Winter Camp

 This year, I am running the Winter Art Camp at Paint Some Pottery in Allentown (Great store-come check it out!).  Our first day, Monday, was clay day.

Clay is always a fun medium to work with.  We started the workshop by discussing clay: Have you used clay before? What is it? Where does it come from? What does it feel like?  I then told them what our first project would be--their own mini dry erase boards.  We rolled out some slabs. We then talked about the different ways we could decorate our clay pieces: we could add things to it using cookie cutters and coils, or we could use tools to imprint designs, like stamps or clay tools. We used a coil to create a border around the "writing area" on our boards, by scoring and using the slip .  Then they had free reign to decorate the outside area.

My example that I created as I went through the different steps

playing with clay

Our second clay project was a coil candle holder.   They will hold tea lights when they are done.  We rolled a ball of clay and patted it down to make a base. We reviewed how to make a coil. I showed them how to attach the coil to their base and then continue making and adding coils to build up the walls of their candle holder. To finish, I had them brace their hand against the outside of their clay piece and use one or two fingers from their other hand to gently "erase" the line on the inside of their candle holder.  They then used a damp sponge to smooth the outside coils slightly.