What began as a review lesson in clay construction quickly became a fun learning experience filled with inspiring conversations and creatively painted birds. This lesson was successful from beginning to end, with a final reward when the artwork was displayed. The author describes the process of working on this project and shares how the students…

Although the craft and art of bookmaking has a rich history, artworks about books are relatively new. The author teaches in a school that has an international population where a variety of languages and cultures flourish. He took this opportunity to develop a ceramic unit that combined sculptural design, the history of bookmaking, and traditional…

In two related articles, the author describes (1) a field trip during which his high school ceramics club collected clay from the outdoors and (2) the process he used to create primitive pottery pieces from such material. (SJL)

Scrounging, cooperation, and resourcefulness have made pottery the most popular--and the most visible--art class in a Missouri high school. The pottery course is described. (RM)

To help them get the cylindrical shape necessary for making pottery beer mugs, high school art students used flexible armatures stuffed with vermiculite. (RM)

Relates pottery making to chemistry by providing chemical information about clay, its origin, composition, properties, and changes that occur during firing; also describes glaze compositions, examples of redox chemistry, salt glazing, crystalline glazes, and problems in toxicity. (CS)

At the NAEA conference in Minneapolis, Carpenter and Sessions asked, "What are we teaching, especially about ceramics?" Art educators are often criticized for leaving out historical context when teaching studio art. In this article, the author offers guidelines, based on national and state art standards, and share the results of teaching…

Focuses on a reduction-firing process with an aim of producing high-quality blackware similar to the black-on-black pottery of Maria Martinez and other American Indian potters. Includes a lesson on creating reduction-fired seedpod bowls, lists of instructional resources and materials, and the objectives and evaluation. (CMK)

Using the rattles of Native American cultures as inspiration, students used pinching, coiling, and slab and molding techniques to form the bodies of rattles and clay pellets for sound. Surface decoration included glazed and unglazed areas as well as added handles, feathers, and leather. (IS)

Students learned to produce pottery using the coiling and surface decoration techniques of the Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest. In doing so they learned about working within the aesthetic confines of an unfamiliar culture. The history of Southwestern pottery is also covered briefly. (IS)

An overview is presented of a 1982-83 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Title IV-C project, designed for 50 talented high school art students, to preserve the arts and crafts in the Mississippi hills area and to enrich existing arts and crafts curriculum. Steps are listed for implementing such a program, a simple program budget is…