Kaz Shuker – Middle School, Mindfulness and The Medium of Clay
The medium that takes centre stage with our students is working with clay.
The immediacy of this wonderful medium can foster complete concentration and ‘flow’. It can also be frustrating, fickle and technique heavy. The wonderful thing about clay is it can be reworked. Bisque pieces come alive with glaze..
Satisfaction of creating a finished piece that is beautiful, functional and personal – will last beyond the students’ lifetime and possibly be passed through generations. Sacred, meaningful and worth all the mahi loading and unloading the kiln!
I will share the mantra we begin every lesson as well as a mindfulness exercise I use if the students need it.
Participants initially create a name tag using folded over card lengthways including: Something you treasure, your favourite place, groups you belong to, how you show you care, things you believe, who do you aroha and who is important to you.
Using a ball of approximately 400g of clay we will create our own tīhake (bowl), illustrating the principle of designs of emphasis and unity as well as the element of art, form.
We will use the techniques of a ‘pinch pot’, coiling and ‘scratch and attach’.
The coiling will be a spiral to create a takarangi – the idea that we are connected to our past and future and the present is now – while creating this pot together.
The group will create personalised symbols to decorate their piece, either by attaching or carving into their tīhake. Another option is pressing something from nature into the clay.
Choices are made from the name cards created at the beginning, a sneaky way of practising first!
We will end on a short affirmation I use in our art room. Participants take home their unfired piece.
Biography
Karen Shuker – intermediate school visual art teacher in Poneke.
I have been classroom teaching and specialist teaching for over 30 years in Primary, Intermediate and Secondary in both the UK and Aotearoa.
For the past decade I have been working in an intermediate school – that magical age where one foot is in Primary and the other in Secondary… This in-between stage can be entertaining, challenging and uplifting. Through teaching visual art, I engage our Year 7 and 8 students in a way that opens up possibilities – celebrating who they are and having an incredibly enjoyable time while doing so!
My passion for clay has increased as I see the effect it can have on students – particularly those with low self-confidence and/or behavioural needs, EAL students and those with disabilities. Clay transcends many barriers.