Our School. Projects and BEST PRACTICES

We want to present two of the projects which have been carried out in this school year as the best way to present what we do and to suggest some activities that our partners can also put in place similar activities in their schools.

Art as a tool for inclusion. El Arte, herramienta de inclusión

The aim of this project is to make our students meet and interact with groups of people with fewer possibilities for whatever reason: old age, illness, disability, or because of their sexual orientation or social disadvantages, etc… These disadvantaged people suffer from social rejection or stigmatisation, finding themselves in some way isolated or invisible.

Clay Shoe and Tales

In this project we are trying to create a shoe made of clay and add a character from a tale in the composition.

Supplies

A bunch of wet clay

A kiln

Step 1: Find A Shoe

1. You can use any shoe that you really like. You will be using it as a model and we will try to have a copy of the shoe to display as long as its dimensions and measures.

When you work on this clay shoe you should have the actual shoe. With the true model close to you it will be easier to capture every wrinkle and grommet and all the details.

If you are using photos of a shoe, make sure you get every possible angle of the shoe to get all the details of the shoe captured from different angles.

2. Take measurements of the shoe. to be able to compare when you are sculpting the shoe.

Step 2: Creating the Contour Shape

1. Start your shoe by creating a basic shell. You can use a series of rolled out clay slabs to create the basic shape of the shoe. The three shapes to cut out are the sole, the body, and the tongue.

2. The next step is to add some specific contours to your shoe.

Add contours to where your shoe folds and bends. if you look at your shoes you can probably tell that they are not perfectly straight. One side bends differently than the other, they have unique lumps, folds, and imperfections. Now is the time where you capture those bending imperfections in your clay.

a. You can start by bending your simple shape to capture a more accurate contour of your shoe.

b. Add clay to begin building up the shape on the side of the shoe to recreate the bend of the fabric or leather.

Step 3: Adding the Details: Shoe Features

When there is a clean shape to your shoe it is time to look at creating all the small details. Your details will depend on what shoe you are sculpting

1. Easiest way to add layers is to add clay. The easiest way to create another layer is to add clay on top of the shell.

Another option is to carve the layers out of the clay

2. Wrinkles in the shoe are more difficult than they look. You have to recreate all the bends that are pulled by the wrinkle being there.

3. Grommets. The easiest way to do them is to make a disc shape the same size you want the grommet to be. Then you put it on the shoe and carve the hole out.

4. Do Stitches last. I already mentioned this before. Wait until you are mostly done with the rest of the details before you put in stitches.

5. Shoelaces are tough. They require a large amount of patience to deal with. The clay can't be too wet where they bend but can't be too dry as they may begin to crack as you move them. If they do either of these things there is a high likelihood your laces will fall off.

You can wrap your laces in damp paper towels when drying. If there are any laces that are free standing away from your main piece they will dry faster than your main piece. This is bad because they will start shrinking and cracking, breaking off of the shoe. The goal is to dry those pieces slowly so the whole piece dries at a consistent rate. Then everything will stay in one piece

NOTE

We don’t want a heavy shoe so we carved the inside of the shoe so that it is a lightweight item.

Step 4: Choose your Animal from a Tale

1. In this project apart from the shoe we are going to have an animal from a tale attached to the shoe. Once you have chosen your animal and decide its position in relation to the shoe.

2. We cannot make the animal separately from the shoe, but at this stage we just need a bunch of clay, which we will use to sculpt the animal, in the position we like. If you try to do it separately, it will be rather probable that your animal will not stick with the clay of the shoe.

If this process is not correctly done the pieces of clay won't adhere correctly and are at risk of breaking apart as the clay dries

3. We will start working on the animal once the shoe is almost ready.

Step 5 : Bisque Fire the Piece

When you are done with your composition completely, it is time to bisque fire your piece. This will make it a hard stone and no longer malleable.

NOTE:

DO NOT PUT THE PIECE IN THE KILN UNTIL PIECE IS 100% DRIED.

If there is any part of the piece that is still not completely dried. When you heat it up to hundreds of degrees there is a high possibility that your piece will explode if there is a bubble in the clay, and all your hard work will be destroyed.

You can get some fantastic results if you create a mini book for the artwork label to display the title and artist’s name.

Creating a Relief . Workshop for Kids.