Mother's Day School Projects

It's only a few more days until Mother's Day and as usual, I have been busy in schools making polymer clay things with kids who want to make a 'craft' for their Moms.  I hope I am not spoiling any surprises for the Moms out there that will be receiving these. This one's a pretty basic pendant, but it's one that has a fair bit o' glitz, thanks to the faux dichroic technique that is done with some Jones-tones like foils.  I apologize for the big glare in the center...I had to take the picture with my Blackberry and the conditions were not such that I could set up any photo taking arena...

In the other workshops that I did, we made other faux dichroic works, although with the one kindergarten class, we  rolled pre-measured polymer clay and made colored bead in two of each of the colors. This is part of the sets of beads on skewers just after they had been taken from the oven.  A few of the beads got mixed up in the actual shish-kabobbing, but we got them all straightened out in the distributing phase.  As you can see, we also made one larger focal bead that was done in one of the bead colors and added a few prepared cane slices to make it special.  In the first class with the little kids, I stressed the colors, shapes, and showed them how to transform cube into spheres and discs.  I think this is an important part in conceptualizing the vocabulary, and the hands on approach really helps to ensure understanding of the terms.  In the follow up class, I discussed symmetry and other age appropriate curricular aspects and the kids had a chance to see the different possibilities in arranging symmetrical designs for their necklaces. They put their beads on their necklaces yesterday and they were pretty proud of the way they turned out.  I noticed that over the course of rolling ten or more beads, their techniques became significantly better and I hope some day that some of them will carry those techniques into projects of their own. 

Today will be the last of the faux dichroic workshops, as I have to bake the items at home and return them to the children so the items can be wrapped up and prepared for gifting to Moms.  All the items that have been made have really turned out well...Hope the moms like them!