Art Class for Kids (sorta)

I glazed this week, so, as everyone knows, I don't have much to report on that front. However, this was an interesting week for other reasons.

I glazed some things.

During the day I applied under-glaze to some bisque fired work and listened to audiobooks so that the boring process wouldn't lull me into a coma.

I was in the process of glazing some things and took a picture.

Of course I also took pictures of what I was doing to share with the world (or the 20 people who read my blog).

I finished glazing a thing. 

I fired some under-glazed work and will apply a second layer of underglaze to most everything. Yawn.

Another thing has been partially glazed (and, apparently, my finger wanted to be in the photo)

But the interesting stuff happened in the afternoon. My kid's school doesn't have Art class, so we have been spending our after school time together having our own "art classes." In the two weeks since her school started, we have made paintings, puppets, sketchbooks, buttons, hair decorations, and lots of things involving popsicle sticks and glue. 

Popsicle stick tree-house. This was the kid's own project

Some of the projects were designed almost entirely by the kid, with me acting as an audience and performing difficult tasks like breaking popsicle sticks in two (over and over and over and over again). Other projects were a bit harder and I did the initial work while the kid helped with simpler tasks like sewing through existing holes in the binding. 

Pony flip book with visible stitching.

We made a small sketchbook last weekend, then, when we saw a princess/knight flip book advertised for purchase, we thought we might be able to do better. I found a creative commons My Little Pony outline without tail, mane or cutie mark and used it as the basis for a Pony flip book. I adjusted the pony outline to be light grey, marked some lines dividing the head from the body from the feet and printed several copies. We trimmed and sliced the pages and sewed them together and added a stiffer (watercolor paper) cover. Now the kid can draw in manes, tails and other "accessories". 

Drawing the helmet on the knight pony.

This week we invited a friend to join us for a couple of our "art classes." The projects were a little more structured and pre-planned. One day we did origami, with the kids making "cootie catchers" to use as puppets or fortune tellers and the adults creating ornaments by attaching several cootie catchers together.

A puppet and an ornament (with terrible lighting, sorry, I'm too lazy to untie it.)

Yesterday we had a clay class and made simple coil animals, pinch bowls and other assorted squishy things. Later I will fire the clay and we'll have a glazing "class". 

Animals, a bowl and a lady.

I'm tempted to invite other kids can join us for the "class," though I am concerned about what happens when we have too many kids all trying to work in a small space together--especially if the kids are there because their parent "signed them up". (The cat's out of the bag with this post, so maybe I'll hear from the parents directly.)