clay play for everyone

According to Tom Robbins“It’s never too late

to have a happy childhood.”

It is the time in a person's life when they are a child.

P L A Y is a P R O C E S S

The pleasure and enjoyment of playing is the wisdom of childhood.

Yet when watching children at play, one can observe the transfixed seriousness

and entrancing absorption with which they engage in it.

Play occurs at a relaxed pace and with a freedom void of compulsion.

It fosters creativity and is a valuable tool

for the individual at any age.

It conjures up the instinctive cognition we all seem to have for ‘earth.’

Making beads inclay is a process

limited only bythe imagination

of the maker.

It is ‘PLAY’which is

easy to perfect.

Recently, one of my Beads-in-Clay participants

exclaimed with closed eyes, “Oh, my, the smell

of this clay takes me back to my backyard inKensington when I was a kid.”

Another arthritic senior took pleasure in the feel

of the clay on her inside finger joints and loved

how responsive it was to her tender touch.

Otherwise, the direction taken is determined intuitively

by the person molding the clay.

1. Making the beginning coils

2. Clapping out palm pebbles

3. Finger pressing disc beads

4. Palm rolling round beads

5. Texture rollingblob beads

6. Finger rolling textured tube beads

Since all the seniors at the Lutheran SettlementHouse and Neumann Center had hands

and a penchant for play, we were offto a really good start!

These disc beads were all made with nichrome wire hanging loops.

Musings on my classes at the Lutheran Settlement House and Neumann Center located in Philadelphia’s Fishtown area, May

2009.

(A detailed list of supplies and firing suggestions follows.)

Clay mat work surface such as the cotton woven back side of Naugahyde

Earthenware clays in various colors (some scroddled together beforehand)

Sharp knife, clay scalpel or fettling knife Needle Tool and small bamboo skewers,

various size straws for making holes Pastry roller and wood dowels in various

sizes Styrofoam trays, marker, sponges and water

containers Rough towel or fine steel wool to clean up

dry scroddled beads & rough edges

Nichrome wire preformed loops for making clay shapes into pendants

Clay molds, various textures, rubber stamp sheets and cornstarch with soft brush

Colored terra sigillata for accenting bone dry beads before firing

Acrylics paints or ceramic stains for color accenting fired beads

Individual clay bead trays keep each students’ work together and a clay “name bead” added to the tray makes it simple to identify whose work it is after firing

A kiln of your own which fires to cone 04 or a local art center which will fire participants’ bead trays for you

A good assortment of waxed linen, leather, twine and silk cords for stringing

An assortment of accent beads to complement the clay beads with close attention paid to the opening size in these (Professional beaders will usually donate their leftovers)

Findings and tools for finishing the necklaces, bracelets and earrings made

Scissors, E6000 and Weldbond glue Some knowledge of finishing techniques