Kids enjoy creating with clay.
Traditional clay offers an experience for children unlike that found when they use store-bought doughs and sculpting materials other than clay. Dr. Marvin Bartel, an art professor and professional artist for decades, thinks exposure to real objects and real materials helps kids learn best. He believes, based on his years of experience teaching children about clay art, that experiences with simple clay alone provide the best discovery of techniques. Even young children learn traditional pinching and coiling techniques easily when given the opportunity.
Coil
Coiling often happens spontaneously when children start exploring with a lump of clay. After first attempting to smash it down or roll it into a ball, the child often begins to roll it while pushing down, and almost by accident discovers she begins to create a long tube of clay. As she continues, a long snake of clay appears magically beneath her hands as she rolls the clay back and forth.
After a child has made this discovery, ask him if he can think of a way to create from the coil a useful object that would hold something. Show him begin coiling the long piece of clay upon itself to create a coiled bowl or cup. Use a damp sponge to smooth and tighten the sides of the coiled bowl or cup.
Pinch
Once kids start to make pinched objects with clay, they seem to find it a successful and fun technique for starting many projects. The child begins with the rolled, smooth ball of clay. Have her turn the clay around in her hands several times, smoothing it before she takes a thumb and sticks it about half way down into the clay. For very young children with a large ball of clay, you may need to offer some assistance.
After making the thumb hole, she begins to pinch the hole between her thumb and index finger of the same hand while the thumb remains in the hole. Demonstrate hold the forming pinch pot in one hand between thumb and index finger while it sits on the palm of your other hand or on the table. As she pinches, she should turn the pot around and around on the table or in her hand gently. During this technique, the hole in the pot widens and a bowl or cup shape forms.
Piece and Pull
Kids can also create clay sculpture through piecing or pulling. Often a child begins with a lump of clay and pulls off chunks to create appendages while saving a large lump for the main body of the object. Joint work remains immature and weak in kids when creating piecework. Show a child texture the joining sides so that her sides join better, and smooth the joint to create a stronger hold.
Pulling involves leaving the lump of clay whole and pulling gently to create appendages. One sculpture kids enjoy involves making a portrait sculpture. Have the child flatten a lump of clay slightly on the table, leaving it thick enough to both push into and pull slightly from to create features. Beginning with the eyes, have her push her thumbs gently into the region of the lump where eyes might appear naturally. As she does this, an area between the eyes begins to create the bridge of the nose. She pushes her fingers slightly down and inward toward each other under the eyes at the approximate location where the sides of the nose occur. A nose begins to rise from the clay that can then be manipulated to give the nose shape. She creates the mouth similarly, by placing her fingers in the area where the mouth should be and gently pushing toward each other and down until an area rises from the clay that then becomes the lips through further manipulation.
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