Lesson Plan: Organic From in Clay

Welcome to the Art Room of Justin Kramer
North Lakes State College, Queensland, Australia

"There is no must in art because art is free." ~ Wassily Kandinsky

Exciting news! Justin has moved to North Lakes State College, a P-12 school. He teaches grades 6 and up. Work on these pages was done by students in Justin's former school, Dakabin State High School. Justin moved on to North Lakes State College in 2005 - it was the first year that it opened its doors to middle school. Last year was very successful in that they won two regional art competitions with a huge prize pool that has supported an on going artist-in-residence program. Students also walked away with first prize awards. They were also successful in a $15000 grant for an artist in residence program to build a sculpture with electronics in it out front of the school. Students are also having their first public exhibition in a regional gallery this year. An artist contacted Justin last year and has worked with students for an exhibition that goes for the whole month of June (2006).

Organic Form in Clay - Shells
Submitted by: Justin Kramer

From Judy: I have been watching the list for posts where I can connect to Dale Chilhuly's glass installations. The majority of high school teacher's do not have access to glass -- but they do have clay. Justin Kramer's Shells Lesson fit the bill. Justin has also seen Chilhuly's installations and has always been overwhelmed by them. See also Ceramic Sculpture- in particular, Gregg Luginbuhl (fish and Creation Series).

Resource: Thais - Shell Images

To come: PDF document -- Year 10 test paper to go with this unit of work for the appraising art component.

Justin's students looked at several ceramic sculptors who are inspired by nature. He selected shells as the source of inspiration for his students since they are readily available to him. Students made sketches and planned their construction process.

Using pinch and draped slab techniques - the shells took shape. Surface decoration/textures was important. The pieces are larger than life - in some cases 40 to 50 cm in length.

Adapt Lesson Plan by Maria Lengauer: Organic Form in Clay

They experimented with glazing techniques and sandblasting to mimic the shells colour. Justin was quite surprised how well they handled the concepts of layering glaze colours to achieve an effect. Justin has entered the installation into a collaborative art competition for secondary students.

Resources for 2-D images throughout history:

Select any of these wonderful examples of Shells in Art. Page by Juan Carlos M. Coll and Alfonso Pina. Reverso Web Translation gives you a very accurate translation from Spanish to English.