Starry Night. "Let's make it!" I had no idea how we were going to make a painting out of clay pieces but it sounded interesting enough to try.




They used some of the broken pottery and made the pieces they were missing. We glued the "mosaic" to a piece of plywood with some heavy duty glue and filled the gaps with plaster. Finally they painted the white plaster with watercolors. They had so much fun making this as a group and we were able to let the pieces dry as we made them. I hate putting pieces in plastic and keeping them moist over the week for students. This was the perfect solution. The finished piece is framed in the hallway. Kids can't help but rub their fingers over the tactile piece when they think their teacher isn't looking. While other bulletin boards are ripping and needing to be changed it still looks as good as the day it was hung two years ago. 

I have an awesome 5th grade class this year who needs a challenge. I think we should add to our tactile gallery! I will just have to find a glue to use to secure the pieces to the board that is non-toxic so the kids can do it all by themselves. Any suggestions?




7 comments:

Phyl said...

Oh my gosh, Erica, this piece looks better than the original Van Gogh painting. I mean, SERIOUSLY it's GORGEOUS! What a great idea for those broken coils. Love it.

I suppose you don't want to use stuff like Gorilla Glue, so a really good glue for something like this might be E6000 (I think that's the name). You can get it anywhere from JoAnne's Fabrics to any craft store, to Lowe's or Home Depot. I've used it to collage oddball materials to glass bottles, and it works well.

Anne Farrell said...

Gorgeous Erica! Bet you're glad you kept those bits and pieces.

Holly B. said...

That is absolutely awesome!!!

Cheryl Hancock said...

Fantastic recyclying project- I would go to Lowes and ask for glues such as those used by builders- Ie Liquid Nails If you have it there - I know we do in Australia- I also use a craft glue called Super Tac which is like a really tacky PVA ( white glue) It seems to stick almost everything together.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comments:) I'm going to Lowes today so I can check out all this stuff while I'm there and read some labels. It's going to be a challenge to find one that doesn't smell for this pregnant art teacher! I'm getting bigger too I need to start to take pictures so I can tell Stella, "This is when you were in mommies belly!"

Thanks guys!

Janie B said...

That is an awesome piece! I love my 5th-graders, too. In fact, that is my favorite grade now. I taught 3rd grade for 13 years and loved it, but now that I have 3-6 art, I've found 5th to be the most interesting.

Marcia Beckett said...

That's a really cool mosaic!