Mug shots with personality

Our first project was “Mug Shot with Personality.” We introduced the project by opening up with some questions about emotions and their features. Some examples are, “How do you feel today?” “What features of your face express that emotion?” “Can you draw that?” After a few sketches and brainstorming the students began building expressive mugs out of clay.

Class Questions:
-What are my expressions telling you about me or how I feel?
-How do you know that?
-What do these expressions tell you about these people?
-How do you know this?
-What features of the face help express people’s emotions?
-Can you show me an example using that facial feature?

Here is what we did!

Students brainstorming about what expressions to explore in their sketchbooks.

Zoe rolled out a slab and cut out the base to her mug, and Kelsey watches intently.

Now it’s time for the slip which is the second part of getting two pieces of clay to attach. Slip is watered down clay, similar to mud but a little more watery.

With a pinching motion you make those two pieces become one, while being gentle of course.

Everyone started with making slabs for the base and then had to decide if they wanted to continue using slabs or try coils.

Everyone was excited to start creating their own mugs with personality. Kayle is making a slab for the base to her first mug.

Building with coils requires allot of slipping and scoring.

Rolling out a slab of clay

Another beautiful base to a mug in the works.

Everyone got right to it! Building their mugs from the base up.

Progress with each new band of coils that is slip and scored.

It’s not time for the kiln yet. However it’s important to keep an eye on your clay pieces. Let’s have a look!

Now that’s what I call a mug with personality!

What a great handle.

Happy mug

The most beautiful 3 bands of coils you’ll ever see.

This fun mug has a top!

What fun handles on these two mugs!

Day 2 of project #1

Asia helping Linda figure out how to approach putting a face on her mug.

Linda decided the mouth was too big so she removed some. You can still tell her mug is surprised, the eyebrows and lips say it all.

Heidi working away!

Brian started working away at his drawings. Although we did lay out a slab of clay for him to draw on.

Everyone was admiring his elephant drawing, some say it was Horton.

Kelsey enjoyed building mugs so much she made three!

Kelsey’s collection

Kelsey at work. We brought out the drawing on a slab idea for brian but Kelsey is the one who really took to it.

Some more pieces from Kelsey’s collection.

Kelsey had so much fun exploring the idea of drawing onto slabs. She even left dome holes on the top of a couple so that she could perhaps hang then once completed.

Happy as can be!

Beautiful bisque ware. Kelsey had sketched out designs for every piece. We found out from her mom purple and black are Kelsey’s favorite colors because those are the colors of the high school she attended and now helps coach for.

Another piece from Kelsey’s collection.

We got Kayle to sit at a table with other students, it seemed to help encourage her.

Here is Kayle’s drawing of her mug, and planning on painting it RED.

A beautifully glazed mug by Kelsey ready to go into the kiln.

Kelsey glazing mug number one red.

Heidi was excited to get started.

Brian sketching, with the option to pain on clay or glaze.

Starting from the inside.

Linda has a cautious approach in her care to creating artwork.

A handle cracked on her mug so Linda was making a new attachment.

Kayle starting on glazing her first mug.

Kelsey glazing her second mug.

Kayle starting to paint her slab of clay she drew onto.

Brian was surprised with a box which he decided to color on.

Hey, look who was drawing on a 3-D object!

Kelsey glazing her third mug.

Brian fascinated everyone with his creative designs. He was exploring one technique in class where he wouldn’t pick up his pencil, making designs with long continuous lines.

Linda glazing one of her mugs.

A mug glazed and ready to go back into the kiln.

Water Color! Kayle finished with time to spare, so she experimented with new materials in her sketchbook.

These are a few of the emotions student’s drew: Happy, curious, angry, surprised and sad.
We took a couple of extra minutes to draw out those last ideas. Everyone was having so much fun drawing
and talking about how they feel when happy. One student applied the idea of wrinkles on the face, another curious about how
the mouth and eyebrows help express emotions, and allot of artistic causality.
Zoe Demoed how to build a mug using clay

 

If your interested in watching clips from this project in action click on the youtube link below.

VIDEOS