Clay creations

Grace and Dawson started art classes today. Always looking for new opportunities to encourage and expose our girls to new things, Kellie and I made arrangements for semi-private lessons at a little studio in our area. The studio has an excellent reputation because they encourage young artists to create handmade artwork from their hearts alongside studio artists.

For today's class, the girls were introduced to clay - something I haven't done with Grace yet. We have molded and modeled with Play-doh, but real clay has a totally different feel. The teacher, Miss Nancy, first took Grace and Dawson into the kitchen where she showed them how to cut a block of clay using a wire. Then they helped her flatten it in a machine with big rollers. They worked together to turn a big wheel and watched as the clay came out flat.

At the art table, they experimented with stamps of different shapes and sizes to make impressions in their clay. Some were store-bought, some were handmade, and others were common objects like a walnut and a fork.

I loved how they were both great listeners and were creative in their own way - especially when it came time to paint! We are excited to see the finished products next week when go for our our second class. But, to give you an idea....this was the sample....

....and here is Grace's clay creation "in progress".