Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Medieval Times

by Eleanor Hendriks
March Break Art Camp at StudioÉlan is going well so far this week and their project today was so successful that I thought I'd show it off! We made castle towers and tricked them out with all kinds of medieval elements and details. The series of process photos and the Rapunzel tower are the one I made as an example. The last three pictures are the great work of Lydia, Heather, Madeleine, Ally, Garett and Tyas -way to go guys!






















Clay is done for the week -next we'll be working on mosaics, tin punching, printmaking and abstract paper cuttting. I'll post an overview of all the projects after the week is done -I hope they go as well as this one!!
Edited July 25, 2013 I was too busy during those sessions to take pictures, so I never did get posts about the other projects up. See the comments for tips on how to do this project with your own group...

10 comments:

LaPellaPottery said...

Those are amazing! The kids are so creative!

Cynthia said...

Cute, cute, cute! I may borrow this project...

Tara said...

What an amazing project!

Sam said...

Wow...these are fabulous!!! Great work.

Patty Palmer said...

These are so fun! I have so many questions!...when do you remove the container? How long do these take?

Joslyn Johnson said...

Hi there,
Beautiful work. At what point did you release the support structure (pringles can) and was it an easy enough release?
Thanks

Brenden Geber said...

I was kind of wondering the same thing, how did you get the support to come out easily? These are a great project for kids!!

Unknown said...

To those who have been asking about how the supports come out: The Pringles can is wrapped somewhat loosely in a few layers of newsprint. Each layer is taped only to itself and not to the can or the layers below. The support is removed as soon as the castle has stiffened enough to hold it's own weight -while it is still flexible and well before leather hard. Use the Pringle can with the lid side down, remove the lid and pull on just the can. It will slide out of the paper. The paper can be removed next.

Unknown said...

I usually do this project in two stages. The first stage involves creating the basic form, creating the cylinder and choosing and constructing a crenellated or pointed top and decising on a few basic features like doors and balconys. Then the projects get some drying time and are removed from the supports. In the second session, the children finish the main features and add details -wall texture, vines, weapons, etc. Sometimes I have them add a flat slab circle of 'land' to the bottom of the tower during the second session so that the towers are less tipsy and to provide support for drawbridges etc. Often the children add more details to the land as well. I have a few childrens books and an Usborne encyclopedia of castles that I have the children look through to find inspiration for the details of their castles. Depending on how much time is allowed for details, this project can take up to 3 hours. A fairly basic castle with no 'land' and just some details could be completed in 1.5 hours.

Unknown said...

A couple more tips -if the children want to add flags on flagpoles to the tops of their castles, I recommend making them separate with their own little stand to be placed on the castle after firing. Otherwise they take too much room in the kiln. Also, keeping the land size restricted by asking the children to work on a small bat will save space in the kiln as well.

Related Posts with Thumbnails