I can’t believe this semester is already over! I have learned so much throughout this class, and really enjoyed the process. I chose to do various crafts using air dry clay and found it really fun to use different resources to learn from. Not only have I learned how to make clay art, but I have learned that there are so many internet sources out there for us to use. For my final learning project post, I have written up a summary of all my clay related learnings:
Week 1: Cooking or Ukulele or Air Dry Clay?– Week one was very introductory. I spent time trying to decide what project I wanted to do and debated between the three in the title. I ended up going with the clay and then researched what I would need for the process. Then I headed to Micheal’s and picked up all the supplies. I also laid out some ideas of where I would find inspo throughout the semester.
Week 2: Clay! (The Learning Process)– My first week of actual creating I made a coaster and a little trinket dish, and actually they are still some of my favourites. I worked on getting out the kinks this week, like how to smooth out clay and connect shapes together. I used the account Sculpd on TikTok for my resource this week. I still watch their stuff from time to time.
Week 3: Already Improving: My Journey With Clay Art!– During this week I practiced painting my clay dishes and still love how they turned out. I practiced using Mod Podge on my projects to make them shiny after the painting process. I also decided to make another dish this week to practice the basic skills I would need throughout this project. I used an account on YouTube as my resource this week called Crokd. It helped me smooth out the clay better and learn strategies to make the process easier.
Week 4: TikTok: The Complicated Puzzle– This week was FULL of highs and lows, or mostly just lows. I wanted to create another piece of media that wasn’t just pictures, so I made a TikTok. It is safe to say that was a learning process. While creating the video, I accidentally posted it when it wasn’t finished and had to find a way to get around that whole thing. Also the projects I worked on were not up to my standard and I think looked a little funny! But it’s ok! It’s all apart of learning.
Week 5: Painting Week!– In week 5, my full focus was painting my projects. I painted a jack-o-lantern bowl, and repainted one of the dishes I made in the past because it all peeled off! Also part of the learning I guess after painting everything, I ended up being pretty happy with everything!
Week 6: A Clay Bowl Pt 2– This was another week that I ended up being proud of, which was needed after the last two! I decided to retry making a clay bowl with a different technique than I used before. This ended up being a lot easier and a smoother process. This video was very helpful. I decided to make a time lapse of me making the bowl. I also made a tic-tac-toe dish! I am super proud of this one, it combined many parts of clay making because I had to make the dish, and roll out little lines and connect them to the dish. It is the most complicated thing I have made so far and I love it. Here is the tutorial I used on Pinterest.
Week 7: Speckles!– I worked on painting again this week, but I decided I wanted to try painting techniques rather than painting something onto my clay like normal. I got inspiration from my water bottle funnily enough, and decided to learn a speckle painting technique. I love how it turned out. I also painted the bowl but I think I enjoy the speckles more. At the end of my post, I provided a video of more tic-tac-toe dishes, also on Pinterest.
Week 8: X’s and O’s or Crescent Moon’s and O’s– I had to make the game pieces now for my board, and it was actually very hard to make smaller things compared to larger. Although, it ended up being great practice for steady hands. I made O’s, but gave up on the X’s and made crescent moons because I couldn’t figure them out. I actually liked it more. I practiced stamping out the shapes instead of carving them as well, here is there inspo for that.
Week 9: A Lacklustre Week– During week 9 I got super sick and had 0 energy, it turns out it was pneumonia! I still ended up getting some things done. I painted my game pieces for the tic-tac-toe board. This actually took forever because they were so small but I still am in love with them. I used that same technique for painting speckles, just on a smaller scale.
Week 10: Christmas!!– Our final week! I was really feeling the Christmas spirit this week and ended up getting so many fun projects done. I made Christmas ornaments to give to my family with their Christmas gifts. I used another TikTok as my resource this week, actually two. Here is the first and here is the second. I was quite happy with how things tuned out this week for the grand finale of my learning project!
Overall, I learned so many techniques throughout this learning project. I now know how to make a plethora of things out of clay. I also learned that there are so many different online sources to learn from, and how helpful they can be. The amount of widespread sources there is on the internet is insane! I will definitely continue to grab inspo and tutorials from the sites I used. I’d like to thank everyone who commented supportive comments through my learning process. They all made me feel a lot better about my dishes and things.