This simple clay project is made with four sculpture methods: rolling a slab, pinching a pot, scoring a surface and draping a pot. All four are required methods for primary school sculpture standards.
Make sure to leave a large enough opening in the ghost's back for a tiny battery operated light. You would need to make the same project with high-fire clay in order to safely burn a candle in the figure.
Supply List:
newspaper
acrylic white paint
small soft brush
shallow dish of water
air dry clay or paper clay
acrylic varnish
tiny lights or battery operated votive candle
flower cookie cutter
paper bowl
plastic fork for scoring
plastic butter knife for cutting into the clay
Step-by-Step Directions:
Shape this Halloween ghost first by rolling a ball between the palms of your hands.
Now insert your thumb and position your five other fingers outside the surface of the ball.
Pinch and turn the ball clockwise. Soon the clay will open up to shape a small pinch pot. Set aside.
Roll out more clay and use a flower shaped cookie cutter to make the base of the ghostly figure. This base should be 1/2 inch thick or more.
Score the bottom of the pinch pot and drizzle a little water in these scores to help them attach to the flower base.
Now position your pinch pot over the flower shaped base. Pinch and pull the ghost's walls to fit the flower cut base. (see below)
Cut a mouth hole and two eye holes into the front of the ghost's head.
Cut a large hole into the backside of the ghost's body so that you may insert twinkle lights or a battery operated votive inside the ghostly figure after it dries.
Smooth the holes of the face and the rippled walls of the ghost's sheet with a bit of water on your finger tips.
Let the ghost dry.
Paint the ghost with white paint.
Varnish the draped ghost figure with clear acrylic.
Use a large flower shaped cookie cutter to press a base shape for your ghost.
Placing the ghost into a paper bowl allows the student to move the project around without damaging it.
This simple sculpture would be a good "warm up" project prior to crafting a more complicated lesson like a coil pot.
Young children can learn how to roll basic coils with the palms of their hands. Give them a mat, newspaper, or an old piece of cardboard to roll out the clay for this cute little assignment. Let them play with the coils for a while and encourage them to repeat the process over and over before finally finishing the snake pencil holder. They may need to wet their hands while working with the clay to prevent their coil from cracking and drying out.
Their snake coil should be about 3/4 inch thick at it's widest point. Children may also score the surfaces to add texture or print. Make sure that one of the snake's ends is rounded and fat enough for a head and that the other end tapers off gradually. It doesn't really matter where the head or tail ends up in the end. Each one of these little reptiles is adorable when children are allowed to give them unique knots and twists.
Supply List:
newspaper
acrylic or watercolor paints
red embroidery floss
white glue
air dry clay or paper clay
small paint brush
acrylic varnish
printing or scoring tools like a plastic fork
shallow dish with water
Step-by-Step Directions:
Roll out a very long coil of clay.
Lift and form the coil into a tall container.
Leave enough space between the simple stacked coil for pencils, crayons, markers etc...
Poke a small hole with the tip of a pencil where the mouth of the snake should be.
Let the snake dry overnight or longer.
Paint the snake with a strip, spots, or any other patterns you like.
Glue a long strand of red embroidery floss coming from the snake's mouth, (hole) to mimic it's tongue.
Give your snake eyes with the tip of your paint brush too.
Download and print out the pattern below. The dotted lines
indicate where the image will be folded to continue the potted tulip silhouette
seamlessly after it is unfolded. The number of images "linked" together
in one continuous chain is determined by the length of the paper being
cut. Use a very thin paper to make your cutting easier. Cut away the
areas indicated by the design. (see image above and read text on the
pattern below. This paper-cut may be used as a border around an Easter
bulletin board in a classroom or as a paper chain for a shelf if you like.
Many unique observances of this season may be found in every quarter of the globe. The forms vary, but one theme inspires them all, -- the Savior returned to earth; Messiah risen from the dead. There is in our home-land a custom that is tried and true. It is the celebration of Easter by the Moravians, in Bethlehem, Pa., a custom that has been introduced in many lands and accepted wherever it has gone, as one of the cherished possessions of this ancient church.
The Easter in Bethlehem, Pa., begins on Palm Sunday Eve. This service, which is held in the large Moravian Church, consists of readings from the Passion Week Manual, a compilation from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), interspersed with suitable hymns, a brief address and a prayer. Readings from this manual continue through the whole of Easter Week. As far as possible, the closing scenes of the Savior's earthly ministry are reviewed on the respective days of the week on which they occurred. The simple story of the Passion Week, unembellished and unbroken, is undoubtedly an effective preparation for the celebration of Easter Day. Devout Moravians attend these services in large numbers, while Christians of every name and creed may be found in the crowded church. The children of the Moravian Parochial School attend with their teachers and occupy reserved seats in the front part of the sanctuary. The simplicity of this custom and the ardor of those who read, together with the evident devotion of the auditors, indelibly stamp upon the mind the lessons of the Easter season.
Palm Sunday is a day of rejoicing among Moravians. It is the day when candidates for confirmation, who have been pursuing a rigid course of study under the direction of the pastors of the Moravian Church, make a public confession of their faith and become members. The stately house of worship of the Bethlehem Moravian congregation is decorated with palms and greens in festive profusion. There is a ring of triumph in music and sermon, and there is always a large class of young people to make a public declaration of faith in the essentials of the Christian religion. Occasionally, too, older persons stand for the first time in the circle of the chosen and respond to the impressive service of confirmation, which makes this a memorable day for them.
The services of Maundy Thursday are as solemn as the occasion demands. The cumulative force of the "words of Thursday," as they are read during the two afternoon meetings, cannot be realized in any other way than by setting aside the afternoon of the day before Good Friday to gather with hundreds of fellow believers and hearken to these words as they fell from the lips of the Master two thousands years ago. The evening service of communion brings back the vision of the upper room and the exhortation to the disciples. The white-gowned ministers bearing trays of bread and wine, the artistic arrangement of the service and the inspiring accumulation of song lend a significance to this Eucharist that cannot fail to prepare every participant for the events of the dark days that follow.
On the morning of Good Friday, at 10:30 o'clock, the congregation assembles for a service of reading and song. The dramatic "acts of Friday" are the theme. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the climax of the reading services is held, the closing scenes of the Crucifixion being reviewed. At 3 o'clock, the supposed hour of our Savior's death, the throng of worshipers kneel, while the deep-toned bell in the belfry over the ridge roof of the church tolls a solemn knell. The congregation rises and in reverent silence leaves the sanctuary. The Christ is dead. An evening vesper, which begins at 7 :30 o'clock, is an exercise of song. It is a vigil for the Paschal Lamb, and, following, as it does, upon the solemn sadness of the morning and afternoon watch, makes a profound impression of the greatness of Christ's sacrifice for sin.
During the afternoon of Saturday, commonly known as Great Sabbath, a love-feast is held. This service, which opens at 3 o'clock, consists of a program of song and prayer. The congregation and choir vie with each other in expressions of praise and adoration to the King who gave them life and brotherly love through death. While this challenge of song is sounding, the dieners of the church -- men and women dark groomed and practiced in the art of serving throngs of people -- distribute buns and coffee. This friendly breaking of bread is accepted as a symbol of unity with each other and the wounded Lord. At 7 :30, the congregation re-assembles for the Easter Eve watch. There is another vigil exercise of song, with a prayer and an interpretative word from the desk. It is a thoughtful preparation for the Resurrection Day.
Many loyal Moravians do not sleep on Great Sabbath night. They remain in the church to decorate for the celebration of Easter Day. At about 3 o'clock in the morning of the day to which the services of the entire week have been leading, the trombone choir starts out on a tour of Bethlehem and South Bethlehem, playing carols to call the sleeping citizens to awake for the early morning watch in the cemetery under the giant tulip-trees. Here lie buried pioneer missionaries of many lands, ministers of the church, citizens of community days and of modern Bethlehem, -- a group of men and women in whose presence one must bow his head in reverence and thank the good Father for loyal servants in the vineyard of the world. In such a company one may well await the resurrection hour. Thousands of people from near and far come to this sunrise gathering. They crowd into the church nearby the cemetery and hear the announcement by the choir that the Master has arisen from the dead; listen to the impressive words of the first part of the Moravian Easter liturgy; sing a song of rejoicing; and then slowly depart to the great square under the tulip-trees in the center of the old burying-ground, which has been apportioned for this service. Here, assisted by the trombone choir, the singing choir, and the ministers of the congregation, they complete the Easter liturgy in the open air, just as the first gleams of sunrise tint the eastern sky. There is in this gathering a rejoicing as pronounced as was the gloom which settled over the services of Friday and the watchful waiting of the Great Sabbath day.
The other services of Easter Day are not dissimilar to those of churches of other names, but there is in them an atmosphere of triumph that would be impossible without the days of careful preparation which have passed. On the eighth day after Easter, the remaining acts set down in the Passion Manual are read. Easter is not, therefore, a transient festival in the Moravian Church. Its influence abides. It reechoes in the services many days --nay, months -- after the season has fled.
