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​Our focus yesterday in the Mini Makers class was Lines.  We were inspired by the book Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman.  It’s super charming and has lovely illustrations. 

After reading the book, my 4-5 year olds were eager to look around the room and point out all the different kinds of lines they could find — wavy, straight, zig-zag, dotted, curly . . .

Now for the project that was inspired by the book.  Our materials were . . .

• 8x10 black cardstock
• scraps of painted paper and construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• oil pastels

First, they filled their black paper with as many different kinds of lines as they could manage. I encouraged them to use a variety of colors, and even to overlap lines.

Then we made 3-D lines (and we discussed 2-D vs. 3-D, and that 3-D artworks are called sculptures).  One key step is to count to 10 slowly every time you glue a side down, otherwise it will pop right off when you attempt to glue the other side.

The kids really got into these paper sculptures.  It was a bit of an engineering puzzle for them to figure out different ways they wanted their lines to go.

(Project inspiration came from this blog post)

(This blog post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item from one of those links, it helps support what we do at Bright Art Studio.  I will only link to products that I would buy myself.)

Last week our Mini Makers class (4-6 year olds) made some clay pinch pots.  I have never done this project with such a young group and was so impressed with how well they did.

The pinch pot is a classic intro-level clay project. You simply start with a ball of clay, press your thumb inside to create a small hole, and then continue to pinch with your thumb inside, turning it around like a steering wheel, until you have a small pot.  You can use the surface of the table to tap the top and bottoms to make it level.

​I found this great visual explanation on Mini Matisse.

I don’t have a kiln, so we used air dry clay instead.  After forming the pots, I provided pony beads, jewels, and sequins for the students to press into the clay and bedazzle their creations.  

I love how the little pots each have their own personality.  

Now that the clay has hardened, I plan on sealing them by painting on a coat of clear varnish on each pot.

A great picture book to read with this project is The Pot that Juan Built.  I worried my little folks would find the repetition in the book a bit tedious (because I think that when I’m reading aloud), but they were super into it.  It follows the process of creating a clay pot, from finding the clay underground to baking it in a fire. And I love that it features a real ceramic artist from Mexico, Juan Quezada.