Skip to main content

Clay and Weaving!


I'm brave, I tried a new lesson again.... I can say as we are completing these clay frames that you have to follow some basic rules or you will have broken frames. We have had only 3, but I did make extras. 

My 4th graders tackled this lesson with stoneware clay, and finished them with oil pastels, one color of watercolor paint and I painted modge podge on them when dry. 


 The texture is the key part of the coloring process! I have rollers and rubber texture mats. 



At least pencil think and more than 2 fingers in width.
 You need some lid tracers and a pin tool. Don't try to cookie cutter it. 


I strongly recommend 15 or 19 holes punched with a straw. You must have an odd number!!
If they go hole craze, pop out the clay from the straw and plug the holes. 
I found the directions for weaving the warp threads here on Cassie Stephen's blog. 
I am also doing her plate weaving at the same time with 2nd grade. 


This is how I loaded them to prevent them from snapping and breaking. I also loaded them leather hard and they didn't break since they were not as fragile. 




In the second class period they colored their frames on folded newspaper to prevent them from banging them on the desks. Use oil pastes or construction paper crayons, followed by very watered down prang watercolor paint. (one color was my rule)


In the third class, I had the kids number the wholes and I precut yarn. 
Yes, this is the most confusing part, but we did it in one class period. 

After you finish the warps, use the odd number thread from the front to begin weaving in the center. I recommend trying it yourself a few times, before teaching it. 





Here are a few that are almost finished. I found some really nice textured yarns at Joann's. 
I am planning to display these for open house in March. 
I have decided to have a circle themed art display this year. 

                                        





    




Comments

  1. These look fabulous!! I'm doing regular weaving using hand-made clay looms with my 4th graders and I'm having the hardest time with their looms falling apart as I get them into the kiln. There's quite a few that are way too thin. Yours look great, I didn't even think of using the oil pastels and paint I was just going to have them use glaze, but now I'm thinking I may do what you did because the colors look so bright

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have done a rectangle in the middle in the past, but think the circle is stronger. I highly recommend this way of coloring them. That way the glaze won't fill the holes. Good luck!

      Delete
  2. These are really beautiful. I am intrigued by the way you loaded them into the kiln. I would never have thought to stand them up. Terrific project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! They break if you stack them horizontal! I learned that the hard way😳!

      Delete
  3. These are fantastic! I would love to try this with my students, but I have a question about firing the clay. You said you loaded the kiln when the frames were leather hard. Did you then let them finish drying out in the kiln or did you preheat first and then start a slow bisque firing cycle?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I did! I put them in before Thanksgiving break and fired when we returned the following week. Thank you!

      Delete
  4. Wow! These are absolutely gorgeous. Definitely a must do!! ANNDD pinning onto my Pinterest board now! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. these are great, Beth! Question- 4 class sessions? 5?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you think this could be done with air dry clay? I wonder if the clay would break during the weaving.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. no, I tried this many years ago and they broke, too fragile. Sorry

      Delete
  7. I re read! At least 5 class sessions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love these...so much, in fact, that my fifth graders made the looms today. I have had amazing luck with another process. We use craypas and then paint with slightly thinned tempera. Once it is dried, you wash and the tempera stains any bare clay. A bit more of an artifact sort of feel.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Are the rollers specifically a clay item? What is the metal rectangular tool in one of the photos? Is it for creating slabs?
    Thank you : ) these are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  10. These aRe beautiful! The rollers...are they specifically a clay item? What is the metal rectangular tool? Does that create slabs?
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The metal tool is a slab slicer. The texture rollers came from Sax. Thanks!

      Delete
  11. Stacking in the kiln on end was something I never thought of and I am doing tiles. I take it you have had no problems with breakage this way. How thick are the frames?

    ReplyDelete
  12. do you think is possible without a kiln? I have class but no kiln to use and want to bring clay into the class room.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Could you explain the beginning of the weaving process? I've never done anything like this but Love the look. Not sure where to start with the yarn process. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is just a basic abab circle weaving process. Many Youtubes available.

      Delete
  14. Did you spray the piece with anything after the watercolor dried? I'm just wondering if the oil pastel smeared at all. I've only used glaze on fired clay before. Beautiful project.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Beth,
    I noticed that you used tape to hold the end of the warp strings in place. Do you leave the tape on or do you tie it off somehow?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hey-how do these get shiny after the oil pastels and watercolors? Did you coat them with something?

    ReplyDelete
  17. oops-just the question and answer above, sorry!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Beth - this is just wonderful! Can I put this on www.creativity4wellbeing.com? I will attribute it to you of course. My e-mail is creativity4wellbeing'gmail.com. Thank you. Richard x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. Beth

Most popular post

Kandinsky Trees

My first graders really need help with their fine motor skills this year. After completing a very successful Kandinsky Concentric Circle painting lesson noted below, I followed up this past week with a tree inspired lesson. Once again, I found my inspiration from  Jen Draw the Line At  and I used her lesson suggestions for this very successful lesson. My student's used Crayola Metallic crayons instead of the Crayola Construction paper crayons and we used juice lids for some bigger circles in the stamping part of the lesson.  Day 1 On day two constructed the trees and circle leaves. I passed out a 12 x 4 inch piece of black paper and had two different sizes of  square paper for the circles. Yes, this was a challenge since we did not use pencil, but we drew with our scissors. Day 2 I will definite repeat lesson for next year! I will be displaying these soon.  Displayed artwork is posted  HERE

Monet's Pond

The Dallas Museum of Art  has a wonderful   Monet Painting  in a beautiful gold frame which inspired me to create this lesson for our Big Art Day which is fast approaching in Texas schools.  For our Big Art day this year I have a Theme....Circle Art!  Themes are the way to go when organizing events.  I love this new lesson that was inspired by one of my favorite artists,  and two favorite bloggers:  Painted Paper and Cassie Stephen's who also use themes.  I ordered the 10 inch cardboard circle rounds for this lesson, the same size  Cassie used in her Dot Day Art .  School Specialty has various sizes. The kids loved painting on this canvas instead of paper.  We read about Monet's garden and look at prints of his masterpieces. I even show them some of my pictures that I took when I   visited his garden in France.   On day one, we painted the pond and the water lily pond on a 10 inch cardboard circle  on the white side with Pr