Thumping And Dragging

I forgot I had this great pix of my beginning clay kids getting started on their slab wraps.  What they are doing on the concrete is called "thumping and dragging".  How it's done is to take a huge block of clay and emboss it with lots of texture and pattern.  Then you take it outside and throw it on a diagonal to stretch it out instead of rolling it out.  Each time you throw it down you give it a quarter turn so you stretch it in every direction.  The coolest thing happens, the edges get ripped and organic looking.  From there the kids build their vases.  They get the whole thing done in one period and have a blast doing it.