My year 10 GCSE class recently completed their tribal clay portraits.
They were asked to design a tribal portrait using elements from all different tribes from around the world- a bit like a 'pick and mix' tribal portrait. The used photographs of their own face to shape clay portraits. I took photographs from all different angles of each of the students' faces, to help them acheive a 3D effect.
The portraits are hollow, and were initially started by making a rounded newspaper base, upon which they built up form and shape.
I am quite new to working with clay so I made an example myself. The first one that I made had too many air holes trapped in the clay, and when I fired it, it exploded! I was devasted! It had taken me hours to make and I wanted to cry when I opened up the kiln door to find only crumbles of clay!
I waited a few days then I made another. It is always worth making an example in my opinion, as I made lots of mistakes on my first clay head, and I was able to offer better advice to the students.
To be sure that the students' work didn't explode like mine, I got them to 'stab' air vents in the back of the heads, with kebab sticks. It seemed to work because none of the students' work exploded! Hooray!
Here are the photos of the finished work......
Gemma's.
They were asked to design a tribal portrait using elements from all different tribes from around the world- a bit like a 'pick and mix' tribal portrait. The used photographs of their own face to shape clay portraits. I took photographs from all different angles of each of the students' faces, to help them acheive a 3D effect.
The portraits are hollow, and were initially started by making a rounded newspaper base, upon which they built up form and shape.
I am quite new to working with clay so I made an example myself. The first one that I made had too many air holes trapped in the clay, and when I fired it, it exploded! I was devasted! It had taken me hours to make and I wanted to cry when I opened up the kiln door to find only crumbles of clay!
I waited a few days then I made another. It is always worth making an example in my opinion, as I made lots of mistakes on my first clay head, and I was able to offer better advice to the students.
To be sure that the students' work didn't explode like mine, I got them to 'stab' air vents in the back of the heads, with kebab sticks. It seemed to work because none of the students' work exploded! Hooray!
Here are the photos of the finished work......
Gemma's.
Gemma's portrait was inspired by lots of different tribes from around the world - in particular African tribes. She made the had out of cardboard then covered this with fabric. The attention to detail is fantastic!
Joe's
Rebecca's
Andrew's
The hair is made from a chopped up brush!
Jess's
I love the eye lashes, and the spray painted the feathers.
Sophie's
The neck rings are inspired by the Karen hill tribes of China, Thailand and Vietnnam.
Owen's
Inuit/Maori inspired face...doesn't it look cosey!
Numan's
The hair is a kind of feather duster thingie, that he chopped up.
Lucy's
Clare's
Hollie's
These are the heads before they went into the kiln. The newspaper had been removed and lots of air holes had been stabbed through from the other side.
And to finish off this post, here are some photos of the example I made (this is the 2nd one which didn't explode!)
I went to town on this and loved finding things to use in the portrait. I used a mop head which I dyed and spray painted. For the jewellery I bought a bunch of stuff from a cheap jewellery shop, and I found the red pom-poms at a Japanese store in Abu Dhabi, which were just strung up on a piece of thread. Finally, the African inspired earrings are an old pair of hoops that I paper mached over the top of.
I went to town on this and loved finding things to use in the portrait. I used a mop head which I dyed and spray painted. For the jewellery I bought a bunch of stuff from a cheap jewellery shop, and I found the red pom-poms at a Japanese store in Abu Dhabi, which were just strung up on a piece of thread. Finally, the African inspired earrings are an old pair of hoops that I paper mached over the top of.
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