Ceramic Jewelry-Making

Our students made some fantastic ceramic jewelry this month! The entire school got to enjoy this two week project.

On our first visit, we looked at many examples of artist-made jewelry and shared observations with each other about their textures, designs, patterns, and materials. We learned that jewelry can be made out of wood, paper, shells, rocks, bone and teeth (shark tooth necklaces), glass, clay, precious stones, and metals. We even saw some jewelry that was made from recycled items like rubber bands and aluminum cans. Some students mentioned that jewelry can even be made with candy!

The students then rolled a spherical ball of clay, pressed it flat to make a medallion, and used texturizing tools to create designs. The medallions were fired. We used a really nice Amaco White Art Clay that was silky smooth to work with out of the bag and even smoother bisque when fired!

Some of the students painted their medallions, others actually colored them with crayon and markers, even though those are usually drawing tools on paper. The crayons made a really great textured, bold color and highlighted subtle textures on the surface of the clay really well. The markers absorbed very quickly and looked almost pastel and very smooth. The contrast of the kinds of color was really neat! Some students even made a resist out of the two materials. We then cut our color choice of yarn (did some measuring to tie in a math connection), strung the pieces and wore them home.

The best thing about this project was that the students took great pride in their necklaces! Some said they were their "good luck charms," some gave them to their parents who wore them to school, some traded with their friends, and I saw more than a few on rear view mirrors in the carpool line. It was a very special project!