Pre-School Clay Results

This week I unloaded my first (partial) glaze kiln of the summer. On the top shelf were the pre-school bells made by my daughter's class at the start of the month. The students had painted underglaze on the bells during their class. After bisque firing, I painted a layer of clear gloss glaze over their bells. 

glazed bells in kiln before firing

 The clear gloss glaze made the underglaze colors darker, and shiny, of course.

glazed bells in kiln after firing (with a couple extra pieces)

All the bells worked after firing, though one sounded like it had only one small noise-maker inside. I'm not sure what happened, but the bell was made by one of the youngest students in the class. She either put only one noise-maker ball into the bell or she had too much slip inside and all the noise-makers are stuck to the interior of the bell.

I brought the bells in to the class earlier this week. I didn't get to see the kids' reactions since I just handed the box of bells to their teacher to distribute. My daughter helped me unload the kiln and then delighted me my pointed out all the features of her bell and the bell made by the girl sitting next to her. I hope the other kids did this for their parents as well. Or maybe it just delights a potter/mother.

this multi-colored bell was decorated with a flower arranging frog (basically a poky thing like a cat brush) on the side. The wad of clay on the top is reinforcing a crack or covering a too-large hole the kid punched in the bell. 

this bell has a rectangular slot in the middle probably made by pushing in a popsicle stick or similar tool.

I think the green underglaze on this looks like a dragon or jumping lizard

the slab base of this bell was pushed up after the excess clay was trimmed off so that it isn't sharp

a couple of the kids were very careful about applying one even coat of underglaze color

this piece has several indents around the body made by pressing clay stamps into the wet clay

the white part of this bell is the naked clay without underglaze color. The clay body is slightly speckled under the shiny clear glaze

The same piece from above has a tiny rip on the wall at the bottom and an added piece of clay made from a mold of a seashell 

the kid who made this piece really enjoyed layering wet clay bits and lots of underglaze, after he sliced the walls of the bell

this piece has tiny noise-maker balls added to the top. The plug of clay used to close the top of this bell was so thick I was worried it would explode in the kiln.

I believe this kid used a scoring tool to scratch the wall of the piece. there is also a seashell sprig on the side

After the kids had made their bells, Teacher Toni used some leftover clay to make one herself