Clay+plate+and+coil+built+bowl

 We are going to create three ceramic pieces: a stamp or clay roulette, a rectangular platter, and a bowl or cup. The platter will be slab built and the bowl/cup will be coil built. They are two very different techniques.

First, let's learn about CLAY!

With your partner at your table, discuss and answer the following questions: 1. What is clay made of? 2. Where do you find it? 3. How can you make dried clay mold-able and soft again? 4. What process makes clay unable to become soft again? 5. What things did the ancient people make out of clay? (name at least 5 things). 6. Name 3 things you use or see every day that are made of clay.

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 * Clay Building Processes**
 * Slab built** pieces first start by rolling out a piece of clay to an even thickness and then forming the object you want to create out of the slab. You can cut many smaller pieces of the slabs and join them together to create a box like my sculpture class. However, we are going to bend our slab and support it to take the form of a plate or platter like in the video below.

Go [|here] and read through this short tutorial on how to create a coil built vessel.
 * Coil built** //vessels//, (//vessel// is a word used to describe a hollow utensil, such as a cup, vase, or pitcher, used as a container, especially for liquids), start out as long, skinny cylinders of clay that are lain one on top of the other and joined to create a container.


 * In your **sketchbooks**, individually draw a diagram that explains the two different processes we just learned about. Don't spend too much time making the drawings perfect, they are just so you can look back and remember later. You'll have 10 minutes to complete them.

Clay Roulettes and clay stamps are used to create texture on a surface. We will first design our pattern and next carve it into a clay piece which will be fired in the kiln and ready to use for our clay projects. We are going to take the rest of the class period to create a stamp that will be used to create a pattern on our plate and vessel.
 * Stamps and Roulettes**

Let's Begin! You will need to design a pattern that will look nice repeating over and over again. You can think of organic shapes and lines, or geometric shapes and lines to help you get started. DO NOT MAKE YOUR DESIGN TOO INTRICATE! You will not be able to carve little tiny lines and shapes out of the clay. Your thinnest line will still have to be at least 2mm thick. Design your roulette or stamp in the pdf below. I'll have printed hand outs for you. Use a fat marker to help you see how wide your marks should be. You must complete at least 6 designs. You will choose your favorite one to carve onto a clay cylinder.



If we are creating a clay **stamp**, open the following pdf instead: While the **roulettes**/ **stamps** are getting dry enough to be fired, we'll roll our slabs, and form our platters.

 The Firing Process: What happens to the soft mold-able clay when you put it in the kiln?


 * Elements and Principles:**

Ceramics are three dimensional objects and so are good examples of the __Element of art__, __Form__. We will be glazing the ceramics with different __colors__, using __lines__ and __shapes__ in our clay roulettes to create a pattern and we will have created an object that has physical __texture__. All of which are examples of the Elements of art. When all the elements of art are combined, we can assess their effect and will discover that the **Principle of Art** that best describes our project could be **Unity or Pattern**. Our finished platter and vessel will be decorated with the clay roulette we've created. Because of the shared pattern stamped on the surfaces, they will be good examples of the **principles of art Unity** and **Pattern**.