"Let me out!" Pots

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Middle-school students will ...

* exhibit on understanding of the source of the clay body.

* use clay terminology and become reacquainted with the tools, equipment and various techniques involved in working with clay and glazes.

* define the properties of clay and its potentials as a plastic medium.

* properly wedge a mass of clay to eliminate air bubbles.

* construct a hand built piece of pottery following guidelines.

* use design elements in a 3D form.

* apply a surface decoration to the finished sculpture.

* derive success and pleasure from the finished piece.

Working with clay is one of the oldest crafts known to mankind. Even before recorded history, man was shaping clay into useful and beautiful objects because this material is so plastic when it is moist. When clay is dried, it is hard enough to hold its shape, and when it's fired in a kiln it has a stone-like durability that lasts for many centuries.

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Some civilizations believed that each lump of clay taken into one's hands housed some being inside it just waiting to pop out. With that idea in mind, I assigned my students "Let Me Out!" pots. I told my students their lumps of clay were housing "creatures" and that they were to take the clay and "release" the being inside it. Of course, at first the students looked at me like I was out in left field but, once they got to work, they were so engaged in the activity they forgot they originally thought my idea was "weird"!

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My students had already used the slab, coil and pinch-pot methods of making pottery, so I gave them the option to use one, two or all three methods to form these pots. (We use tire clay that fires at cones 05-06, but you could use this lesson with air-dry or Plasticine clay.) I briefly reviewed the different methods by demonstrating how to form each style of pot. I showed examples of completed slab, coil and pinch pots.

I was careful not to give any examples of what I meant by "releasing" the creature within the clay, however. I wanted the students to have to dig within themselves for the solution to the artistic problem presented to them. I then explained that any sort of creature could be released from their clay slabs. The only stipulation was that it had to be a pot or a vessel when it was finished and not just an animal.

Each student's work took on a different meaning. Some interpreted the assignment as an actual being trapped and trying to crawl out of their pot. Others let the trapped being emerge from the pot and become the pot itself in the form of a butterfly or dragon.

After we fired the clay, it was glazed and fired once again. The results were amazing and the students were talking about the "Let Me Out?" pots for weeks!

Karen Skophammer is an art instructor for Manson Northwest Webster Schools in Barnum and Manson, Iowa.

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale Group