Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Clay Looms & Weaving

I have been seeing other Bloggers and Pinterest Pinners posting things about clay looms. Every post I have seen shows a unique approach for these hand made looms and I just couldn't wait any longer to try it out with one of my PYP classes.

As a class we had been investigating texture and had just gone through new art vocabulary while practicing some clay techniques. What a great time to try out these looms and add in some weaving skills!

We began by doing some practice radial weaving on paper plates. The students used a template to cut notches in their paper plate and wound yarn through the notches during teacher demonstration.

During the next lesson, students wedged and rolled out their own slab of clay. This slab was cut into a shape of their choice, with a circle stamped out from the middle. 19 holes were then punched with a straw evenly around the circle that was cut from the middle. Before the loom was complete, students had fun pressing a variety of materials into the wet clay to create texture. They used shells and other natural materials to get interesting shapes and designs.

Once the looms had dried and were fired in the kiln, they colored the finished clay with a crayon and chalk technique. The students then strung up their looms as we had practiced before with paper plates and began weaving with different colors.

Although the weaving was difficult for students at first, they all were successful with practice! Here are some students finishing their weaving below. 



The completed looms were absolutely beautiful. I wanted to take them home myself!



A few of my happy students being proud of their finished work!

   

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