Easy Father's Day Project

I'm in the midst of the Father's Day rush......fingers crossed that I make it!



This is a quick project I'm doing with a few schools and works for any grade.  I have seen this idea a few times and this is my take.








MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- camera and access to a printer
- corrugated cardboard
- plaster strips or white paint
- backdrop, you can just hang fabric or even tape a large piece of paper on the wall
- piece of wood, I used 1" x 6" spruce fence boards cut into 1' lengths
- black acrylic paint
- glue
- scissors
- Mod Podge
- picture hanger

PROCEDURE:

Make some large letters.  I cut mine out of cardboard squares.  I then used plaster strips to coat one side.

You can also paint them white.  You want a matte finish as it photographs the best.

Take photos.  I used a backdrop (tri- fold) with some grey fabric taped to it.



Print off photos in black and white on regular paper.  The size I used was 3"x 5".
Trim.

Sand all rough edges of your board.

Paint board with black acrylic paint.






(That was an adventure with 100 or so kids!)

Glue into position.

Give the board a nice coat of Mod Podge.  This seals the photos in place as well as giving it a nice shiny finish.

Add a picture hanger to the back if wanted and that's it.

Good luck with your own Father's Day rush.

Father's Day Clay

This is a work in progress.  Kindergarten did clay today and although I don't have one all glazed and fired to show you I thought I'd give you a peek.

When done it will be a change/key/cell phone dish for Dad.
















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- clay
- fabric placemat
- a penny nail
- wooden skewer
- little cup of water
- rolling pin
- 'D' and 'A' rubber stamps
- small chinet plate
- kiln

PROCEDURE:

Cut a slab off your clay block.  Using a rolling pin roll a slab about 1/2 inch thick.

Take your chinet plate and turn it upside down onto the clay slab.  Cut around it with the nail.

You want to use a heavy paper plate not foam as we will be putting the clay back into the plate to help hold the shape while the plate is drying out.

Remove the excess clay from around the circle you cut.  Use some of it to cut a circle for the head.  With Kindergarten we used round cookie cutters that I had.

Attach to your dish by "scratch, scratch, water, water".  Little surface scratches on the surfaces to be stuck together, rub some water with your finger over the scratches.  The scratches then have to 'kiss'.  (that always makes it easy for the kids to remember how it works)

Start adding the features.  Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc.

Add DAD with the rubber stamps.

With the extra clay roll a long snake and attach around the rim of the plate.

Place back in the paper plate to dry.

Drape for at least 24 hrs under plastic and then let dry out fully for 1-2 weeks. (depends a lot on the humidity in your area)

Remove paper plate and then bisque fire in the kiln.  Glaze or paint as you wish.

It was great to see all the Dads.

There is still time to do this project.  I will update you on the finished plates.




See you soon.

Update and Giveaway Results

Remember these Father's Day pots.  I thought I'd give you a look at the results.

Now they haven't been planted yet but I think they turned out great.




Great job Grade 6.  Let's hope we can get some hair to grow before next Friday!   The how to post is HERE in case you are looking for it.

After the bisque fire we glazed with Mayco's Stroke and Coat using Birthday Suit as the main color.

On to the giveaway results.  I had a total of 108 entries counting comments, emails, and Facebook likes.  The winner of the random draw is:   Willow Smith who entered on June 5th at 11:39 am.

Thanks everyone for entering.  If you didn't win don't worry as my friends at Acorn Media have sponsored 2 more upcoming giveaways.  What till you see the next one!

Have a great weekend.

Father's Day Clay Pots

Grade 6 sculpted their Father's Day pots.  Normally I wait until I have a completed sample to show you but with Father's Day approaching I thought I'd show you the process and add some pictures of the final results in a few weeks.  That way if you want to try this with your class you still have time.



MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- clay
- access to a kiln or use air dry clay
- nails for cutting with
- wooden skewers
- little cups of water
- piece of canvas like fabric to work on
- rolling pin
- newspaper
- glaze
- potting soil
- cat grass seeds, alfalfa seeds, etc. for hair


PROCEDURE:

So the pot is made by slab construction.  You can do a pinch pot but I wanted the Grade 6's to have a nice smooth surface to mold their face on.

Roll out a clay slab about 1/2 inch thick.

Cut a long rectangle with a nail.

Roll into a cylinder overlapping the ends a bit.

With your finger and a little bit of water smooth the seam and ensure a tight seal.

Cut a bottom out of remaining rolled clay.  Trace around the outside of your cylinder.

Make a hole in the circle (bottom) for drainage in the finished pot.

To "glue" the cylinder to the bottom you want to scratch or score both pieces of clay where they will be attaching.  Add a little bit of water with your finger.

Smooth the seam with your finger and a little more water if needed.  Tap the pot on your work table lightly to ensure the bottom will be level.

Now we can start sculpting the face.  We want this to look like our Dad so the students brought in photos or had them on their cellphones to use as reference.   Start by molding the nose, attach a triangular shape to the pot and then round the tip and smooth the bridge of the nose.

Add the eyebrows.  Roll out a thin snake.

Cut to desired length and attach smoothing into bridge of the nose.  Make sure you scratch and moisten when "gluing" 2 pieces of clay together.

For the eyes you can form an outline using those thin snakes.

Apply to the face.

Cut little ovals out of some rolled clay for the eyeballs an attach inside the outline.

Using a skewer you can mark in the pupils.

Make a mouth in the same fashion with thin rolled snakes and apply to the face.

You can add scratches to the eyebrows as well as extra clay to form the cheekbones and chin.  Just make sure to tap the pot after making the chin to ensure that flat bottom.

Add ears.  You don't want them to stick out too far or else they will just break off.

Finally add a 1/2 piece of newspaper crumpled up and place in pot to help it hold it's shape while drying.  Remove the newspaper before firing.

Place pots in a warm place with lots of air circulation to dry out.  I cover mine loosely with garbage bags for about 2 days and then I remove the bags and let the pots finish drying.  This slows down the drying process (we are so dry here in Calgary) and stops cracking.

 That's it for now.  I'll fire these pots in about 10 days or so when they are no longer cool to the touch.  Stay tuned for part 2.

Later....