Clay Whistles

Ocarina

The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument The body of the flute is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouth tube projecting out from the body. It is often ceramic, but many other materials, such as plastic, wood, glass and metal may also be used.

History of the Ocarina

The ocarina is a very old family of instruments, believed to date back some 12,000 years. Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. – Chinese used the Ocarina for Song and Dance– Europe used the Ocarina for the introductions of Judges to

the Court The word ocarina is derived from Italian meaning

"little goose." After featuring in the Nintendo Legend of Zelda

games, the ocarina attracted a marked increase in interest, and a dramatic rise in sales.

Utilitarian vs. Decoration

Which one of these can you use?

Which one of these items sits on your table for decoration?

Clay Whistle Examples

The Dragon Fly

The Fish

Clay Whistle Examples continued…

Family of Turtles

A Bird

Student made

Get Ideas

Sketch out Pottery Ideas

•All artists sketch out ideas before starting a new idea

•It speeds up making the bowl because clay dries very fast

four states of clay:  

Plastic: clay that is soft, pliable and easy to work with.

Leather Hard: clay that has been allowed to dry slightly, making it stiffer and able to support its weight, but can still be worked on and have parts attached.

Bone Dry: clay at its most fragile state, can not be worked on at this stage

Bisque: the first firing for the clay, removes all of the water, (both actual and chemical) and carbon, The fusing of the particles has begun, yet the clay is still porous to allow for glaze absorption. It can no longer be slaked down and recycled

How to Make a Clay Whistle Start with two ball of plastic like clay

A bowl of water

A stylist tool

A paint brush

Make a Pinch Pot

This is a hand building process starting with a ball of clay, inserting your thumb and "pinching" the clay between your thumb and fingers, gradually expanding and shaping the wall into a bowl-like form.

Pinch a second Bowl

Make sure one bowl has a nib on the end

Finished Pinch Pots

Merge Pots Put the two pots together Make sure they fit or match in shape

and size

Slip and Score

– The method for joining pieces of clay where the two surfaces are scratched up and slip is added like a "glue" to create a strong, melded bond. It is an essential step in ceramic construction, because clay will stick to itself when wet, but when will fall apart after bisque when all the water is removed. Texturing the surface gives the clay some grip, almost like Velcro.

Score the Lip of Each Pinch Pot

Add Water or Slip to the Scored Lips

Put the two Pinch Pots Together

The Shape can be Altered by Paddling and Molding

Making the Whistle Mechanism

You will need 2 sticks

Put the first stick in the nib horizontally all the way to the end of the body

First take the second stick and make a square incision between the body and the nib

Second create a 45 degree angle on square incision

Your whistle should look like this

Add Animal Features

Neck Head

– Eyes– Nose– Mouth– Ears

Tail, Fins, Beak Legs and Feet

How do you want to decorate your whistle?

Think About Design Quality

Texture

Add texture in the

Leather Hard drying stage of clay.

Use tools to make texture and designs

Sgraffito - This comes the Italian word meaning "scratched through" and is done by incising orcutting a design through a colored slip coating to reveal the clay body.

Time to Dry to the Bone

Next it goes into the Kiln

Kiln

A furnace that use electricity,

gas or wood, but may also be fired using coal, oil, manure or even old tires.

Is used to Fire the clay till it hardens to a stone like form.

Paint Yourself Silly

Glaze – A mix of chemicals and minerals when heated to a really hot temperature melt together and form a glass like color coating on the outside of clay objects.

Objectives

Objective #2:Students will learn to pinch, join, shape, design, glaze or paint a clay whistle. They will choose animal features using their own thumbnail sketch ideas.

Objective #3:Students will consider what importance music and animal have on our culture.

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