Glazed Clay Pieces

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.

Art and textures that inspire me

Light in the Window

We are lucky to have a nice amount of natural sunlight in the atelier. We all find it calming to have low lighting from lamps and feel the warmth of the sun streaming in on our work. We see it sparkle off of mirrored balls watching the intensity change as the Earth rotates. The time change lets different classes experience the sparkling light. The children stop short in their tracks as the sparkles revolve around the room. I ask " Where is this light coming from?" "Bubbles" "Stars" "Disco balls!" "Why don't we see the sparkles on a cloudy day? "There is no sun!" The light is always inspiring them adding wonder to their day.

Light and Shadow

 We continue to play with light. Natural light streams into the studio each day hitting the mirrored disco balls hanging in the window. The walls, floors and ceilings sparkle with moving light. The children try to capture the flickering spots of light fascinated that they feel nothing.
The overhead projector stimulates creativity each day by playing with shadows as well as placing different items on the projector itself. Comparing the blown up size of an object versus the actual object stimulates their thought processes. They love to jumo and kick their legs and arms to see their
shadows copying their movements.
My favorite way to play with light is to put finger paint on a light table and watch as the children move
the paint around exposing the light with each swipe. Sadly many children need to be encouraged to even touch the paint far too much. But, once they swirl some paint around they forget their initial objecting to touching a gooey paint. I also add another color just when they think that they want to quit.

We Create Art

We used pine cones and sweet gum balls

(from the tree) to weave yarn around and around.

Tree branches were wound with different colors 

of yarn . We all put it together into a  mobile that

hangs in our atelier. It is balanced dangling

down from a string in the ceiling. We lay underneath it looking up. Some have seen fairies and others birds and bird nests. They walk around it not touching it and

sometimes gently touching it to see it move.

Open Minds

   Shapes of nature that inspire     us. Touching,observing,smelling and listening  as we work on 
artistic endeavors.

         We paint, cut, play with light(sometimes natural,     sometimes not.) We reach high to make marks on the wall chalkboard,sponge it off then do it again.Sometimes we paint with water to make dark lines on the board. We find seashells and listen to the ocean. We draw the shell, rocks, birdcage,fern leaves and sweet gum balls. Always asking" What is this?" "Where is it from?" Always wondering and exploring. As the teacher I provoke with materials and listen. I am always amazed at the natural intelligence that they have been born with. They all create.