For our Art topic this half term, we have been working with clay and as our topic this term is Ancient Britain, what better way is there to use clay than by making prehistoric pots?
We started by looking at examples of mesolithic pottery and comparing them with neolithic pottery. Much of the neolithic pottery we looked at were bell beaker pots, made by people who originated from Iberia (Spain and Portugal today!) and migrated to Britain with their more intricate designs and sophisticated methods and for making pottery. We discovered that the Bell Beaker people would have used clay in similar ways to how we use it today – the main difference being that we will be using air-drying clay, whereas they would have used a kiln to heat the clay moulds to harden them.
We learned how to wedge the clay to remove small pockets of air, the slabbing technique for creating a base for our pots and the coiling technique for moulding the shape and height of the pot. The coiling method is to take a chunk of clay and form it into a sausage shape before rolling it out into a thin ‘coil’ which can be wrapped around the perimeter of the base. After making and stacking several coils on top of each other, the children had to smooth out the walls by adding a pinch of water and rubbing a scraper up and down the walls.
Inspired by the bell beaker pots, we even tried to manipulate the shape of the bowl. To widen the middle of the wall and to create a ‘lip’ on the top, the coils needed to be slightly bigger with each step. We practised the techniques first in one lesson and then after wrapping our clay in cling film to stop it drying out, we made our final pot the following week. You will see the process and the final pots in the images below but be aware we are not quite finished. Once the pots are dry, we are going to give them some paint! The children did a wonderful job and can be very proud of their creations! Well done Year 3!
