FINALLY FINISHED

CLAY CHIMES

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, melted glass shards, wax linen & a twig

This piece has only been in a year in the making.

A year!

Shame on me.

It's a new idea I saw on Pinterest that caught my attention.

So I turned it into the very first clay experience for my beginners

 on the second day of the new school year,

last year.

(repeated it again this year, just tweaked it a bit)

I gave each student 2 small pieces of clay & no tools.

I showed them how to flatten it with their palms

 and to see how the edges stretch and crack open.

I gave them a couple of old bisqued stamps that they used to decorate the tops,

and some alphabet letters to stamp a word with.

A straw was used next to pierce holes thru top and bottom of each chime.

The kids were smitten with the clay from that second day of class.

A love affair that I hope they take with them 

outside of Whitney High.

They had a choice after they learned how to glaze whether to sawdust their creations or glaze them.

If sawdusting only one was allowed, 

the second one had to be glazed.

Didn't want them to take the easy way out for both.

Then came the challenge.  

Weeks of moving them around on the wall ,

trying to figure out the most balanced, pleasing placement for each chime.

I gave this task to volunteer junior Lauren Kennedy.

And man oh man,

did she do a great job!

Once we were satisfied I gave her waxed linen to attach them together with.

A lot of knotting went on before she gave me the go ahead to string it up onto the twig.

But then school was over so I took the string of chimes home with me over the summer

to finish it.

Didn't happen.

But I wanted to have a finished piece to teach with at the start of this school year

 so I finally finished it at summer's end.

Tomorrow you will see where & who it went to.