Clay in Class

Reflections by Jennifer Koons from California Art Education Association (CAEA) Conference Los Angeles 2009

Workshop:  People Who Make Change: California History  (Twist Tie Armature) By Lynette Henderson, Ken Sakatani & Edie Pistolesi held on Friday, November 13, 2009

This workshop showed one way to develop students’ art skills and foster creativity while demonstrating their understanding in other curricular areas.  The objective for this seventh grade project was to use the principles of design, scale and proportion in creating accurate miniature human figures and accompanying props.  The armature of the figures was created using twist ties.  This basic art skill can be taught in all grades and applied based on grade-level standards.  Next, it is recommended to use clay, in particular, Laguna’s Paper Clay, to mold around the twist ties.  One aspect the presenters emphasized was using clay to create two distinct buttocks.

Examples of projects done by students of the presenters included some excellent renditions of scenes from popular literature stories like Charlotte’s Web and Where the Wild Things Grow.  On a Historical/Social Science emphasis, projects included important historical figures and events like the Chinese immigrant laundryman who influenced the 14^th Amendment with his court case.  Students wrote about their projects and created a California History Museum.

As part of the CAEA workshop, we used twist ties to create the armature and form a human figure.  Our task was to balance it and make it stand up.  “Pay special attention here to how the heel is formed,” Lynette instructed.  We then used candy wrappers to create clothing for the figures.  We were encouraged to use recycled items to decorate our figures.  Laguna’s Paper Clay would be a great accompaniment to this project as it will enhance the possibilities! Now rather than having students simply write and draw about history and literature, they can actually recreate three dimensional scenes using this simple technique.

We Want to Hear from You

If you have created figures using twist tie armature and clay or if you have taught this lesson with your class, please comment and send us your photos (include “Twist Tie Art” in the subject line) to upload.

View the Complete Twist Tie Armature Lesson Plan>>>

Tags: ceramics, classroom, figures, paper clay, twist tie

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