Tag Archives: pottery

Arts Education, Uncategorized

Wind Chimes in Motion

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By Brooke Muñoz-Halm

To explore this year’s theme of Summer in Motion, the kids worked with stoneware clay to make wind chimes at 171 Cedar Arts Center. When completed, these wind chimes will capture the natural movement of the wind to create a beautiful summer sound.

All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography

Where Clay Comes From

The tradition of pottery making dates back to over 2,000 years ago. In fact, archaeologists have found pots and bowls made of clay that are thousands of years old. Many years ago, pottery was functional, made for everyday use, such as: water carrying, for cooking and food storage.  Artists used traditional hand-building techniques to make pottery.

All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography

Clay How-To

Garden of Fire participants used a design handout for decorative inspiration and sketched ideas for the wind chime designs before working with the clay. We focused on the geometric patterns and nature symbolism that were also popular motifs on many native-made pieces of pottery The Rockwell Museum showed us.

At 171 participants learned how to:

  • Make a pinch pot
  • Use clay stamps
  • Roll a slab of clay
  • Use various tools to design the wind chimes
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography

Post-molding

Now that the wind chimes have been fabricated, they will dry out. A clear glaze will be painted on and the wind chimes will be fired to about 2000°F. The firing will take an entire day to complete and then a whole second day to cool down before the wind chimes can be removed from the kiln. After they are fired, the wind chimes will be strung together so that they can be hung up. Each wind chime will be on display at the Garden of Fire Festival on August 9th.

Wind Chime Workers

  • Amanda Warren, 171 Cedar Arts
  • Amy Ruza, Rockwell Museum
  • Christina Nurczynski, 171 Cedar Arts
  • Brooke Muñoz-Halm, 171 Cedar Arts
  • Katie, Rockwell Museum HSLC Intern
  • Mary Franklin, Rockwell Museum Docent
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
All photos courtesy of Dan Gallgher photography
Arts Education

STEM to STEAM

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At this point in our history, educational priorities are focused on STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. This is a lopsided view of values in education. We need to encourage our school districts and educators to prioritize STEAM: science, technology, engineering, ART and math.

This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.

Artwork is the application of many of these other areas of education. Artists deal with physics and chemistry because they work with materials that have specific properties and limits. They deal with mathematics as they confront geometry, measurements and mechanics. Technology and engineering are utilized as they are in every other arena of production – the thing produced must work! It must be stable and function.

Artwork has been devalued as impractical. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, at the same time, artwork is creative.  It can be fanciful. This should not be used to denigrate art, but rather to reveal what it has to offer to other disciplines. Engineers and scientists must be creative. They must be inventive. Like artists, they must explore the boundaries of what has already been done to see what might be done.

This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.
This week in the Garden of Fire, students visited The Rockwell Museum to learn about Native American pottery. They worked with 171 Cedar Arts Center instructors to create and decorate their own coil pot. Images courtesy of Dan Gallagher photography, 2017.

Education must encourage creativity in all its forms. This will help our children build a world that can address unforeseen challenges including repercussions from climate change, population pressures and changing social, political, and environmental situations. Now, more than ever, we need our artists to give us the vision – a practical vision – for the future.

The students involved in the Garden of Fire are not worried about any of this. They are simply learning and having fun. It is our job to think about this on their behalf.

Connie Sullivan-Blum
Executive Director of The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes