These little clay tiles created in the Arts and Crafts style pay homage to early 20th Century California industry. Our state has a great history of artistic ceramics from companies like Bauer and Arequipa. These tiles evoke those made by the Batchelder company, that were often used decoratively in Mission / Arts & Crafts style homes:
I quite liked these little ceramic frogs. The glazing was deep and vivid on these, making them look like they'd just hopped from the water:
Granted, these ceramic pieces were made by high-achieving high school students, but their mastery blew me away. I love the organic shapes of the vessels and the incised designs with beautiful matte glazes were stunning. Where can I buy these??!!
Another fabulous high school level clay project were the bridges. Created from slab construction and jointed to fit together, these were incredibly elegant in their design and structural integrity:
A similar, jointed technique can be used, however, for projects with younger kids. Here are some fun self-portraits in clay, made with a rolled clay, slab contruction. Pieces are punctured with a skewer while the clay was moist, to allow for small holes for wiring together the jointed pieces.
Funky and fun "dinnerware" projects were also on display with some coil construction figural mugs and some pierced plates with beautiful color glazing.
This is a fun ceramic project that would make a good curriculum tie-in to the study of Victorian homes as part of the third grade social studies curriculum. Rooftop students have made these in the past, but here's a good photo of a nice one that was on display at the festival:
Speaking of third grade, our own Mr. Mattson's class, with guidance from teaching artist Lilli Lanier and art parents Lori Quan and Danielle DiSalvo, created these very fun ceramic tennis shoes!
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