Form and Shape Clay Houses with Maud Lewis

Two week Project to allow for a bisque fire in between lessons

DISCUSSION:  Clay: what is it? Where does it come from?

what can you make with it?

when you make things with clay are they flat like paper?

Mrs. Brown says you have been talking about houses

what does a house need to be a house from the outside?

windows: what shape: square, rectangle

door: rectangle

roof: triangle

ARTIST: Maud Lewis

Folk Artist 

1903-1970

Nova Scotia, Canada

Born in Ohio

She suffered from disabilities as a result of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

lived most of her life in poverty with her husband in Marshalltown. 

he began her artistic career by hand-drawing Christmas cards. 

These proved popular with her husband's customers as he sold fish door to door and encouraged her to begin painting. 

She used bright colors in her paintings and subjects were often of oxen teams, horses, or cats. 

All of her paintings are of outdoor scenes. 

Her house was one-room with a sleeping loft and is now located in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.

Most of Maud Lewis' paintings are quite small - often no larger than eight by ten inches

She is known to have done at least three paintings 16 inches by 20 inches. 

Her technique consisted of first drawing an outline and then applying paint directly out of the tube. 

She never mixed colors.

She painted on everything in the home as she often did not have enough money to buy supplies

for additional information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Lewis

PROJECT: create a clay house like Maud Lewis

Step1: Roll out the clay and warm it up

Step2: Flatten the clay and make a flat square

Step3: use your toothpick to draw in a triangle roof

MAKE SURE NOT TO POKE YOUR TOOTHPICK ALL THE WAY THROUGH, JUST DRAW ON THE SURFACE

Step4: draw in windows

Step5: draw in the door

Step6: add texture to the roof

Step7: Draw in some pictures on the house like maud lewis

MATERIALS:

                clay

toothpicks

Popsicle sticks

Second week: DISCUSSION: Ceramics: throwing on a wheel 

Hand building (we did hand building)

Kiln: Fire Clay so it become hard 

Shrinks in the kiln

First fire is a bisque fire

Glaze Paint like substance that turns to glass when heated

Glaze fire in the kiln to cause it to change to glass

Glaze WILL fuse to shelves of the kiln : 

DO NOT GLAZE THE BOTTOM

ARTIST: SALLY RUSSELL   (A California Ceramics leader)

Sally Russell was born in San Francisco 

Sally’s affinity for vivid colors, organic textures and playful patterns 

She credits her parents with cultivating her creative spirit 

Sally had a flourishing career in the competitive world of fine art. 

Her larger-than-life size papier-mache sculptures and whimsical ceramic totems, some reaching 12 feet in height.

Creating and selling her line of ceramic dinnerware was initially a way for Sally to finance her fine art, but the thriving business has now become her focus. 

 "I've always played with irregular textures, colors and patterns, and bringing these elements to everyday objects seems to be a natural extension of what I am already doing with my fine art."

Sally studied fine arts and studio arts at both Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sally Russell lives in Carmel Valley

for additional information; please visit: http://sallyrussellstudio.com/

PROJECT: Glaze your bisque fired pieces and place them on the cart to go to the kiln

PREPARATION: I have found the best way to have students glaze their artwork is to create a table for each color of glaze and the children walk from table to table to complete their piece.  Foe example: at the "red" table there would be a large cup of red glaze with 5 or 6 brushes. Under the cup would be a piece of red construction paper so that students will know what color they are using. 

MATERIALS: 

Bisque fired clay pieces, 

        Glaze in primary, secondary, black and white. 

        Brushes, 

        Water

        large plastic cups

additional student examples: