Ceramic Cake Boxes

Loved how these turned out!

Yummy cake slice boxes that look good enough to eat...These were actually pretty easy to make, I had children from Prep - Grade 5 make these.  You don't need to fire them or glaze them.  I had a few children that painted them immediately so they could take them home.

What you need:

• Clay (we use white EW paper clay - I use paper clay as it then gives me the choice to fire or not and it also holds up well for transporting to the kiln)
• Skewers
• Water
• Template
• Cake pictures 

How To:

• Roll out clay into slabs (I did this prior to the children arriving and then handed out the slabs as I had quite a few young children doing this).  You could get the children to roll their own.
• Hand out paper templates for box (I made my own, it just had a lid & bottom (the same, triangle with curved back), two sides (rectangles) and a back (small rectangle), I photocopied it onto office paper).
• Get the children to trace the template onto their clay by going over all the lines with a pencil
• Remove template and then cut out the shapes
• Demonstrate how to join two slabs together (scratch and attach) and how to assemble the box
• Get the children to do this to theirs
• Check lid fits (you might need to adjust base slightly by squishing in the sides)
• Decorate lid and sides of cake with extra clay and drawing with skewer
• Dry and fire in kiln
• Glaze (we used brush on glazes and then fired again)
• Admire!

The Results - so impressed, the kids in my classes are the best!

Cheers
Fiona

Cakes Pop Up Workshop

What a wonderful pop up workshop this was!

The whole studio looked and smelt like a bakery.  It was a riot of colour.

1. The Cakes
The idea for these fake cakes came from two of my favourite Instagram  / blog accounts, Purple Twig and Meri Cherry.  Check out their feeds / blogs - these women are such an inspiration!

We used florist foam (very handy having a florist mum at the school - thanks Kelly Mills!) for our bases and the icing is a mixture of glue and shaving cream.  We used big bowls to mix it all up in and spatulas so we felt like we were real bakers.  I had a large selection of goodies in the middle of the table to add for decorations.  Children could also use Plasticine to make flames for their candles or cake toppers.

I put them on little foil boards to take home.

2. Donuts
This idea is again from Purple Twig.  I just cut up some white socks, sprayed them brown with liquid watercolours, rolled them into a donut shape and gave them to the children to decorate.  We used the left over icing from our cakes and added sprinkles and other decorations.

3. Cup cakes
I'm really into using salt dough at the moment!  I made some vanilla scented salt dough, which the children shaped into a cupcake and placed in a cupcake patty.  They then decorated these with icing and decorations.

The cupcakes and donuts fitted nicely into boxes that I got from our local bakery (thanks Molly Denes).

4. Lollipops and other edible goodies.
Finally we also used some coloured salt dough to make lollipops and other edible goodies.

5. Gigantic box cake
 In the end we still had a bit of icing left, so I went through the cupboards and found a box.  The children then decorated this as a group.  I hadn't planned this bit yet sometimes art that just happens is the best and I have to say I'm very happy with my giant cardboard box cake.  I'd seen a few cardboard box cakes on Instagram recently inspired by Meri Cherri and The Art Bar Blog.

I  have to say I just loved this workshop, so much so I'm running it again next school holidays - check out my holiday workshops page on this blog!

Cheers
Fiona



 

Portrait of Dad using Clay and Oil Pastel

Yes, this is my THIRD post on Portraits of Dad - maybe I should have done them all in one?  Anyway I'm here now and here is my third way of doing a portrait of Dad for Father's Day.  These were produced by my lunchtime class at school in a 45 minute session - pretty impressive hey!  These children are in Prep - Grade 3 so I think the quality is pretty astounding considering their age and the limited time frame to produce these.  We also talked about Modigliani in this lesson so some of the long necks are influenced by this famous artist.

  
What you need:

• Black pieces of cardboard (a lucky donation)
• Oil Pastels
• Balls of Clay
• Spare Clay
• Skewer
• Watercolour Paints
• Paintbrush & water pots
• Glue
• Sheet of plastic (I used overhead sheets also donated)
• Clear gloss

How to:

• Instruct the children to draw Dad onto the black cardboard using oil pastels
• Then cover this with a sheet of plastic
• Give them a ball of clay which they squish down onto the plastic until its the shape and size of Dad's head in their drawing
• Using the extra clay, skewer and water children make and attach eyes, nose etc (demonstration on how to attach properly given first)
• Using watercolours they added some colour to the clay (whilst still wet).
• The following week (when dry) I removed the sheet of plastic and glued the head to the picture and added a clear gloss.

The Results:

I'm so loving these!  I hope the Dad's like them too!

Cheers
Fiona

Portrait of Dad in the style of Modigliani

We often do portraits of Dad for Father's Day.  I actually know quite a few of the Dad's so its always fun seeing the children draw them, many of the portraits have such a likeness..

This project used the lesson by Art Projects for Kids on how to draw a Modigliani portrait and we just modified it to draw Dad.  Children were also encouraged to draw a background that Dad would like.  My students Prep - Grade 5 managed this.  The one above is by a Prep!

I have to say I love how these turn out.  Oil pastel on black paper is a great combo!

Check them out and Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's in Australia for last Sunday 4th Sep!

Cheers
Fiona

Portrait of Dad using Plasticine (Preschool Art)

My preschoolers recently produced these fab portraits of Dad for Father's Day.

So easy to do and I'm just loving them.  It was also great for their fine motor skills to break up and squash in the plasticine.

What you need:

• Printout of head
• Black permanent marker
• Laminator
• Different Coloured Plasticine
• Pipecleaners
• Beads

How To:
I laminated the printouts of the head (prior to lesson), then gave each child one of these.  I first instructed them to add to the printout using the black marker, adding eyes, nose etc.  Then they "coloured in" their portrait by adding small pieces of plasticine and squashing it into to sheet.
As a final step each child threaded beads onto a pipe cleaner and we hole punched the top and threaded it through as a hanger.

The Results:
How cute are they!

Well done preschoolers!

Cheers
Fiona