After making the mandrake sculpture for Halloween, my mom asked if I would show her how to work with clay. I went a step further and suggested that we do so as another activity with Caleb. Looking back, there are things I would have done differently.
One, I would have picked something specific for us to make. Leaving it open made it hard for my mom to decide what to do and Caleb's first choice was to build a snowman. Thankfully, it was an easy thing to make, though rather out of season.
Two, I would have picked a less ambitious subject matter for my piece. I originally thought to make a sculpture of Mater from Cars, being one of Caleb's favorite characters. But once I started, I realized that I needed to start with a foam base like I did with with the mandrake in order to make a statute of sufficient size to work in details, otherwise I wouldn't have enough clay to work with.
And third, we should have had more colors of clay. My initial idea was to make the sculptures, let them dry and then we would go back and paint them. It would have been more satisfying to work with additional colors and have a more finished piece when we were done. Caleb's snowman may not have needed many colors, but when he asked for orange clay for a carrot nose and red for a scarf, I realized my mistake.
Nevertheless, he seemed to enjoy himself.
But he got frustrated rather quickly with trying to judge the right amount of clay for the arms and eyes to be the right proportions for his snowman and eventually turned over his piece to my mom for her to "help". She ended up finishing it up for him.
Trying to keep my piece small, I made a sea turtle in the style of Crush from Finding Nemo. Caleb thought it was cute, so I promised to paint it after it was dry so that he could keep it.
One, I would have picked something specific for us to make. Leaving it open made it hard for my mom to decide what to do and Caleb's first choice was to build a snowman. Thankfully, it was an easy thing to make, though rather out of season.
Two, I would have picked a less ambitious subject matter for my piece. I originally thought to make a sculpture of Mater from Cars, being one of Caleb's favorite characters. But once I started, I realized that I needed to start with a foam base like I did with with the mandrake in order to make a statute of sufficient size to work in details, otherwise I wouldn't have enough clay to work with.
And third, we should have had more colors of clay. My initial idea was to make the sculptures, let them dry and then we would go back and paint them. It would have been more satisfying to work with additional colors and have a more finished piece when we were done. Caleb's snowman may not have needed many colors, but when he asked for orange clay for a carrot nose and red for a scarf, I realized my mistake.
Nevertheless, he seemed to enjoy himself.
But he got frustrated rather quickly with trying to judge the right amount of clay for the arms and eyes to be the right proportions for his snowman and eventually turned over his piece to my mom for her to "help". She ended up finishing it up for him.
Trying to keep my piece small, I made a sea turtle in the style of Crush from Finding Nemo. Caleb thought it was cute, so I promised to paint it after it was dry so that he could keep it.
Despite the hiccups, it was still another enjoyable crafting session with my mom and nephew.
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