Lighthouse Painting, Summer Art

I found this awesome lesson on Deep Space Sparkle and thought it would be perfect for my summer art students. This lesson was inspired by the art of Maude Lewis, an artist who painted scenes of Nova Scotia. My summer art class has a huge age gap. The youngest is five and the oldest a seventh grader. I did end up having to help the five year old quite a bit, since this lesson was more on the complicated side
We began this lesson by drawing in the horizon and the island. Students painted the sky with light blue tempera paint. The water was painted with a darker blue and the grass was painted green. While this was drying, I had students use construction paper to cut out houses, lighthouses, boats, whales, etc. When the painting was dry, we glued these things to our artwork. Lastly, we used white paint to add waves into the ocean.
These turned out wonderful.

Polymer Clay workshop

The other day I taught a polymer clay workshop for a girl scout troop. This was a two hour workshop with girls around 11-12 years old. When working with polymer clay, it is important to work small. We began by making clay food. I was amazed at their creativity. This little food would be perfect for their dolls. Some students made monsters and animals. Many of them used small pieces of wire for arms, legs, necks, etc.

I think the overall favorite was creating beads. They loved making and stringing their own bead creations. This workshop was so much fun. I think I had as much fun as the students.

Face Mugs, Summer Art

My summer ceramic kids made these cool face mugs. Some people also call these "Ugly Jugs." We started by making a coil pot. Only we smoothed the coils out so it was smooth. Then students used coils to make eyes, nose and mouth. Make sure students connect everything really well. You don't want the coils falling apart in the kiln.
The students loved making these! and I thought it was fun too.

Clay Fish, Summer Art

My summer ceramics class made these really awesome clay fish. We started off with two oval slabs of clay. One slab is the bottom of the fish. We put a ball of newspaper on one slab. Then we put the other slab on top and connect the clay on the sides. (The newspaper helps keep the clay from sinking.) Fins and eyes were then added to our fish.
It is really important that everything is connected well. If it's not, it may fall apart. Make sure students score and slip when they connect pieces of clay.
After it has been fired once, we then glaze our fish and fire again. These are just so so COOL!

Coil Pots, Summer Art

I had my students make coil pots last week. They had to make three coil pots that were at least five inches tall. These pots could be a typical coil pot, or more interesting with spirals and designs.
The hardest thing about the coil pots is making sure they connect the coils well. Some students get lazy and don't score or slip the pots. When they do this, sometimes the pot will fall apart before even making it to the kiln. I try to encourage them to take their time and create a piece that will last. I just love the way the pots look after being glazed.

Mexican Suns, Summer Ceramics

This summer, I am teaching a kid's ceramic class. The kids in the class range from age 6 to 11. For this project, I had students create Mexican suns.We began with a slab of clay. Students then cut out their sun shape. After this, they added details by adding eyes, nose, mouth, or any other decorations they desired. These could be done by either adding small amounts of clay or cutting into the clay with a toothpick. Some students even added texture by stamping things into the clay.

These were fired once. Then we added glazes and fired again. I just love seeing the students' faces when they see their piece after the glaze has been fired. They are always so surprised and happy with the final product.

Summer Art, preschool

This summer I am teaching several classes at the local community center. This week, I taught a preschool art class. This is a drop in art class where parents and children (ages 2-4) come and create a art project.
Since July 4th is this weekend, I thought creating firework artwork was very appropriate. To create the fireworks, I put a blob of waterdown tempera paint on each child's painting. Then students used straws and blew the paint in many directions. The buildings were glued on, and windows were added.
These turned out so cool.