Clay Modelling & Terracotta.

CLAY MODELLING 

 

 Explanation: Clay Modelling is an artistic form in which hard or plastic materials are worked into three-dimensional art objects. The designs may be embodied in freestanding objects, in reliefs on surfaces. Clay is a kind of earth that is soft when it is wet and hard when it is dry. Clay is shaped and baked to make things such as pots and bricks. A very fine-grained material that consists of hydrated aluminium silicate, quartz, and organic fragments and occurs as sedimentary rocks, soils, and other deposits. It becomes plastic when moist but hardens on heating and is used in the manufacture of bricks, cement, ceramics, etc. Clay exhibit plasticity when mixed with water in certain proportions. However, when dry, clay becomes firm and when fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical changes occur. These changes convert the clay into a ceramic material. Because of these properties, clay is used for making pottery, both utilitarian and decorative, and construction products, such as bricks, wall and floor tiles. Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, are used to produce earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay.

Clay Modelling

 Discussion: Types of Clay: Earthenware clay, Oil based clay, Polymer clay, Dough clay, Paper clay etc. What’s the difference between Sculpture and Painting? Painting is a two-dimensional art form, whereas sculpture is a three-dimensional art form. A painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, colour or other medium to a solid surface whereas a sculpture is the art of making forms and figures in clay or other materials. Sculpture is usually a 3D object made by carving stone or wood or by casting metal or plaster.

TERRACOTTA

 Process:

•Terra-cotta is a term that refers to fired clay. One of the greatest works in the history of sculpture, the set of fired clay figures known as the Chinese Terracotta Army.

Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, China

• After the clay has been kneaded sufficiently to force out all the air bubbles, it is forced into the proper proportions, smoothed out and curved so that it follows the general curve of the object used as the model.

Clay kneading.

Woman kneading clay using roller pin.

• Shapes made to be pressed with plaster moulds and allowed to harden.

Clay pressed in mould.

Clay figures left for drying.

• To set the clay after it has been dried naturally, it should be fired.

After drying, artefacts are painted with red clay.

• Appropriate refined clay is formed to the desired shape. After drying it was placed in a kiln or atop combustible material in a pit, and then fired. The typical firing temperature was around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), though it may be as low as 600 °C.

Traditional terracotta firing.

• Finally using acrylic paints or oil paints for colouring Terracotta Sculptures.

Acrylic colours used for colouring Terracotta.

Display of finished Terracotta products.

Final touch.

 Objectives:
• Acquires a sense of his/her body by creating representative models (clay figures)
• Use his/her senses of touch, sight and smell
• Tactile perception: hot, cold, smooth, rough, hard, soft, slippery, sticky, gooey
• Visual perception: matte, shiny, smooth
• Olfactory perception: different kinds of clay have different smells: some are scented, and you can scent modelling clay yourself; pottery clay has a distinctive earthy smell
• Develops coordination
• Perfects the dissociation of the hand, thumb and fingers from the forearm (necessary for writing)
• Builds strength in arms, wrists and fingers
• Improves fine motor skills and dexterity by manipulating the tools and the clay
• Broadens his/her repertoire of actions: squeezing, pinching, stretching, digging, crushing, hitting, shredding, tearing, flattening, rolling
• Situates himself/herself in space and time: anticipates the tools that will be required, adjusts his/her activities according to the time available.