Foundations for 3D art and design

.All the sessions would normally have an introductory session. During this time the participants are free to explore the material prior to any presentation of directed activity. This gives a therapeutic free play space of exploration from a personal perspective and an opportunity to follow up on creative ideas stimulated by the previous lesson/s. The length of this open session will be subject to individual participation and the group as a whole.

Part One

Working with clay (or similar modelling material)
Preparing clay – this is a way of mixing clay into a smooth texture without folds or air bubbles. This activity would normally be at the beginning of the guided part of the lesson.
Traditional kneading – as one would do in bread making.
Spiral kneading – the clay is collected into a solid mass that is kneaded in a spiral fashion that kneads the clay in one block, a single mass.
Wedging – this system of preparing the clay is again based on one solid mass that is thrown hard onto a board and then turned around and then thrown down again. This is repeated until the clay mass is mixed evenly and free of air bubbles.

Make balls of clay and place them together to make animal shapes or any other artistic sculpture. A cocktail stick of a barbeque stick cut to a suitable size can be used to join one sphere to another.

Part two

Prepare the clay then make a selection of balls.
Then take one ball at a time and roll it out into a long continuous length, the longer the better. Then place the lengths in order of length i.e. longest to shortest or shortest to longest.

Coil pots

Roll out a long length of clay and roll it into a spiral. This is used as the base of the pot. Use additional rolled lengths of clay to make the sides. Start on the base and go around the outer edge building up the sides coil by coil. Slip can be painted like glue to help each coil stick to the coil below. A flat circular disc can be made and used as the original base instead of a coil or sandwiched onto the base of the coil pot or inside the base of the coil pot to add to the thickness and strength of the base. Similarly very thin coils can be added to the sides to give additional pattern and/or strength.
A coil pot can be made into a basket of fruit or flowers. This can be a good shared large group project.
A simple sculpture activity for individuals or a group can be achieved by collecting all the spirals and clay lengths together to form one sculpture.
Alternatively it can be fun to lay a collection of shapes and lengths of clay into a flat surface then roll the mounds of clay into a flat shape. This can give learners an introduction to 3Dimentional transforming into a 2Dimentional format of presentation.
The above curriculum of activities can be transferred into a similar progression of art and design activities on the beach or in a large outdoor sandpit. This offers an outdoor extension and consolidation of the clay experiences within the context of a new medium (wet and dry sand) and an assortment of natural objects, animals and plants.
Similarly for those with basic sewing skills the 3Dimentional clay work can be transferred into 2Dimentional fabrics and additional stitch designs using different qualities, i.e. textures, thicknesses and colours.

Part Three

Prepare the clay and then it into one large ball shape.

Place a piece of cloth or net onto the table and place the ball of clay in the middle.

Using a wooden rolling pin, roll out the clay in the same way that one would roll out pastry. Moving the cloth round to change the direction of rolling and improve the overall round plate shape.

Use a small object with an interesting shape and/or texture to emboss a patterned design around the edge of the plate. [Associated outdoor activity: Going out into a garden or natural area to seek and collect natural objects that can be can be used to press patterns into the plate of clay.]

Repeat the above activity and roll out a very thin flat pancake. Then using a pastry cutter or knife, cut out shapes to be placed as decoration on the large plate.

Biscuit shape cutters can be used to give specific shapes. Similarly upturned cups or tin or other suitable objects can be used to cut out shapes.

Geometric shapes made with straight lines can be marked on the clay with cocktail sticks or different lengths of barbecue stick. When the sticks present a desired shape they can be pressed into the clay to act as a guide for the cutting of the shape.

Making a Slab designed Pot or Sculpture

A continuation of the rolling out flat clay slabs could be the making of slab flower pots, or sculptures or model buildings that can be collectively mounted into a model village. Alternatively rolled out slabs of clay could be used to make dolls house furniture or a decorated house number or name plate.