So this is a really easy and fast project if you do it right the first time and don't break the extruder. We are fortunate enough to have an extruder so the kids don't have to roll their own coils and they don't have to score and slip anything. Like seriously, this is a 3-4 day project. It's a great intro project at the beginning of the class. We ran into some issues the first time around because we didn't line our bowls with plaster wrap or bags (so the clay stuck to the bowls and everything cracked and broke) and the clay we were using was a bit too dry (leftovers from last year) and the extruder got pulled out of the wall and the plunger and dies got bents. I must have had the strongest girls in the world in that class.
To start, I made a bunch of coils because with 30 kids, it would have taken forever for all of them to make their own coils. The kids coil the bottom of the bowl and then start building up. I told them they needed at least 4 different kinds of designs. They could do braids, plain coils, squiggly coils, circles, hearts, flowers, balls of clay, openings, etc.
Once they are done with all of the coils, they have to smooth all of the coils on the inside. This is why they don't have to score and slip anything.
I love how they turned out. It really is a fail proof project as long as they follow directions and line their bowls first!
Here are the results...
Hey there! It's Mr. S (Felix) Hope all is well. So when you say, "line the bowls with wrap," do you mean like saran wrap? And you line this around a Styrofoam bowl as a sort of template, building the clay coils around the bowl from the inside? Thanks for any advice.
ReplyDeleteYou can use either saran wrap or a plastic bag. And yes, you line it around the bowl as a form for the coil bowl and put the coils inside.
Deletewhat kind of bowls did you use?
ReplyDeleteAny large bowl you can find. Students have used metal bowls, glass bowls, plastic bowls. I have gone to target and raided their $1 bins and got some pretty large pumpkin bowls that work great.
DeleteWhat type of clay extruder do you have? Thanks :)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amaco.com/products/extruder-hand-std-brent?ref=2&taxon_id=252
DeleteHowever, since writing this post, I don't let the kids use the extruder anymore. I decided without them making their own coils and without having to score and slip, there wasn't enough substance in the lesson.