Clay Landscapes

Prior to Christmas I did these clay landscape plaques with Grade 5.

They had to choose one of the six geographical regions of Canada.

I was quite impressed with their work.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- clay
- fabric placemat
- nail, wooden skewer, small cup of water
- rolling pin
- reference photos if needed
- ceramic glaze
- kiln

PROCEDURE:

Roll out your clay to a good sized rectangle, 8x10 or so.

My slab is about a pinky finger thickness.

Before I cut the plaque out I figure out the shape.


I draw into the clay with my finger.  I usually draw it with less pressure but I wanted you to see it here.

If you don't like it just erase it with a swipe of some water on your finger.

Using the nail cut your shape out and lift away the excess.

I tell the kids to make sure they push the nail down to the fabric, "you should feel the fabric on the end of the nail".

Before I forget I make the hole for hanging with the head of the nail pushed all the way thru.

Now it's time to start our design.  I have reference photos for the kids of the 6 geographical regions.  They pick one and create their scene.

With the leftover clay from the slab they begin cutting pieces out for the landscape.  We want to stay flat like a cookie for these pieces.

I don't use slip in my art classes, I move around too much from school to school.
I use the good old "scratch, scratch, water, water".  I teach the kids that chant before we start.  To 'glue' our clay pieces together we first make surface scratches in the base where our pieces are to go.  I use my finger dipped in water to rub water over these scratches.

I then repeat the process on the back of my landscape pieces.

I then tell the kids the scratches have to kiss. They usually groan at this idea but it gets the point across and clay gets attached correctly.

If you have extra scratches in your base just erase them with a swipe of water from your finger.

Continue to add pieces to your landscape keeping them flat so your plaque doesn't get too thick.



"Scratch, scratch, water, water"

You can some texture marks to enhance your landscape.

Scratch your name into the back of the plaque, have a partner hold it while you do this.

The landscapes then get put away to dry out for 1 to 2 weeks.  I utilize the library for this, placing them on newspaper on top of the bookshelves.



When fully dry, do the cheek test: place clay piece on your cheek if it is cold it is not dry.  I find in Calgary it usually is always a bit cold even when dry but it won't feel damp.

When the clay is dry do a bisque fire in the kiln.

After the landscapes have cooled you can glaze.










Fire again in the kiln.

That's it.







Love this prairie one.

Great flower details.

Although not a geographical region the students were allowed to do Calgary.
This student took her time and made a terrific cityscape.




See you next time.

Gail

Landscape Inchies Part 2

Here is part 2 of the inchie tutorial.



We will be making these 3 inches, Canadian Shield, Atlantic, and Great Lakes region.
















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc paper inches cut to 3"x3"
- scrap piece of heavy paper
- white tissue paper
- glue
- green painter's tape
- disk tempera paint
- acrylic paint, black, white, red, yellow, orange
- fine black and red sharpie
- cotton Q tip
- pencil
- yellow and white oil pastels
- white streamer
- iridescent glitter glue 

Canadian Shield:
Give each student a scrap piece of heavy paper. This can be scraps of wc paper, card stock, etc.



Have them spread some glue over the paper.  Watch out as some kids will put way too much glue on!

Place tissue paper over top of glue and kinda scrunch it.  You want some wrinkles in the paper.

Set aside to dry.

Take a wc inchie.  Put some green painter's tape about halfway up the inchie.

Paint the top part of the inchie a watery blue.  I had the kids mix a little black into the blue to make the sky a little darker.


Let dry.

Remove tape.

Add some yellowy green to the bottom section.

Paint a little darker green lines (hills) on top of the yellow green.  You want to see both colours.

Paint the tissue paper covered scrap paper with some grey acrostic paint.  (black and white mixed together)

Take some white on the brush, splatter with your finger flicking the brush.

You can do black as well if you want.




Let dry.

Cut some rocks out of the tissue paper covered scrap.

Glue onto the inchie.

With a fine black sharpie draw in some trees.

Take a Q tip.  Cut one end off.  You now have a paint applicator that can make small circles (cut end) and large ones (cotton end).

Dab into acrylic paint in fall colours. Apply leaves to your trees.  I chose this because there are some beautiful trees in the Canadian Shield region that are especially nice in the Fall.

That's it for this one.

Atlantic:

With pencil draw in a lighthouse on the rocks.  Make sure to add a straight line on one side of the horizon to represent water.

Peggy's Cove is the inspiration.

With red and black sharpie add some details.

With yellow oil pastel put in the glow around the light.  With white oil pastel put in the light and colour in the lighthouse as well.

With a watery purple wash of disk tempera paint over entire inchie.

The oil pastel should resist the paint.  You can blot with a kleenex if you need to.


Let dry.

With black disk tempera paint in the rocks.

Paint the water in dark blue.

Take that same dark blue, make it more watery and add a little to the sky near the top.  You can blend it down a bit.



That's it for this one.

Great lakes Region:

For the Great Lakes I used Niagara Falls which is the on the outlet for Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. (Niagara River).

Take your inchie and draw the falls in pencil.

Paint the sky blue with disk tempera.

Paint the fall section with light blue disk tempera(white and blue mixed).

Paint in the sides with green disk tempera.

Paint water below falls with a dark blue.



Let dry.

With plain water add some to sky above falls.

While still wet blot with tissue lifting some of the colour.  This creates our mist coming from the falls.

Do the same for the bottom of the falls.

Take a 2" piece of white streamer.  Fold in half.  Open and then cut a fringe in one half.

Put some glue over the falls.

Place uncut side of streamer into glue.  Fringe is up top.  You then fold it down to represent falls.

You can then add some iridescent glitter glue and a touch of blue disk tempera to the falls.  Do this carefully as the streamer is quite delicate. 



That's it.  You now have all 6.

See you next time.

Gail