Teaching students to fish.

There is an old saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man a fish and feed him for life." That is what we are trying to do. No, not teach students to fish, but with the DVDs we are giving them access to the knowledge of how to work with clay anytime, anywhere and as often as they like. When students work with clay freely and often, the focus of the workshop becomes education and not the finished project at the end. The fun is in the making and doing. The curriculum states forming clay is to be taught, but no one can learn anything with only one hour a year or less to practice. The curriculum doesn't say collect keepsakes. Clay is cheap as dirt....I wonder why..... a box of clay weighs about 20 kilograms or 44 pounds and costs about $20 here in Alberta. That is about fifty cents a a pound. Most projects will use only a pound or two, sometimes even less than that. One box is more than enough for one and most likely enough for two workshops. When the clay is dry, add water and use it again.

We did about 5,000 air dry projects last year. A lot of them were repeat customers. We do more air dry workshops than we do fired. We have gone to Sheldon Coates in Grande Cache and done air dry projects with the entire school three times so far and are going back this month for the forth.

We would really like to get clay in every classroom and have every child working with it as often as they like and make as many things as they want. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every day was Clay Day?

For more information on air drying clay and not "air dry" clay please read the last two posts. Thank you.

Until the next time.

Cindy

The Clay Teacher

Every day is Clay Day!

More about Air Dry Clay.

We are in our second year of offering Air Dry Workshops. Teachers that booked Air Dry workshops last year are doing the same again this year. We do more Air Dry workshops than the fired ones. Teachers that have booked us fired first then Air Dry, always rebook Air Dry. When we are at a trade show, everything in our booth is Air Dry and we never fire anything before painting. All sample pieces we do as The Clay Teacher are not fired. Houses are made from unfired clay. Entire towns are made out of unfired clay from the Adobes in the South West, to Africa, Israel and India

One such dwelling is the "Musgum clay house". Named after its creators, the Musgum, an ethnic group in the far north province in Cameroon. The house is created from compressed sun-dried clay.

San Miguel Chapel, Sante Fe, New Mexico is the oldest church structure in the US. Original adobe walls built in approximately 1610 AD.

When making projects with the Air Dry method, you have to be familiar with clay and know how to work with it in order to have success. If the projects are made properly, you will not have problems with them later. When you follow the instructions of The Clay Teacher and the DVDs all pieces are sturdy and will last as San Miguel Chapel, unless dropped of course, then all fired or unfired clay will break.

When students make something out of clay and paint it, it is notpottery, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery it is only decorative or sculpture,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture. The pieces are not intended to be used in the kitchen as pottery, so there is no reason to finish them as a piece of pottery. However, the Air Dry method creates a very sturdy project.

Here is a little dish we put through the rinse cycle in the dishwasher. We sure do NOT recommend dishwasher safe, but it certainly survived and we still have it.

Taking the kiln out of the picture opens up clay to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Every day is Clay Day!

Until the next time.

Cindy

What is Air Dry Clay

I have been playing around with different clay bodies to see what ones work best with the air dry method and painting with acrylic paint. We use Plainsman Clay and in the class room we always use Buffstone. It is very good clay for schools. It has a low shrinkage rate, it’s economical and the light grey colour doesn't stain hands or clothes. Buffstone dries very hard and it is easy to work with. I made a sample project with M370 and the M390. Those clays shrink a lot more when they dry and are not as forgiving as the Buffstone in the drying process, but after all the samples were painted, you can't tell one from the other in look or feel.

I will continue to use other clay bodies, but I really don't think it matters what clay you use. Laguna has one that sounds like it would work like Buffstone. Next time we are at Plainsman we will pick up a box and I will let you know. I will get some pictures of the samples and put them up here.

Everyone thinks that clay has to be fired. Everything that you make out of clay has to be put into a kiln and kept forever. I hear all the time that someone made a little something in school out of clay and their mom still has it or they still have it. Clay is seen as this mystery substance that you get to work with once or twice in your childhood, the firing process, well that certainly is not for the faint of heart. Everything that is made is priceless and must be kept forever.

How many pictures does a child draw in their school years? How many cut and paste “somethings” are made and as soon as they are off the wall they go into the recycle? It is making the piece, learning to use the pencil, the glue, and the crayons, that is the fun. Like everything else, the more work they do, the better the work gets. If clay gets into the classroom and is used like cut and paste, or pencil crayons, just think what the kids could do after years of clay experience in school. If all the focus goes off the end project and goes to learning how to work with the medium, clay looses it mystic and awe and gets back into the hands of children where it should be. For about a dollar, a student can have enough clay to make just about any project they like. If they don’t like it, roll it up and start over. If the clay gets dry, add water and use it again.

No, a piece of clay that is not fired is not a sturdy as a fired piece. However, both are very hard. If you drop either one, they will break, and both will last for years as a decoration. The big difference between fired student work and air dried student work, is that with air dry, all you need is a ball of clay and a willing student. The fired piece is a bit more of a challenge.

So what is “Air Dry Clay”……….. clay that is not wet anymore.

Until the next time.

Cindy

The Clay Teacher has left the building.

Wow.. what a run. Today was our last workshop for this term. We were at Grandin. A beautiful old school built in 1915. Another school that we have been at a number of times over the last two years. Great school and great bunch of kids, but I do wish the school had an elevator. Everything goes up, and down, three flights of stairs. We finished off with Big Mouth Frogs. The kids had a hoot and made some wonderful frogs. There is nothing like mid June, Friday afternoon energy in a classroom. Add to that, our last workshop energy and it was fun..... rule number one....Always have fun.

We had a few things to do after work and were driving in the city. Stopped at a crosswalk for a mom and her son to cross the street. The boy looked at us, gave us a big smile, pointed, waved and showed us to his mom. We had him in a classroom sometime, somewhere and he recognized " Mr and Mrs Clay". It was cool. After 9,000 plus faces, we didn't recognize him, but waved anyway.

It feels good to be off duty....... we are never really off duty, but now we have no time frames, no schedule to stick to. ...... Summer time, and the livin' is easy........

Until the next time.

Cindy

I moved back.

I quit blogging and moved to Facebook for a few reasons . The main one was that no one was reading this. Jim does all The Clay Teacher Facebook, and it is easier for me if he does it. Facebook is great, but it does't give you much chance to really talk about what you are doing. A blog has more freedom. For whatever reason, people have been stopping in to read this blog, only to see that it isn't here anymore. So.... I have started again. A lot has happened since I last wrote. I am not sure where to start, but I will have material for the summer.

The video is done, well not actually done done. We are waiting for the glass masters and then printing. It should be done...done.... in a couple of weeks. Just in time for school to be out. The timing is not the best, but hey... we did it. It is the only thing like that out there. We are very excited to see how it will be received.

We had a wonderful year as The Clay Teacher. We worked with about 115 schools and 9,000 students. As it comes to an end, only three workshops left, I can't help but feel a little relieved. Like all teachers, we are glad to see June roll around. Also, like most teachers, we look forward to next year. This year was awesome, to use the language of most of the students we worked with. We call ourselves Mrs. and Mr. Clay, after we tell them our real names. Mrs Clay is name everyone remembers. We get almost rock star status when we have been to a school. It is really cool with the high fives and hugs. We have such a positive and rewarding job. We bring clay to the classroom, something everyone wants to work with, teach something everyone wants to learn in a simple way so everyone a project and is proud of their work. All the time they treat you like a rock star. Not a bad gig!

Today we go to St. Mathew's for the third year in a row with the same grade two teacher. It is a good feeling to have clients repeat like that. We went to one grade two teacher at Windsor Park three times this year alone. The kids are experts now. I hope to have them again next year and look forward giving them more and more advanced work. .... So do they....

That is what we want to do with the DVD series, make it so kids don't only get to use clay once or twice a year, but once or twice a week, or a month. Ideally "Every day is Clay Day!"

Until next time.

Cindy

Moved to facebook.

We have moved the blog and much more to facebook.

The Clay Teacher http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Clay-Teacher/100203753378510 has I have started a new facebook site called The Clay Ladies http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Clay-Ladies/123730754365828. It has taken off and there are a number of followers the first day out. Anything clay or pot related that isn't talked about on The Clay Teacher will be shared on The Clay Ladies.

Please stop by and see what we are up to and let us know what you think.

Cindy and Jim

Return of the Samurai

We are taking a couple of night off shooting to make some vases. Every year for the past six or seven years we have made trophy vases for the Dave Schultz Memorial International and USA Wrestling. http://www.themat.com/events/default.php?page=default&EventID=24076 We put their logo of the samurai on a large vases and they are presented to coaches and directors of trials from around the world. We are not entirely sure who has the vases or where they have gone, but we are happy to supply them.

The video project is larger than we all thought but we hope to be finished this week. We have been saying that for two weeks, so one of these weeks we will be right. Once we are out of the production studio there is still a lot of work to do to be ready for the Teacher's Conventions starting in February. We are still very excited about this project! I will keep you all posted.

Until next time.

Cindy