If I could be a door: unlocking imagination and creativity - art project

Arts & Activities, Feb, 2003 by Karen Skophammer

MATERIALS

* Clay (we used cone 06)

* Kiln

* Glaze

* Clay tools

* Computer or resource materials to look up famous people and architectural styles

* Rolling pins

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* be able to visualize being a door.

* use the computer or resource materials to look up architectural styles and famous peoples' likes and dislikes.

* define Gothic, Art Deco, Colonial and Modern.

* explain why they want to be a certain person's door.

* roll a slab of clay.

* cut and design a slab of clay.

* make a clay design stamp.

* successfully glaze the door.

* define the personality of the door he or she created.

* explain which elements of design made the doors successful.

* examine textures, colors and design, and tell how they created the mood. * Burlap sacks to roll clay

If you could be a door, what would you look like? Would you be fancy or plain? Whose home would you like to be on? What time period would you like to live in? Why?

These were all questions I posed to my fifth- and sixth-graders. I then explained that doors can tell something about the personality of the people who live in the homes on which they hang. Some doors are bold and decorative; others are plain and simple.

Some students decided they would like to be a door on Martha Stewart's house so they could be flowery and decorative with vines and such. Another student wanted to be a door on a television star's dressing room and another wanted to be a door on a musical group's home. Others wanted to be Pablo Picasso's door so could have wild designs. A few students chose to delve into the past and become an cathedral door with a sturdy/stable design.

After much discussion, we looked at different door styles from different architectural styles such as Gothic, Art Deco, Colonial and Modern.

The students were asked to sketch a door design on a 5" x 6" piece of white paper. They were to decide "whose" door they were going to be and draw the design accordingly, giving reasons for the design they had chosen and how the design qualified to be on that certain person's door. With the completed drawings in hand, I explained that we would be making these designs into clay doors using the slab method to construct them.

Before demonstrating the clay slab method, I showed the students how to make clay stamps to be used to create the decorative textures and motifs on the wet clay slabs. To make these stamps the students fashioned a small lump of clay into a shape like a small rubber stamp. They then carved the particular design into the fiat stamping area of the clay. So, if the student wanted a star shape, a star was carved or cut out of the stamping surface. The clay stamps were dried and fired, and set aside for use on the wet clay doors later on.

Next, I demonstrated rolling slabs of clay by placing the clay on a burlap bag and rolling the clay out with a roller. I told them to make sure the clay slabs were of consistent thickness throughout. With the clay slab rolled out, the slab was cut to measure 5" x 6" and transferred to a board. The clay door drawing was then used as a reference to carve and model the details into the clay surface. We used a stylus and our clay stamps to create the designs and textures. With the wet clay doors completed, we let them dry and then fired them to prepare for the glazing stage.

We then discussed what colors would create the mood of the person for which the door is being made and why. After an animated discussion, the students glazed the front side of their doors and then fired them one last time.

When the doors were unloaded from the kiln, we discussed the "personality" of the doors. Were the doors successful? Which elements of design made them successful? Why?

The students not only learned about clay-slab door-building, they also were led to examine how textures, colors and design can create a mood. They were able to analyze how a variety of textures, shapes and colors make a door more interesting and inviting.

Karen Skophammer teaches art for the Manson Northwest Webster Schools in Barnum and Manson, Iowa.