Rainsticks - Student Work

I've been really looking froward to sharing these clay Rainsticks with you.  They are a new assignment this year for my Ceramics II kids (Eddie,Stella, Rita)  I was inspired by Swedish clay artist now living in Redlands Ca.  (I will get her info here tomorrow)  Over the years I've purchased several of her works at local art venues.  Anyways, this was a way more difficult assignment then I originally had planned, but the 3 kids came thru with more then flying colors as you can see.  When you pick these pieces up and turn them upside down they create a soft,delicate rainfall noise.

We will start with senior Rita Labib. She has created this crazy, wonderful serpent woman as her subject.  She embedded nails for her hair and wrapped coils around the body.  There are other nails elsewhere for interest and visual flow. 

 I love the expressive attitude that comes off her work, as well as the nail polish that she painted over top the glaze when she wasn't satisfied with the color.  A brilliant piece Rita.

A peek of the interior of the clay stick as it was being assembled below.  We knew the stick had lots of clay balls inside to create the noise, but we weren't sure about the rest of the interior so one of the kids googled it up.  We needed a series of coil cones placed in different strategic locations for the clay balls to hit against as they tumbled down .  So below is one of their clay slabs about ready to be rolled onto itself for the base of the body.  The heads were applied and sculptured after the body was upright.  Pretty cool huh?  :)

This next one was created by senior Eddie Ponce.  Everyone seems to respond to this one because it is elderly and has a bit of a frightened expression on it's face.  Eddie also used a bit of nail polish to highlight his seam, then found some lovely copper buttons to glue on top.  And the finishing touch, the pearl necklace.  It kinda reminds me of my grandmother as she was aging but still wanting to get all spiffed up for when we would visit her.

I know I've told you many times already Eddie, but I really respond and love this piece, it touches my heart.

And our last one is by senior Stella Park.  It's really remarkable to me how these young ones come up with the depth that they bring to their work.  Here we have another super expressive, heart tugging piece.  I adore the pointillism that Stella has painted onto the surface of her work, and that she's using a soft, primary color scheme.  also check out the beaded necklace and crown.  This is so lovely Stella.

The kids had a choice about how to finish them off, either glaze or sawdust fire.  The ones that were sawdusted were them rubbed with metallic compounds to further enhance them.  They all had to add other media to embellish with.