Video: An introduction to clay work - Slabbing and joining

﻿Hello, and welcome to your Art, craft and design lesson. My name is Liz and I will be leading you in your learning within this lesson, which is all about ceramics. Now this lesson is one of five, and across the five lessons you will be learning about artists and crafts people who use clay in their work. And you'll be learning about different techniques that you can use when working with clay. You'll also be generating your own ideas and making your own artworks out of clay. You'll also be evaluating your work and the work of others. So if you're ready to get started, let's begin. Before the lesson begins, you will need the following equipment. You will need a sketchbook to record your writings in learning, and you can use a ready-made sketchbook or you could make one of your own using different types of paper, or you could work on individual pieces of paper which could then be joined together with a stapler, or you can hole punch them and use string or ribbon to tie them together. You'll also need a pencil and some clay, either natural earthen clay or air drying clay. You'll also need a rolling pin, some clay tools and two wooden guides. The wooden guides look like this, and they're about half a centimetre in height, and they're the same size. But if you haven't got wooden guides, you can make your own by cutting them out of cardboard and sticking pieces of cardboard together, and wrapping them in sellotape. And this one I've got here is about half a centimetre high. Now you'll also need a flat, smooth surface to work on because you're going to be rolling out some clay and you need to cover that surface with either some canvas material or a slightly damp tea towel will work or a plastic vinyl place mat. You'll also need a ruler, some cardboard to make a template and a pair of scissors. An adult will need to help or supervise you for some of these activities. And as you may get a little bit messy, it's best to wear an apron or an old T-shirt or shirt. In this lesson, we will start with a sketchbook warm up exploring line. You will learn about where clay comes from and how it's used in art and craft making, you'll be introduced the technique of slabbing, you'll be making clay tiles that can be joined together to make an open box and you'd also be experimenting with adding details by drawing into clay. Look out for the key words in the lesson, they will be in a bold coloured font. The keywords are, ceramics, these are objects that have been from a material that has been permanently changed after it has been heated. A kiln, which is a type of oven that can be used to heat up clay to very high temperatures. Slabbing, this is a technique where you roll out clay so that it is flat. Scoring, which is scratching the surface of the clay to make it rough so different pieces can be joined together. And the final key word is slip. And this is a mixture of clay and water blended together to make a liquid. But in your sketchbook warmup you will need your sketchbook and and a pencil, and you can also use other drawing tools such as a Biro or colour pencils or felt pens. On the screen are five different words, spiky, looping, swirling, bumpy and curvy. And these words can be represented through lines in your artwork. And later in the lesson you will be experimenting with drawing lines into your clay. This sketchbook warmup will help you to start thinking about different types of lines and how they can be represented in your artwork. I'd like you to choose a word from the list and explore your chosen word by making different marks in the pages of your sketchbook. Now, the marks you make can be different sizes. You can draw over the top of the marks that you've already made and I'd like you to fill a page with different marks to represent the word you've chosen. Now, the example that you can see on the screen is from my sketch book and it's my exploration of the word wavy, and I've used different tools to make lots of different marks. In this next part of the lesson, you'll begin to learn about where clay comes from and how did she use to create art and craft works. Ceramics involves the use of materials which can be changed from a soft state to a hard state by being heated up. Clay is a material that's used in ceramic work and the artists and crafts people who make things from clay may also be known as potters or ceramicist. So what is clay and where does it come from? I'd like you to think about the answer to this question or talk to someone else and share your ideas. Clay is a natural material that comes from the ground. And over time, rocks and minerals become weathered by the rain and the wind. And eventually they break down into tiny pieces of particles and these are then carried by water, which is usually in rivers or streams, and then deposited in the ground. That means that they're left in the ground. And this naturally formed clay then has to be refined before it can be used. And refined means removing any tiny bits so that the clay is smooth and stretchy enough to work with. Clay comes from under the ground. Do you think the answer is true or do you think it's false? Yes, it is true. Clay does come from under the ground. Clay is very versatile material and can be used to make all kinds of everyday objects including bowls, cups, vases, roof tiles, wall tiles and bricks, artists and craftspeople who work with clay, may make everyday objects that could be used or they may make artworks that you can look at. And we will find out more about some of the techniques used by artists when working with clay over the next few lessons. And on the screen, you can see some examples of objects which have been made out of different types of clay. I'd like you to look around you and see if you could find some examples of objects that have been made from clay. Draw them in your sketchbook or you could take photographs and stick them in or you could do both. And then restart the video when you're ready. How did you get on? Did you manage to find some objects that had been made from clay? So here's my sketchbook. And I started to collect some images of different things that are made out of clay. Now artists and people who work with clay may choose to hand build with it. And there are a number of different techniques that they can use, depending on what they're making. Some of these techniques are listed on the screen. They are slabbing, pinching, coiling and free modelling or sculpting. Now techniques for hand building have been used for many many years and contemporary artists who worked with clay may be inspired by these traditional clay work techniques, often adding their own unique twist whether that's through the way in which they work with the clay, the forms or shapes they make, or the materials that they combine with the clay. As well as hand building, clay maybe thrown on the potter's wheel. Using wheel enables the potter to make uniform, circular pieces like plates, cups, bowls and pots. So once the soft clay has been shaped into a form, it has to be left to dry. And at stage it's quite weak and fragile. Once it's dried out it can be fired, which means heated up. And to do this, it's placed to the kiln. Now kilns are like very hot ovens designed to heat the clay up to very high temperatures. And once it's been heated up the clay needs to slowly cool down. And this first stage of firing in the kiln is known as the bisque or biscuit stage. Materials known as slips and glazes can be used to decorate clay. They add colour and texture. Now you can also buy clay that does not need to be fired in a kiln. So you've got air drying clay, for example, or modelling clay as well. And air drying clay can be left to dry and then decorated with paint and varnish. Can you remember the names of the different techniques used in hand building? Now, think about your answer or talk to someone else and see if you could come up with a list of answers between you. So did you remember the different techniques for hand building with clay? So there was pinching, coiling, free modelling or sculpting and slabbing. You're going to find out more about slabbing in the next part of this lesson. So slabbing means rolling out your clay so it's flat. And the guides, which are usually made of wood, so I showed you these earlier, are used so that the thickness of the clay is the same all over when you rolled it out. Now the clay can be cut into different shapes and you can use templates. For example, it could be made out of card or you could free cuts out your shapes or you could even use something like a cookie or pastry cutter to cut out your clay. Slabbing is a technique which involves rolling clay into a ball. Do you think this answer is true or do you think it's false?

Yes, it's false. Slabbing is the technique of rolling clay but it's rolling it so it's flat. So are you ready to have a go at making a clay tile? Now for this part of the lesson, you're going to need your clay, you're going to need your rolling pin, your clay tools, have a piece of card to cut out a template and a ruler and a pair of scissors and a pencil. And you're also going to need the two wooden guides. Or, as I mentioned before, you can make some from card wrapped up in sellotape. They'll need to be about half a centimetre thick and also you'll need an apron or an old T-shirt or top to cover up with. And for part of these activities you will need an adult to help or supervise you. So before you make a start let's watch the video first. So firstly, you need to take your ball of clay and place it in between the two guides and then using your rolling pin you have to gently push down on the ball of clay and then roll backwards and forwards. And you'll see that the clay will start to flatten to the height of the guides. Now, the important thing is you need to check that your card template will fit onto the slab of clay that you created. And if not, you need to take some more soft clay and press it into the clay, existing clay that you've already rolled. And you just use your rolling pin to blend it in. Now, when your clay is the right size put your template on top, cut around the template and remove any clay that you do not need. And then when you've cut all around it, lift the template up and then check that the tile is the correct size. Now, before you have a go, I'd like you to measure out a square car template that measures six centimetres by six centimetres and ask an adult to help or supervise you. It's your turn now. I want you to follow the steps on the screen and repeat these until you have five square tiles that are the same size. So step one, you place the clay between the two wooden guides. Then step two, you roll out the clay until it is the thickness of the guides. And step three, place the card template on top of the clay and then step four, cut around the square template and repeat this until you have five square tiles. Now you can always rewind the video back and watch the video again of my demonstration of how to make your tile. Now, when you've completed your five tiles restart the video. So you've just learned how to make clay tiles. Now you could just work on one tile and add decoration to it, but we're going to move on to another stage of joining the tiles together. So clay tiles or slabs can be different shapes and sizes, and they can be joined together to make a three dimensional form. So in the video, you can see how I've got my five square tiles and I'm going to be making an open box. And that's a box that doesn't have a lid on top of it. So in order to join the tiles, I'm using a score and slip technique. And in the video you can see, I've got a clay tool, pointed clay tool, but you could also use a pencil or you could use a wooden stirrer or cocktail stick, and you have to score along the edges of the clay that are going to be joined together. And that means when you score them, you making the surfaces a little bit rough so that they'll join together better. Now in the video, you can see there's a little pot and that pot contains something called slip. And sleep is a mixture of clay and water that have been mixed together. And this slip is added to each of the surfaces that have been scored. And slip is like a clay based glue. And then once the slip has been applied, you can see that I'm now starting to join the sides together and I'm securing them with my hands as well just checking everything is all carefully joined and attached. So once I have my open box, I use some more slip inside just to add some more strength to it as well. Now, in order to make your box, which we'll be doing next, you will need to make up some slip and you will need to take some clay and some water and you'll need to mix it up with a fall or a small whisk. Mix them up together in a jar or a pot so that your slip becomes runny and becomes a liquid, a little bit like ready-mix paint or PVA glue, and ask an adult to help you to do this. So here's a different example of the use of slabbing technique and the slabs that being joined together to make a pot and the design on the pot has been made by using stencil shapes and also scratching into the surface of the clay. It's your turn now to make your open box. And remember first of all, you'll need to make up your slip and please ask an adult to help or supervise you to do this. So you'll need some small amount of clay and some water, then mix that up with a fork or whisk in a pot or a jar so that you've got that ready. And then you need to score the edges of each of your five tiles, the parts of the task that will need to be joined together. And then you add slip to the scored surfaces of each of your tiles and then join the tiles together to create your open box which is your box with five sides and no lid. And then you'll need to smooth down the edges on the outside and the inside of your box. So you can use additional slip to help you do this. Now you can rewind the video if you wanted to watch again to see how the open box was made. And then when you're finished, restart the video. So there are a number of different ways in which you can add detail to your clay work. And you'll be exploring different techniques across the lessons. But for this lesson, we're going to focus on drawing into clay. To create lines or shapes or patterns and textures on your clay, you can use a pencil or a pointed clay tool to draw onto the surface of the clay. Now, the clay needs to be soft enough for you to be able to press slightly into the clay. And if the clay is too dry or too hard, you'll just end up just scratching the surface. So on the screen, you can see a practise tile on the right that I made. And I did that first and I kind of drew into the clay tile to have a little practise before I drew onto my clay box. And you can see that I've experimented on the tile and I've also drawn onto the box using wavy lines. And these were the ideas that I had gathered in my sketchbook earlier. It's your turn now. So I'd like you to experiment with drawing lines into clay. And first of all, I'd like you to just have a little practise with a piece of clay, just roll it out. And then with your pencil or clay tool, practise drawing the lines into the clay. And then when you've had a practise then have a go at drawing lines onto the sides of your box. Now you may decide to draw different types of lines on each side of the box, or you might keep them the same. That's entirely up to you. And then when you're finished, restart video How did you get on? Did you find that some of your lines worked better than others? And why do you think that was? What could you have done even better? And if you're able to take a photograph of your clay work and then print out your photo and stick it into your sketchbook, or you could draw your box instead. And then add labels to your drawing to show what you've made and what technique you've used. So you could label it and say, "A clay open box made by slabbing," for example. So well done. You've used lots of different clay work techniques in this lesson. You've used slabbing, joining and drawing into clay. Now, if you'd like to share your work, please ask your parent or carer to take a photograph of it and to share it with Oak National on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. See you in the next lesson.

Lesson summary: An introduction to clay work - Slabbing and joining

In this lesson we will learn about creating art and craft works using clay. We will learn about the technique of slabbing and how to join pieces of clay together in order to make an open box. We will experiment with drawing details onto our clay work. 

This lesson includes some physical activity and equipment beyond pen, paper or pencil. Please make sure your child is adequately supervised.

Art & Design

An introduction to clay work - Slabbing and joining

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Lesson summary: An introduction to clay work - Slabbing and joining

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