A lump of clay and imagination

At the last Young Creative ARTelier workshop through North Vancouver Community Arts Council, I introduced clay.

And instead of having a definitive project in mind, I just handed them a big lump of the stuff and let them go to town.

Funny a lump of clay is like a blank piece of paper, it can be overwhelming at first with what to do with it.

So as they sat staring at their lump of clay, I began throwing out a multitude of ideas at them and quickly showing a bunch of different ways to tackle that lump in front of them.

I encouraged them to just start playing with it and see what happened, letting them know that nothing could go wrong.

If you don't like it, wad it up and start again.

And then finally,  I had the students throw that lump a dozen times HARD onto the table to break the ice and get them to relax.

And here is what they kids ended up with once their imaginations and that lump of clay became friends.

11 year old

A pinch pot dragon.  This piece is actually two parts and the artist will be able to lift the top off and keep items inside of it.  The ultimate "keep out" box, don't you think?

8 year old

A reindeer.  Love the added wire work for the antlers!

8 year old

This penguin was created by "one armed artist".  The poor child is still in her arm cast and between this workshop and the wet felting workshop, I am testing the limits of what can be done with one arm.  I'm quite impressed with how she has figured out how to do some lovely work without involving getting her cast too wet or too dirty.  Again, this started with a pinch pot design.

9 year old

Another penguin, but look how different!  And this one has a nest to go alongside it. 

Other than the artist who created the dragon, he worked on his piece for the entire two hours, the other students finished up with about thirty five minutes to spare.  So I got out some black pastel paper and the oil pastels and asked them to use their sculptures as subject matter for a drawing.  I went over how the oil pastels are much more interesting with you layer them and that I expected them to color the entire piece of paper.  Yes, even color black even though the paper was black. 

 

9 year old

This is the artwork inspired by the above penguin.

9 year old

I love this wolf.  The artist worked with the lump of clay and just "took away" and "added from the lump to create this piece.  I think it came out spectacular.

And here is the artwork she created inspired by the wolf sculpture.  Equally spectacular!

Lots of talk about background, middle ground, and foreground on this work.  She originally was sketching the moon in the upper corner and I suggested she drop it down behind her wolf.  Her "oooo" when she did it was priceless.   I love when students have an "ah ha" moment and realize moons, suns and stars do not always have to be at the top of their artwork.  At first she thought I had lost my mind when I asked her to color the entire paper black, even though it started out black, but in the end she saw how this helped her create a nighttime picture.  Love the hint of cedar in the foreground too!

Quite amazing what a child can do with a lump of clay and their imagination.