Clay figurines inspired by a visit to the Metropolitan Museum NYC
The inspiration for this project comes from the ancient Chinese figurines at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. At the Museum, I found so many things to be inspired by: people dancing, animals in a pen, animals/birds figurines and many more beautiful terracotta small characters.
This is an easy and fun way to do clay modelling. Ideally the clay pieces should be fired. Painting can be done after firing with acrylic paints or inks. As a final touch an acrylic varnish will give the statues a shiny finish. If working with older students, underglaze colours and a clear glaze could be used to achieve similar affects.
This project can be done by small group of students working independently or a whole class, depending on the way you teach. Whichever way, it is important to show the technique and let the students decide what they would like to do.
Materials:
- Piece of paper to draw and cut the pattern with a pen or pencil
- Classroom scissors
- Clay: 2x lumps of clay flattened like small pizza shapes
- A piece of PVC plastic tubing, for rolling the clay out
- 2 x 40cm (16”) long pieces of timber of 1cm. (1/4 “) thickness to roll out the clay
- 1 x piece of thick clock or canvas per student to place the clay on
- Small and medium paint brushes
- Water containers
- Rags to clean
- Paint, it could be good quality Tempera or Acrylics
- White clay Slip or Body Stain
- Small tools to carve patterns
Note: don’t forget to read our first Education Update for 2017.
Cheers from Brava Art, we will be posting again soon.
Raquel Redmond
We have the full resolution images in our gallery.
