Clay Stamps

I brought some clay home with me this summer to make clay stamps. They're fun to make and will be great texture tools to use in many clay lessons.

You'll want to wander around your house looking for interesting textures...
• I have my eye on my doormat right now... it has interesting indentations in it that should look great on a stamp.
• My junk drawer in the kitchen should be a gold mine.
• Using both ends of a pencil gives multiple design opportunities.
• The texture on leaves should work although you want the impression to be deep so look for veins in leaves that really stand out.
• Pressing the clay to the bottom of your shoe to pick up the tread pattern works great AND it makes a great 1st grade clay pendant!

Store all your new stamps and fire them with your first load of student clay pieces when you are back in school.

It would be great for this list of texture ideas to grow! Any ideas you’re willing to share? Thanks!

Rehydrating Clay

Some ideas on rehydrating and storing your clay...

With the end of the school year I've been busy cleaning and storing supplies. Before I pack the unused clay away I go through the steps below. When I come back in the fall it is ready to go!
This works great for clay that has dried out after using it in class. It's ready to go in a day of two.

All of my clay is stored in a clean lidded garbage barrel. I have three barrels per school. The barrels help keep the clay moist throughout the year when it's not being used.

Keep the barrel on coasters. With all that clay inside it will be really heavy and you'll want to be able to move it easily. This coaster was a spare my custodian gave me. Check with your custodian before making or purchasing one, sometimes they go through cleaning sprees and they toss some cool stuff.

Keep your clay in smaller plastic bags within the barrel. In this picture this is the bag the clay came in. I've worked in schools where I've found all the clay dumped straight into the bottom of the clay barrel. After a year the clay dries out a little... a year after that and it's leather hard and an impossible dense mess that you can't get out of the bottom of the barrel. Smaller plastic bags keep the clay moist and easy to get in and out of the barrel.
The craziest thing I ever saw in a clay barrel: someone had wet a towel and laid it over the clay before putting the lid back on and leaving for the summer. When I opened the barrel in the fall the wet towel was BLACK with mold. Gak! I was freaking that I had breathed it in when I opened the lid. I closed it up again and hauled it to the custodian and told him to toss the whole thing and NOT open the lid.

Okay, so to hydrate the clay you'll need bagged clay and a long paintbrush.

Use the handle of the paintbrush to poke multiple holes into the clay.

Make the holes deep in the clay.

Pour water into the holes. Fill to the top of each hole.

Close the bag up again and place it back in the barrel.

With all the clay wrapped up in bags I usually lay some plastic over the top of the bags and close the lid tight. In the fall the clay will have absorbed all the water and be ready for you to use.
Thank you Kathy H. for sharing this tip years ago at one of our elementary art department meetings!