The kids and I had a fabulous time playing with clay today. It was the kids first time using traditional brown clay and my first time in years. I fondly remember pottery classes at school, making coil pots, vases and statues. Clay is such a satsifying texture to work with. It came in a rectangular block at my local Eckersleys store and wasn't too expensive.
I showed the kids how to make a coil pot by rolling out strips of clay and then sticking them together with the aid of some water and a toothbrush to soften the clay. Of course, Alex loved sloshing the toothbrush in the water and then mashing it into the clay. His hands were coated in brown slime and he was loving it.
Our coil pot was a bit wonky but fun to make. We also experimented with the clay by seeing what other animals and images we could make. Some animals were more easily recognisable than others.
Lastly, we made imprints in the clay using a range of different items from around the house to see what patterns they would make. We then voted on our favourite pattern. We tried shoes, pegs, a tennis racket and ball, leaves, toy cars and motor bikes. My favourite was the peg and Alex's the car tyre. Jazzy was too pre-occupied with her coil pot to cast a vote.
We had so much fun with the clay that we decided to store it in a plastic bag and re-use it another time rather than leaving our objects out to dry.
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