Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
My fist glazed pots EVER!
I can't believe this is my 3rd year full-time teaching and this is the first opportunity I've ever had to glaze fire a ceramic project with my students. Last year I did pinch pots with first graders and those got bisque fired (in my shiny new kiln), but we painted them with neon tempera. These are pinch pots I did with a self-contained class of 6 students and they came out great. OOOOOH shiny! Lol :) :)
I used Nasco Liquid Ceramic Glaze, painting on 2 coats and doing a fast fire at cone o6.
1st Project of the Year done!...Finally!
All my projects seem like they take forever. Between my 6-day cycle, days off, holidays, sick days, personal days, assemblies.....I'm sure I'm preaching to the art teaching choir out there, but nonetheless it's the week before November and I finally finished my first project of the year.
Kindergartners made collage elephants based on the book 'Elmer' by David McKee. The thing I love most about the lesson is the way each elephant has so much personality. I had my kinders do a guided drawing with me of an elephant so each drawing is totally unique to each student. Considering this was their first art project in kindergarten and half of them can't write their name or write it upside down and backwards (or some variation of the former), they did really well creating their art.
Overall, the lesson as a whole went pretty well, I would have liked to add some sort of decorative frame or background drawing on it just to make it look more 'finished' but I'm pressed for time in putting up the main hallway bulletin board so a construction paper color mounting will have to do.
Yes, some of the elephants look like armadillos, and some look like anteaters, but there so damn cute who cares?
My Crafty Self
For my bridal shower I decided to give a more personal favor than the usual candles, candies, or coasters. After thinking on it for a bit I settled on created fall flower pens complete with their own pen-holding pots. I had 3 different color glass beads, beige's, reds, and plums, and about 4 different kinds of fall colored flowers in reds, rusts, beige's, and plums. All you need is floral tape, pens, fake flowers with then stems, pliers, and a little bit of hot glue for added security. For the pots I bought $1 ribbon rolls and hot glued them on to 69 cent pots and glued one of the glass beads where the ribbon met. Super easy, and super cute if I don't say so myself. :)