Cheryl L Litman on sun 11 may 97
Thanks to Bonnie for the comment that "when you're the artist..." I like
that. I did see one 7 year old finally yell at her father to "go make
your own and stop bugging me!!!" Her brother was applying every color on
the table to his dagger and she went for a simple band of gold on the
hilt. Dad kept trying to push her into more color, I couldn't get him to
leave her alone and then she came out with that line - it shut him right
up!
Lest I leave you with the impression that it's totally frustrating to
teach kids, I have 2 kid stories:
*One 5 year old kept putting too much of the slip water onto her pot to
rub out fine lines and was making mud. I told her (and showed her) that
the clay was soft enough that she could just use her finger to smooth out
the lines and that she was using too much water and making mud as well as
weakening the clay. When I got back around to her 10 minutes later, the
piece is even muddier. I said again, you're using too much water. She
told me "I got my own water so I wouldn't use up too much from everyone
else's share"
*We were finishing our clay rainsticks and I told the kids to finish any
surface carving and smoothing because I was going to do the bisque firing
before the next class and then it would be too late. The next week I
bring in the still warm rainsticks and a 7 year old asks me for a sponge
and carving tool to finish his surface a bit better. I tell him that
it's too late, I just took them out of the kiln (amazed that he can't
feel that the clay is fired - after all it wasn't the first bisque we'd
done). He tells me adamantly that it's not been fired! So I ask him why
he thinks it's not fired and the answer is that clay is white after it's
been bisqued! We were working with a brown stoneware. In school he's
only used white clay, never seen brown and my first projects used white
clay as well. Even though I told them that we were switching to brown
clay, he still expected it to bisque white!
Making animal whistles seems to be the only project I do which
consistently gets very imaginative results. Maybe the whimsical nature
of whistles? Just pulled out of the kiln a squirrel, a pig, a cat, a
punk rocker, a smiley face with a mohawk, a sea turtle, a starfish, a
monkey and a dragon. I know my imagination is given a workout trying to
figure out how to cut whistle holes for the smiley face with mohawk when
the maker refuses to add a neck! Finally settled on through the
mohawk...the starfish was another challenge! I need to keep a good
animal encylopedia on hand - I got asked what a platypus looks like!
Jeremy/Bonnie Hellman on mon 12 may 97
Cheryl (posted privately)-
Sometimes the hardest part of teaching (anyone anything) is figuring out
exactly what the student doesn't understand. When you are teaching you
are really helping someone learn and you need to get into their heads to
see where they are.
When I had a clay assignment at an intro clay class at community college
(not a ceramics program) to make a bottle out of clay, I made one and
stopped because, although it wasn't the bottle I thought I was going to
make, it was a bottle I liked. Someone suggested to me to make a series
of bottles. I went on to make 3 more bottles, each quite different.
Because I got into the mind set of making a series (not a set) of bottles
I went off in a different direction than if I had gone on to the "next
project". PS That was in 1981 and I still love those bottles although the
first is my least favorite.
Perhaps your students would enjoy making a series of whistles, since they
are a particularly successful "assignment".
Loved the "go make your own and stop bugging me" story. That girl will go
far. I hope she never loses the spirit.
Bonnie Hellman in Pittsburgh
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Thanks to Bonnie for the comment that "when you're the artist..." I like
>that. I did see one 7 year old finally yell at her father to "go make
>your own and stop bugging me!!!" Her brother was applying every color on
>the table to his dagger and she went for a simple band of gold on the
>hilt. Dad kept trying to push her into more color, I couldn't get him to
>leave her alone and then she came out with that line - it shut him right
>up!
>
>Lest I leave you with the impression that it's totally frustrating to
>teach kids, I have 2 kid stories:
>
>*One 5 year old kept putting too much of the slip water onto her pot to
>rub out fine lines and was making mud. I told her (and showed her) that
>the clay was soft enough that she could just use her finger to smooth out
>the lines and that she was using too much water and making mud as well as
>weakening the clay. When I got back around to her 10 minutes later, the
>piece is even muddier. I said again, you're using too much water. She
>told me "I got my own water so I wouldn't use up too much from everyone
>else's share"
>
>*We were finishing our clay rainsticks and I told the kids to finish any
>surface carving and smoothing because I was going to do the bisque firing
>before the next class and then it would be too late. The next week I
>bring in the still warm rainsticks and a 7 year old asks me for a sponge
>and carving tool to finish his surface a bit better. I tell him that
>it's too late, I just took them out of the kiln (amazed that he can't
>feel that the clay is fired - after all it wasn't the first bisque we'd
>done). He tells me adamantly that it's not been fired! So I ask him why
>he thinks it's not fired and the answer is that clay is white after it's
>been bisqued! We were working with a brown stoneware. In school he's
>only used white clay, never seen brown and my first projects used white
>clay as well. Even though I told them that we were switching to brown
>clay, he still expected it to bisque white!
>
>Making animal whistles seems to be the only project I do which
>consistently gets very imaginative results. Maybe the whimsical nature
>of whistles? Just pulled out of the kiln a squirrel, a pig, a cat, a
>punk rocker, a smiley face with a mohawk, a sea turtle, a starfish, a
>monkey and a dragon. I know my imagination is given a workout trying to
>figure out how to cut whistle holes for the smiley face with mohawk when
>the maker refuses to add a neck! Finally settled on through the
>mohawk...the starfish was another challenge! I need to keep a good
>animal encylopedia on hand - I got asked what a platypus looks like!
"Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes!" Capt. J. Kirk
"Outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too
dark to read" Groucho Marx
" " Harpo Marx
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like an avocado" Att. to GM
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