Project #13 Lacy Clay Ornaments

The last lesson was mine and Melanie Jorgenson’s, and we taught our lesson on clay and lace. Our project for our students was to create clay ornaments using lacy or metal filigree designs. We started out the lesson with the different vocabulary that was included in our lesson. We then explained the history of lace and the history of metal filigree to our students. We then instructed the students to draw out their design of what they will use as their ornament on the construction paper. They were instructed to then outline their design with a permanent marker so they could see it through the wax paper when they taped the wax paper to their construction paper. They then were given a baggie filled with water and clay. They were instructed to mix the clay and water evenly, so they were showed to work the clay in the baggie with their hands to evenly mix it. After their clay was mixed together well, they were instructed to cut a small hole in the bottom corner of the baggie so they could squeeze the clay through there. They then were instructed to apply a thick layer of clay over their drawn design. It was to be thick so that it would hold together and not break. When they were done tracing their ornament with clay, they were instructed to paint their ornament with water color paints, using either warm color schemes or cool color schemes. They were also told to add a tint or a shade to the paint. When the ornament was dried, they needed to tie a ribbon around their ornament so they could hang it up. This ribbon needed to match their color scheme used in the paint.

We used a 3-D cabinet for our display of the art projects. We hung up a few of the ornaments and laid the rest on the bottom, on top of a sheet of lace. We put a blue background to the display using a black border. We used the saying “There are no mistakes in lace, just misdirected threads that present a new challenge” by: Barbara Bulgarelli, in our display.

An extension activity that I would include in this project would be to start working with creating a “metal filigree” project. I would have the students find a flower pot or another product, or I will provide pots or vases for the students, and then they could look at metal filigree and create a clay outline on the pots or vase. Instead of making an ornament, they could create the design on a flower pot, and then let it dry to show the metal filigree look.

Project #12 Stepping Stones

This lesson was taught by Kirsten Cronin and Jackie Eikamp and they taught us about stepping stones. Before the day of their lesson, they asked us to bring in a photo that meant a lot to us, and they laminated the photo for us. They started by teaching us the different techniques or designs of stepping stones. They gave us a piece of paper then to draw our design out, or what we were going to use in our stepping stone. They called us over to then have cement poured in our plastic containers. They instructed that we shake the cement around in the container so that air bubbles would come to the top so we could pop them. After that, we were instructed to place paper towels on the top to soak up some of the excess water from the cement. Then we were instructed to start decorating our stepping stone using our picture and different colored stones, glass pieces, and marbles. I used balance in my stepping stone, which shows that each side of the stepping stone is the same. I decorated mine with my picture of my family. My family means everything to me, and so I decided to put a picture of them on my stone. I used pink, blue, green, and orange stones to decorate the stepping stone, as well as using large marbles to hold my picture in. I also place a butterfly on my stone to add color and the spring/summer time feeling!

An extension activity that I would have my students do with this project would be to include science. We would work with cement and the chemical make up to see why it hardens when water is added to it. We could then experiment with other fluids such as coffee, or juice to see what that does to the cement. We would then make our own stepping stones using these fluids and see what different colors the fluids create.