Making shapes with clay
Art & Design · Key Stage 1 · The School
Basic moves
Clay can be ROLLED into a ball or a sausage, PINCHED between finger and thumb to make a pot, PRESSED flat into a slab, and POKED with a tool. Those four moves make almost everything at this stage, and doing each of them once is a good way to start.
Making joins stay
Two pieces of clay pressed together fall apart when dry. To join properly, SCORE both surfaces with criss-cross scratches, add a little water or slip, and press firmly. Potters have done this for thousands of years, and it is the difference between a handle that stays on and one that does not.
Texture
Clay takes an impression of anything pressed into it: a leaf, a fork, a shell, string, a button. Pressing objects into a flat slab makes patterns you could not draw. Rolling something across the surface makes a repeating one. This is the easiest way to make clay work look considered.
Roll three identical clay tiles. On the first, press a piece of hessian or a leaf into the surface and lift it away — an impression. On the second, scratch a pattern with a stick — incising. On the third, roll thin coils and press them on, scoring and slipping first — adding. Three surfaces, three techniques, one material, and now you can choose rather than just squeeze.