sporter on wed 1 oct 97
I am a potter and middle school teacher. I am blessed with a fantastic art
room - 7 wheels, a pugmill, extruder, and large kiln. The unfortunate
thing is that due to budget restrictions on the state level I do not have a
budget to match my facilities. In the first 20 years of my career I saw
about 350 students a year. Last year I saw 505 with the exact same budget
I had for the 350 students 5 years ago. Prices of all the consumable items
we use have sky rocketed. 3 years ago we were asked to introduce a new
class and of course include a clay unit - always a big budget item when
you include glazes and firing. I'm afarid I have a hard time limiting the
amount of clay I give my students. Any way to get around this we did a
unit on primitive building and firing methods that culminated in a sawdust
firing. No matter how many samples I showed or how much I talked about it
many students just had a hard time with not being able to eat their cereal
or drink their juice out of their clay work. When I saw the thread on the
Rattles history last spring I was excited. The whole class revolves around
the students inventing a culture and relating art to that culture. The
rattles fit in perfectly. We just had our first sawdust firing and the
results were great. The students thought that the firing really helped
make their work look like it had been done by primitive people. We had a
great time and Clayart gave me the spark to try something new. We don't
all work from kits or formulas. Oh and by the way - we got about 6 boxes
of absolete velvet underglazes for free last year - they looked great on
the rattles with the smoke patterns.
Sally Porter
Wisconsin
millie carpenter on fri 3 oct 97
this is a wonderful Idea. but how did you get permission to pit fire?
where did you dig/build your pit? and how did the time needed work
around the school day?
Millie in Maryland
sporter wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I am a potter and middle school teacher. I am blessed with a fantastic art
> room - 7 wheels, a pugmill, extruder, and large kiln. The unfortunate
> thing is that due to budget restrictions on the state level I do not have a
> budget to match my facilities. In the first 20 years of my career I saw
> about 350 students a year. Last year I saw 505 with the exact same budget
> I had for the 350 students 5 years ago. Prices of all the consumable items
> we use have sky rocketed. 3 years ago we were asked to introduce a new
> class and of course include a clay unit - always a big budget item when
> you include glazes and firing. I'm afarid I have a hard time limiting the
> amount of clay I give my students. Any way to get around this we did a
> unit on primitive building and firing methods that culminated in a sawdust
> firing. No matter how many samples I showed or how much I talked about it
> many students just had a hard time with not being able to eat their cereal
> or drink their juice out of their clay work. When I saw the thread on the
> Rattles history last spring I was excited. The whole class revolves around
> the students inventing a culture and relating art to that culture. The
> rattles fit in perfectly. We just had our first sawdust firing and the
> results were great. The students thought that the firing really helped
> make their work look like it had been done by primitive people. We had a
> great time and Clayart gave me the spark to try something new. We don't
> all work from kits or formulas. Oh and by the way - we got about 6 boxes
> of absolete velvet underglazes for free last year - they looked great on
> the rattles with the smoke patterns.
>
> Sally Porter
> Wisconsin
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sporter on sat 4 oct 97
---------------------------Original message----------------------------
this is a wonderful Idea. but how did you get permission to pit fire?
where did you dig/build your pit? and how did the time needed work
around the school day?
Millie in Maryland
we did a
> unit on primitive building and firing methods that culminated in a sawdust
> firing. No matter how many samples I showed or how much I talked about it
> many students just had a hard time with not being able to eat their cereal
> or drink their juice out of their clay work. When I saw the thread on the
> Rattles history last spring I was excited. The whole class revolves around
> the students inventing a culture and relating art to that culture. The
> rattles fit in perfectly. We just had our first sawdust firing and the
> results were great.
Truthfully I didn't ask for permission - I just did it. We used a large
metal barrel(with holes) and sawdust from the high school wood shop. There
is a gated area behind the school that houses the heating and cooling
machinery. We loaded one day and let it burn overnight - then unloaded the
folowing day. The custodian found the barrel for me.
Sally Porter
Wisconsin
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