Thursday Explorers!

These artists knew exactly what they wanted on the first day back in the studio since 2011... clay! Clay tools such as popsicle sticks and various sized caps from jars and bottles take on distinct uses for different artists.

In the picture to the left, a returning daughter/father duo complete a routine of representational objects that has become the norm for the beginning of each class. Dad makes a bee while the young artist sets to work creating a flower for the bee (ball with several sticks pushed into it).  And what better for the bee to munch on but a pizza complete with butter and steak toppings! 

Later, the same artist continues to use the sticks, but this time energetically cutting a snake, or coil, into tiny pieces.

Another young artist is seen here designing with sticks by poking them down into a coil. While he is keeping close observations on how the sticks vary from standing straight up to leaning in either direction, it seems important to him that they all be similarly placed.

Bottle caps and jar lids are also a much appreciated clay tool. A young girl explores the possibilities of texture from different lids by rolling them along a coil. This gesture leads to the idea of a wheel following a track, and the action is repeated with joy and enthusiasm.

She later discovers (or rediscovers) that the jars that hold the sticks can be used as tools themselves! She pushes the lip of the jar into clay to cut out shapely circles that are then mushed back together, flattened, and cut again.

This repetitive and energetic work with clay helps children really get to know the material and it's unique traits.

These young artists are using tools to explore,
manipulate, shape, design, and represent objects with clay.
Artists often naturally move back and forth through these
different developmental stages in their artistic process.