Getting Acquainted with Clay
Muriel Silberstein-Storfer
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The uniqueness of clay is its sensitive plasticity, that flexible malleability that is exquisitely
impressionable as it responds to direct touch. Touch a soft piece and it instantly records your
unique fingerprint. Many people find that working with clay has a compelling emotional
dimension because of the direct intimacy possible when working without tools and molding
shapes with their hands. Kneading, stretching, squeezing, and rolling the clay can be compared
to working playdough, yet the potential for shaping precise forms is greater. Others say that
working with clay give a direct sensation of thinking with their hands. Its plastic mutability is a
quality they seek in their own lives, the ability to change things and to move into new and deeper
forms as well as to make connections between ideas and sensations.
Sculpture emphasizes the physical and tactile qualities of things: hardness and softness,
heaviness and lightness, tautness and slackness, smoothness and roughness, the penetration of
forms into space and the concrete bounding or definition of space. Three-dimensional objects are
compelling because they project out at you and assert their presence in space.
For some people who have never worked with clay, it may present more of a challenge initially
than painting or collage, and take more time to get used to.
Materials
• twenty-five pounds of red or grey, water-base, earthen potter's clay
• a nonporous surface on the work table, such as a plastic laminate top, Con-Tact
papered plywood board, or plastic sheeting
• tools for cutting clay from the main block or separating clay from the sculpture base:
wire clay cutter or heavy carpet thread
• wet paper towels for hands and cleanup
• tongue depressors or 4” disposable putty knives
• a covered plastic garbage pail (4-gallon size) and plastic garbage bag for long term
storage inside the pail.
• (for older children) a movable sculpture base: a small, smooth 12-by-12 inch surface for
setting the clay upon that can turn as one works upon it, such as a sheet of oil cloth or
heavy vinyl, a piece of floor tile, tempered Masonite, finished wood, laminate, or
linoleum.
Preparing Fresh Clay for Use
Wedging is the process for working fresh clay to make the material mores structural by removing
air bubbles, increasing density, and making the consistency uniform. You wedge clay squeezing,
pounding, twisting, stretching, and folding the clay over on itself so that you press it uniformly
all over. If you reuse clay, you will need to wedge it again to remove the previous forms and the
air. It is important to check the consistency of clay and wedge it the day before it is to be used. If
it is too firm, form the clay into baseball size balls, poke a finger hole deep into the middle, fill
with water, and pinch to seal the water inside. The water will gradually be absorbed into clay in
24 hours of closed storage. If too wet, leave the clay exposed to air-dry.
Working with Clay
Encourage beginners to begin by holding a small ball of clay and squishing it with their hands
and exploring the shapes their hands naturally make. It is fun to keep twisting and turning the
clay to look at it from all sides. Working with the clay in the air encourages development of all
sides of a piece.
Some people discourage beginners and young children from making complex forms by adding
on. They prefer that people only pull out or extrude pieces from a main body of clay, for it is
much easier. Added on pieces may fall off and may not visually appear to grow out of the central
form unless one learns to make flowing transitions of the surfaces between them. However, one
can't really become aware of the differences between the two methods of attachment and their
results unless you do both of them.
If the clay is extremely soft and plastic, you merely press one piece on the other firmly and work
the surfaces together with substantial pressure by taking your thumb and blending the surfaces
on all sides of the joint. If the clay is a bit firmer, roughen up the two surfaces to be joined with
the tongue depressor and press them together in the same way. Adding a little water to the
roughened surface will help. It is important to remember that the parts need enough pressure to
make an internal bond and not merely rely on a smooth surface join.
Stimulating New Shapes
Let the clay suggest shapes like the Eskimo carver who replied he didn't know what he was
making because it was still in the tusk. Encourage children to allow shapes to emerge from
within the clay rather than imposing a preconceived idea upon it. As one presses and feels the
clay, certain shapes emerge more naturally than others—like the well-rounded ones of the body
and other life forms, suggesting the fullness of organic beings. Bones, pebbles, and rocks have
also given inspiration to many sculptors working in clay. Bones have structural strength, a
variety of thicknesses, and tenseness of form, with subtle transitions of one shape into the next.
Pebbles and rocks have rubbed hollows and bumps with a kind of asymmetry that suggests a
direction or a gesture.
Cleanup
Return the clay to the garbage pail in grapefruit sized lumps. Scrape up clay particles with the
tongue depressor before wiping the surface with a wet paper towel. It is easier to clean up
adhering pieces if they don't become wet first. Wipe clay residue on hands and tables with paper
towels and discard. Clay particles easily clog plumbing systems.
Young Beginners
It is important that the clay be soft and malleable for young children because their hand muscles
are undeveloped. If they have difficulty shaping the clay, they may become discouraged and look
for another activity. If you add water immediately before the session without working it in, the
clay won't absorb it quickly enough to make it inviting to touch. The surface will be slippery,
muddy, and unappealing to handle. It will stick all over the hands and be difficult to make
shapes with.
Never force children to touch the clay. Reluctant ones are sometimes helped by explaining what
clay is—that it comes from the ground and is often found near streams and under the hills in our
city. One can make shapes change when it is wet, but when it dries it becomes hard as a rock.
When they see an adult working with it, enjoying the feel of the clay, changing its shape by
squeezing, rolling and patting, they usually become interested in trying it for themselves.
Work with the children directly on the waterproof surface of the table (add the 12-by-12 work
boards later). Pound, push, pull, break, roll, and pierce the clay. As with any new material, they
will be interested in the action of manipulating and feeling the clay to discover what they can do
with it and how to control it. As their hands gain strength and skill over several weeks and
months they will begin to form simple shapes.
When there is conversation, it can often be incorporated into the actions with the clay: doughnuts
can lead to talk about holes in clay; a parade on TV can lead to a parade of shapes on the table;
purses can lead to talk of things hidden inside of shapes, etc.
One of the delightful qualities of clay is that one can make the shapes change so easily, modelling
those changes yourself and talking about the changes you see the children make reinforces
creative exploration. Never model exact images for the children, but you can make rough
approximations to what the children are talking about. If all are busy working and expressing
their own ideas, stop talking. It is not necessary to have conversation if everyone is engrossed in
what they are doing.
Adding Sticks
Although most children love working with clay, there is a limit to how long they will continue at
first. They may become restless after a few minutes unless some idea sparks their imaginations.
To extend lagging interest, it is possible to introduce wooden sticks. Strong twigs cut from
branches fit with the earthen nature of clay. Try one stick at first, encouraging its use as a tool
and responding to different ways children can think of using it. Later more sticks can be added. If
one gives children the sticks at the beginning they tend to focus on sticking sticks and not
changing the shape of the clay with their hands.
Saving Their Work
Sometimes a child will make a special piece and want to save it, but most youngsters are content
to press their shape back into a lump and return it to the storage container. If they insist on
saving their shape, paint it with a mixture of half Elmer's Glue-All and half water and set it aside
to dry.