This was a huge and very satisfying undertaking… I love clay, I love installations, this was the perfect project at the right time. I did not photograph the making process of these animals, I made this in 2004. Before I was a blogger, before Facebook, before Pinterest. Had I known that image sharing would be what it is… I would have documented the whole thing! So… the basic details…
4th Grade – Wild cats – any kind they wanted to make, I had lots of pictures for them to see.
3rd Grade – Elephants, Zebras, Hippos, and Giraffes – each class made one animal
2nd Grade – Monkeys, Gorillas, Alligators and Rhinos
Every project is created on a pinch pot body. Then build with not body parts, but muscles. If you pay attention to how the muscles attach on an animal, you can build an animal in clay to stand on four feet. If not… they fall over.
Finishing was acrylics. I pre-dipped all the animals in semi-gloss latex by base color needed. Then students add the accent colors.
Display – Twisty paper bag trees with shredded green construction paper dumped on top. Burlap and blue transparent cellophane.
