Ceramic Dogs in the Style of Steve Fullmer
Artwork by Nina
It was another fantastic day of learning in the art room. Gina and Shanon’s class came to visit for the same clay lesson that Maria’s class had earlier in the term. Energy and excitement were high in class today, clay is always a favourite with students of all ages.
Today we looked at the art of Steve Fullmer who is a New Zealand based ceramic artist. I am a fan of Fullmer’s work and thought that the offbeat nature and whimsy of his designs would appeal to the students. I was correct. The kids loved his work, especially the ocean themed pieces from the Cutting a New Orbit exhibition.
To start off our lesson today we drew studies of dogs. The students focused of facial features and proportions as well as adding marks to show texture. Some of the students experimented with shading also. I love the gorgeous wee dogs that the students drew, they are full of so much personality.
The goal for today’s lesson was to learn to make a pinch pot and join clay pieces to it using slip. We used Fullmer’s ceramic dogs as models for our work. The students rolled balls of clay in the hands, pushed their thumb into the middle and pinched the edges around to make a pinch pot for the head of their dog. They joined ears and noses by using the score and slip technique. They created a rough surface by drawing cross-hatching lines on both the pinch pot and piece to be added. They then added slip to both surfaces and joined them together by smoothing out the edges of the joined piece onto the pinch pot. I am really proud of how well the students worked on this technique - it can be quite challenging for little people but Gina and Shanon’s class were amazing!
One of the techniques that the kids loved learning the most how to make the eyes for their dog. I showed the students how to create an eye socket and then add a tiny ball of clay (with the score and slip technique of course!) as the eyeball. They finished off the eye by poking a skewer into the eyeball to make a pupil. The result was a much more realistic looking eye than just drawing the eye on the clay with a clay tool.
The dogs are drying in my art room and will be fired in the school kiln in the next week or so. Hopefully the students will be able to add a glaze or paint them when they are back in class with Gina and Shanon. I’m hoping to do an update of this post later in the term with the finished dogs - watch this space!
