Before Christmas, 5th class made terracotta clay pots thanks to artist Chloe Dowd’s video instructions.
The pots all started as large lumps of terracotta clay. After that we used a method called coiling. Coiling is where you roll your clay into long, worm-like shapes and coil them up. When you are finished, you smooth out the clay to make a nice looking pot.
That’s not all! When we were finished our models we cut out paper shapes and stuck them on when the clay was wet, making shape patterns. After that, we painted it with a paint-like substance called slip. Slip is a mix of clay and paint and comes in many different colours. When we were finished painting, we peeled off the shapes leaving blank spaces. We then used a white slip on the top as a nice finishing touch
They needed to be sent off to Chloe’s Art Studio to get fired in a kiln, which is just like a pizza oven for clay. This makes the pot more durable and dries it out.
Chloe had hoped to have them ready as Christmas presents for our families but unfortunately they did not return until April due to Covid!
They looked very cool and we really enjoyed making them as an art project.
By Josh 5th class
