Aren't these bowls fantastic? My eight year old daughter and nearly seven year old son made them in their ceramics class, and I wanted to share these with you for several reasons. First of all, my seven year old son who (alack, alas) isn't interested in doing crafts with me most of the time, has loved going to his pottery class for months! So it's definitely worth a try if you happen to have a boy like mine! And secondly, working with clay is not only exciting, but learning to wait several weeks to see the final outcome is a great exercise in patience!
Wondering how these were made? It's actually a really simple technique that you could use with any type of clay, or even playdough!
Here's how:
- You'll need several colors of your chosen material, these bowls were made with three types of clay that naturally fire to be different colors.
- roll out a sheet of your base color
- Roll out ball of a second color and place them on top of your flat sheet of clay
- With a roller roll flatten balls such that they become pressed into the surface of the base color.
- Repeat step 4 with a second color.
- Mold your bowl by pressing this sheet of clay into an existing bowl. Base bowl was removed after pieces were left to dry for a few weeks or so.
- I know one isn't supposed to live through their children, but I'm really glad that mine are actually doing something I've always dreamed of doing myself. (Hopefully soon..... just gotta clear some room on my plate! And speaking of plates, that's what I'm dreaming of making! Actually platters!)
Note: Our pottery teacher is Batya Erdstein, who happens to be a wonderful teacher, for those of you who live anywhere near Tsfat! She gives classes for women and children. See you there? See #7 above.
