The artists played and manipulated clay all year long.
They absolutely love the process! This year we finally
glazed our pieces. This took a lot of patience since I drove
to a business called" Atlanta Clay" to have them fired.
Actually, this whole vocabulary of clay puzzled our young ones.
We "fire" our pieces in a kiln(pronounced"kill"). I finally added the "n"
sound onto the kiln pronunciation so as not to frighten them.
We also talked about why it is called "firing". I explained to them
that before we had electricity all clay was cooked with
a wood "fire". This cleared things up in their minds.
So , from starting with wet clay, watching the pieces dry and then
get fired, painting glaze ont them and getting fired one more time to their
shiny brilliance was a fantastic journey that I hope they won't forget.
Hopefully it will lead them into more ways to express themselves
artistically. It's empowering to be able to create an idea with your hands.
This translatable to academic work , too. Dreaming,imagining, creating
from one's mind to a tangible object is very satisfying.
