A nice pastime activity for children, clay sculpting enables them to exhibit their creativity in the best possible manner. Clay sculpture ideas help children and adults creative techniques.
There are many clay sculpture ideas that one can choose from, for a school project, college term work, or just for fun. Making clay sculptures is an activity of interest among children. They enjoy creating different forms out of clay. Children can handle this material with ease and therefore, find it easy to pour their creativity into these sculptures.
What is Clay?
The tiny particles that are obtained as a result of the weathering process of rocks form a substance known as clay. This substance has been used in the preparation of sculptures for a long period of time. The most common application of clay sculptures that we see in our day-to-day lives are clay pots and other earthenware. One can create many decorative designs and items (for example flower vase) through the use of modeling clay.
Clay Sculpture Ideas
Different ideas can be applied in the activity of preparing clay sculptures. Nowadays, most of the clay making takes place in art schools and colleges. With the traditional occupation of clay making left with no takers, these schools do a good job of preserving the rich tradition of clay sculpting. Different sculpture ideas can be tried out and experimented in this field. Clay animal sculptures are especially popular among children. There are however, many different ideas that kids can make use of. They can make different cartoon characters, toy shapes, flowers, etc. Creating puppets out of modeling clay also is one of the interesting ideas to consider.
Before you get on with the activity of clay sculpting try to understand that an artwork can evolve in the process of its creation. You can’t always have a perfect idea in the beginning itself. Choose a topic for clay sculpting and let the ideas flow in while you ‘chisel’ out the artwork. It is important to note that you may even come up with a better idea than the original one in the course of time.
How to Make Clay Sculptures
The first thing one should do is to prepare a framework that supports the structure and shape of the sculpture. Framework of these sculptures is generally created with the help of aluminum wires. The clay used for making sculptures is mostly polymer clay. Other than just clay and the materials used to build framework for sculptures, one can also use different sculpture clay tools. So, for a project to be completed in a short time, you can make use of polymer-based clay.
Pottery
It is the art of making pots and different types of containers from mineral clay. The pots are made only by hand without the use of any other tools. Clay coils are used in the decoration of pots. After the desired shape is given to the pot and necessary decorations made, the sculpture becomes ready for firing. Firing is the process of hardening a clay sculpture with the help of heat. The oven in which clay sculptures are heated in a controlled manner is known as a kiln.
Clay Heads
Along with clay, you will need newspaper, a wooden base, glue, wood scraps, etc to make clay heads. One should start by preparing a basic form of the head, a spherical shape should be created with the help of newspaper fixed on a wooden base. After binding the paper ball with the help of tape, one should start adding clay to the surface from the top to the base. Detailing like the nose, eyes, ears, hair, etc. should be done after this. For further decorations use paint, colorful paper etc.
Castles
To build a miniature castle, one will need a wooden platform or tray in order to support the structure. The sculpture can be made interesting by decorations and by incorporating turrets, moats, flags, drawbridges, etc.. Before actually starting the activity students should be asked to ponder over various design ideas. Items that are generally thrown away as trash can be used to decorate the castle. For example, empty bottles can be used to make turrets and toothpicks converted into flags.
Clay Sculpting Media
Clay used in making artworks can be water-based or oil-based. One should select the type of clay on the basis of his specific requirements. For example, oil-based clay should be used if you want to make a shiny-looking sculpture. It is also important to choose the clay, considering the time frame of the completion of work. Water-based clay dries faster. Texture is also a factor in determining which clay to choose. Using a type of clay you are comfortable working with is recommended.
The art of clay sculpting allows you to display your creativity in the best possible way. The activity of clay sculpting can be made interesting by applying creative ideas and using the power of imagination. Clay sculpting and making related arts & crafts is a nice way to nurture and develop artistic skills. The ideas pertaining to clay arts for kids listed in this article should help in igniting that spark to do something creative and artistic.
