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

Taking Pot Shots

I just had to say it....taking pot shots....

We spent the Christmas Holidays shooting our video series and, yes, there were shots of pots. We shot the Introduction to Clay and the first one of the set, but there was a shot with pots..... so...yes ... we were taking pot shots.

It was a fun and busy way to spend the daze( not a typo, or spelling mistake) off. It is so very different to walk into a class room and lead a workshop than to walk into a production studio and make the video. The first video, of course, was the hardest. One, it was the intro and two.... well... it was the first one. The introduction was mostly script with the teleprompter. I, but mostly everyone else, was very glad we had the teleprompter. After a while, it almost got to the point where I would have had to read my name if someone asked me..... maybe not quite THAT bad but it was at times, a challenge. Now that it is done, I can say it was  fun, an education and yes... a bit stressful. We will finish up the first set this week. After that one has been out for a while, we plan to start series #2.....then 3 etc....

Tomorrow we are back in the classroom, Mills Haven in Sherwood Park. We have 109 students making Big Mouth Monkeys, Big Mouth Beavers and Grecian masks. It will be a busy day. Tuesday is back in front of the camera.

This is going to be a great year for The Clay Teacher. We are booked almost solid, we have the new logo and the video series. We are looking forward to this year and we wish everyone all the best in 2011.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

Cindy and Jim

The language of clay.

We did Inuit Igloo scenes with grade one and twos at Rio Terrace yesterday. It is a great school that offers both French Immersion and a German Bilingual program.There was an Asian boy in the last class of grade two that did not speak English, French, or German, but he speak "Clay".....fluently. All I had to do was take a little extra time to show him what to do, not on his work but with another piece of clay, and he took off on his own to make a very good project. He understood exactly what he was to do and he did that and more. By the end of the class he not only had the igloo, sun and person, but he had an Inukshuk and the Inuit person was making a snowman. He also understood the big smiles he got and the pat on the back. It must be so scary to come to a country where you don't speak the language. This little guy will do fine. He a bright boy and easy going.

Did I bring the camera like I said I was going to do??........ NO....... They were an air dry project and did not come home with us. Yesterday I don't know where my head was. Not only did I not bring the camera, but I didn't bring Jim's apron or the paper bags we provide to take the projects home in.

People have been using clay since we have been people. Every culture, I think with the exception of the Inuit, have clay in their history and clay in their daily lives. Almost everyone likes to make things out of clay. You hand someone a lump of clay and they will make a.......something. With this boy yesterday, clay and the love of working with it was the common language that we all could speak. It was a good day.

Until next time.

Cindy

Winding down...

We had a couple of days off this week. I made a mistake way back in October when someone booked Monday and later changed that booking to another day. I forgot to unbook Monday and realized Friday that it was open. We had a last minute cancellation for Thursday, so it was left open as well. It was kinda nice to have some time. I did get the basement tidied up Monday, but Thursday was just a decadent day off. I did very little and took the whole day to finish. It was nice.

We had some intense workshops this week... what a rush...a real hoot. I really do love my job. With the two days off this week, we still worked with about 225 students. We worked with a scout troop Tuesday night. We were a little late because we were given the wrong address. It sounds odd to say, but we googled the scout troop on the blackberry, got the correct address, put it in the GPS and were there just in the nick to time. How did we ever get anywhere without technology. We were making snowman winter scenes. Getting 35 children from the ages six to sixteen to focus on the project and finish it in only an hour has a certain amount of intensity. Wednesday was fun as well, we had walked 93 students through a fairly detailed angel. Three workshops of 30 ish students. We met some great kids and they did some wonderful work. I wish we had the camera. We, meaning Jim, will have to start bringing it and taking more pictures.

It always feels so good to give the students the freedom to do what they like with their work. I tell them they can put anything on the work that they think that I would like to see. They have some great ideas. I get a lot of "my" ideas from them.

Tomorrow we have about 45 grade one and two doing Inuit igloo dioramas. We will be done by noon. When we get home we will load the last of the pottery for Christmas orders. We have fired and returned all The Clay Teacher projects. I sure do like the air dry method! Monday all the Christmas stuff will be shipped .... whaa whoooo....

Until the next time.

Cindy

Do Pay Attention!

The hardest part of The Clay Teacher's job is not teaching, but making sure everyone is listening. When we give instructions they are very strait forward and easy to follow. We were more than surprised today when we learned that some of the teachers were the ones not listening and not following instructions.

We have been offering air dry as a method of finishing. It is more economical and the teacher has control of the timing of the project. We tell the teachers how to finish them and then give them detailed written instructions from when the project is first made and the clay is wet, how to dry it and we provide the plastic. The instructions tell the teachers how to tell when it is dry, what paint to use, how to apply the paint, how to seal the project after it has been painted and we provide the sealant. We thought we had it all covered.......However.....if the teacher will not listen or read the instructions provided what can you do. Today we were back at a school we had worked at a few weeks ago and we met the teacher from that past workshop. She hadn't even uncovered her projects so some were still damp. She didn't know what paint to use and when I told her, there was not enough paint in the art room and didn't know how to apply it if there was. At that point I gave her a set of instructions in the staff room at lunch break before her class was starting , she didn't listen to me when I started telling her how to finish the projects or read the instructions I had just handed her. Later on in the art room, I took the instructions from the finishing kit we provided weeks ago and told her to read them. She wouldn't read them and still didn't listen to my explanations. At that point I suggested that if she didn't have enough paint, she didn't know how to paint them if she did and some were still damp that maybe today was not a good for finishing. She didn't agree, so she any went ahead and painted them anyway. She mixed all the paint in the art room to get a swampy beige brown to paint Christmas wreath picture frames. These kids are giving the frames to their parents for Christmas. They worked hard and deserve the proper paint and procedure to make their work the best it can be. They listened it was the teacher who did not.

Now if the projects are not what the teacher had in mind she will see it as The Clay Teacher did not provide a satisfactory service..........Bummer.....

Until next time.

Cindy

We Must be Blessed

We finished a week with St. Maria Goretti School. Now we have a basement full of Angels and baby Jesuses or is that Jesi? I am not sure if I can say that, but few people have in their possession as many little sons’ of God as we do. We did a bunch of Christmas projects with the Catholic school so we have 62 Nativity Scenes and 121 angels. The rest are snowmen and for reasons we are not sure of, we put the snowmen off by themselves in a back room to dry.

It was a fun week. For the most part we are the only three dimensional art experiences the children get and only an hour and half a year. I was there last year and everyone who was there last time remembered me this year. One girl even noticed that my hair was shorter than last year, but she was nice enough not to mention the additional grey. The workshops leave a huge impression on the students and they enjoy the clay so much.

We did little Nativity Plaques with the Kindergarten children this year. I didn’t talk at all about the Nativity Scene or what it stood for. The teacher gave a little lesson. I was not confident enough to teach a religion class in a Catholic school. Some of the little guys were not sure of the name of the project or just what it was about, but they had a general of idea of what we were making. I met one little boy in the hall the next day and he remembered me and making the Nativity, but again he forgot the name of the project. So he just asked me if I was back doing “the God thing” again. I didn’t have time to explain, so I just said…yes I am, smiled to myself and felt extremely powerful for only a brief moment.

We are making more Nativity Scenes on Monday, so there will be even more Jesi in the basement so with so many Angels and Jesi in the house how could we not be blessed?

I wrote in my blog last week that I was done all my orders…… well… that was short lived. The next day the orders started again. I could say no but I don’t want to. So I have more orders, I will probably always have an order waiting to be made….

The deadline for the Vasefinder competition was October 31, but I asked and Charlie gave me some more time. So the vase is drying and I will still be able to entre. Thank you Charlie!

Until next time.

Cindy

The Jury is Still Out.

I have been playing with the sculptures some more and working with different finishing techniques. This morning when I peeked in the kiln at 500 F I saw this lady and her “skin condition” and I thought she was a dud for sure. When the kiln had cooled to a frosty 400F I took her out and, like a cancer, it kinda grows on ya. At first she was a definite no….. but now…. I am not so sure……

I think the finish deserves some more play and experiementation.....but the jury is still out ...

Until next time.

Cindy