Day of the Dead skulls

It is that time of year again! I don't do many holiday projects but the ones I do are more culture based and Dia de los Muertos or as known as Day of the Dead. 

I do little clay skulls with two grades, 3rd and 5th. My 3rd graders do little flat pendents and my 5th do more pinch pot skulls. 

3rd Grade Skull Pendents

The process of how they make the pendents is fairly easy. They start with creating a ball with the clay. Next they smoosh it flat, not too flat mind you, to get the skull shape. 

To make the jaw line, I have them pinch about at 3rd of the away down on the circle. This is where how thin or thick it is plays because if nice and thick, they can lift it up to pinch. 

Next, I have them use pointer and middle finger to poke out the eyes and pinky to poke the nose. I really focus on using their hands. 

THEN they can add details like the mouth or other design qualities with a stylist stick I call, a pokey stick. 

LAST we make a hole near the top for the pendent action to take place. 

In past years, I have let the skulls dry for two weeks and still ended up with blow ups in my kiln. THIS year, I tried a segmented firing of my kiln. A technique I learned over the summer. It pretty much is my own programming of my kiln to heat up at special rates.

End result...NO BLOW UPS! I was so thrilled. It took much longer but worth it. 

With no blow ups means more painting! I have both grades paint theirs with watercolor paints. Before they paint we discuss the designs of the skulls and details used. 

NOW I have a school with LOTS of bulletin boards but no real display cases. We have one that has one shelve. Got to get creative with displaying these bad boys. 

With 3D work at my school, we are sadly lacking display cases. The one we do have is small and has only one shelf. So got a little creative and used these boards I have to make a stand-up display in the library for the pendents and well the 5th grade skulls are not hard to put up. Remember the library is a great space to display.