2013 School Auction Project: The Wishing Fountain Begins!

This year's project for Max's school is going to be a wishing fountain. We are going to build Stones from clay slabs - they will be hollow forms built over balloons. Each child will build his/her own stone and imprint a wish for the world onto the stone using rubber alphabet stamps. We'll use oxides to give the stones an earthy presence and also to bring the wishes to life. I've even thought about using gold leaf in the letters. The stones will stack atop one another, much like our totem of last year. I love stone trail markers called cairn. They evoke for me the outdoors, the guiding spirit of someone who has passed this way before...they fill me with a peaceful feeling when I look at them. That is my hope for this fountain, that the children will send their innocent, hopeful wishes for the world forth and, stacked upon each other the appearance will bring a feeling of peace to the observer.

Each year I do this I do something I've never actually done before. Which is both nerve racking and exciting for me. It really pushes me to think about my process, how to teach this simply enough to the kids and also to make it so the final piece is something we can all be proud of. I have a tendency to be overly ponderous with my pieces, and this project really invites this. The kids have purpose behind their creativity, both from to express themselves and from to raise money for the scholarship fund. This is why I love this project so much. It pushes my creative/teaching/parenting envelope to be just a little more expansive and I have part in helping another family by easing their financial burden just a bit. 

Already, after working for just an hour with the kids today I know I'll do it differently with the next group of kids. I'm working with 3 at a time. Covering the balloons with slabs of clay is challenging. I am going to make a batch of these tonight so that tomorrow the next group can spend their hour putting on texture and words. Otherwise I'll be living at the school for a couple weeks and that just won't do.

Materials and Tools:

75 - 100 pounds of Cone 10 Orion Stout
Slab roller (or you can use a rolling pin for a really good work-out)
Kiln (or a studio who will fire your work for you)
Balloons, I used 9" balloons and I've used inflatable beach balls to do hollow forms also. The bigger the balloon the more challenging it is to get it covered.
Letter stamps, mine are from my rubber stamp collection or you could just use a dull pencil to write on them too.
Texture tools - this can be anything you like, I have a combination of clay tools and random items from around the house and studio. I especially like my rice server with all the dots on it that makes a cool dotty texture (shown in detail below).
Scoring tool
Water
Paintbrush
bowls to fit your works in progress
fabric to rest your work in progress on - i cut up an old sheet
Plastic to wrap up your slabs and your work in progress so they don't dry too quickly.
Lots and Lots of patience.

Process:

• I like to set up the work space before the kids arrive.
• I put a big sheet under their work space and on top of their workspace for easy tidying. 
• Roll out your slabs, I'm making mine 3/8 of an inch, set them aside.
• Blow the balloons up to various sizes to keep it interesting :), place a balloon onto the fabric which is resting inside a bowl not too much larger than the balloon.
• Tear a piece of clay off one of your already rolled slabs, score it and paint some water over the scored part, do that one more time.
• Place one scored piece onto the balloon, score side up.
• Take the second scored piece and overlap the scoring edge (score side down) onto the first piece. This step was a little confusing for the kids, because you score both pieces and one piece is score side up and the other is down - I told them it was like Velcro, you need the Velcro to touch the other Velcro.
• Repeat this step until the entire balloon is covered. This is the part I am going to do on my own tonight so that we can focus on the more decorative side of things tomorrow. Speeding up the process to get to the really fun part is good.
• You realize, of course this is a closed form, and if you don't put a hole into it it will explode in the kiln, We're getting there, but not yet. We're going to work with the closed form until the kids are finished and then I'm going to cut the holes when the pieces are leather hard in just the right place.
• Once the "stones" are closed we smooth out the surface and then, once the surface has no cracks or bubbles left on it and the clay gets a little less wet we're going to put texture and words on there.
• As soon as I figure out the rest I'll let you know how I did it. :)

I've noticed most of my hits this time of year are the school auction project posts. I do that too. I'd love to hear about other people's auction projects. Leave me a comment and a link to yours if you feel like it.