Project: Creating Clay Critters

Clay animals are a wonderful way to engage the young artists in the processes and methods used in ceramics. Eye-hand coordination, tactile stimulation, and visualization skills come into play as the student completes this project. Although Hedgehogs are the focus of the project, it is easily adapted to other animals. Dragons are especially popular and work well within the same guidelines.

Objective

Students will create hedgehogs from clay using various techniques of handbuilding and textural applications. The student will participate in the creative process from sketch to finished piece. Basic understand of how to create clay forms, join one form to another, and translate a two-dimensional visual representation into a three-dimensional form.

Learning Outcomes

• Sketching
• Wedging clay
• Forming balls
• Forming coils
• Pinch pot
• Attaching forms using scratch and slip method
• Attaching forms using pinch and smear method
• Surface design and texture

Step 1:

Share photographs and representations of Hedgehogs with the students.

Step 2:

Students will sketch hedgehogs, learning how to form circles, ovals, and oblongs to create the basic shape of the animal. Representation of texture of the spines.

Step 3:

Each child is given a ball of clay roughly the size of a tennis ball.

Step 4:

One third of the clay should be broken off and set aside.

Step 5:

The remaining should be gently rolled between the palms of the hands to form a ball.

Step 6:

Cradle this ball of clay in the palms of the hand with thumbs held together on top of the ball.

Step 7:

Apply gentle pressure with the thumbs to form a dent or dimple on the top of the ball.

Step 8:

Apply increasing pressure with the thumbs while gently rotating the ball in the hands. The object is to form a thick bowl shape.

Step 9:

This rather crude thick bowl is the hedgehogs body. Set aside.

Step 10:

Pinch off a small piece of the remaining clay.

Step 11:

Form a coil by rolling between the table top and the palm of the hand gently applying pressure out towards the ends to lengthen and thin out the piece. It should be the thickness of a pencil and about two inches long. Cut this coil into four equal pieces.

Step 12:

These four coils will be the legs of the hog. The pinch pot created earlier will be the body.

Step 13:

Demonstrate the method of attaching clay parts by first scoring each connecting surface by scratching with a toothpick. Create slip by dissolving scraps of clay in a little bit of water, mixing until it is the consistency of pancake batter. Dab a bit of slip onto each connecting surface and press the leg into place.

Step 14:

Further attach and strengthen the joint by rubbing a finger from the leg to the body of the hog dragging a bit of clay from one to the other. Dip finger in water and gently smooth out this joint.

Step 15:

The left over clay should be rolled into a ball to form the head. Gently pinch and pull one side of the ball to form a snout. Ears can be formed from two pea-sized balls and then flattened and joined through the same method as the legs.

Step 16:

Eyes, nostrils and other facial features can be drawn or scratched into the clay.

Step 17:

Spines, hair, toenails, and whiskers are created with toothpicks or other pointed tools. Carefully observe the difference between the fine facial hair and the courser spines covering the hedgehog’s body.

Step 18:

The finished hog can be positioned in a standing position or gentled curled into a ball shape with head and feet poking out from the belly area.

Step 19:

Hedgehogs should be dried, fired, and glazed or painted in keeping with the type of clay and available equipment. If kilns are not available self-drying clay should be used and watercolor can be used to paint the hedgehog when completely dry.

Notes:

The process of sketching the hedgehog in different positions helps the student to process the information about form in a visual / tactile manner. The act of drawing forces the student to really see and understand the forms and shapes that make up the animal. Forming the pieces in the clay and creating three dimensions is often easier after the basic form has been explored through sketching.