African American Slave Pottery Art

Face Vessel Lesson Plan

Teachers:  Susan Kopecki & Michelle Hovan

Grade Level- Grade 4-8

Anticipated Time Period –4 weeks

Essential Questions-

*How do people express themselves through art?

*Why do people express themselves with art?

Enduring Understandings –

* Materials process and environment complement each other.

*Art is reflective of a society and culture.

*Art is everywhere.

CT State Standards- Visual Arts:  Content Standard 3:  Content

                                                         Content Standard 6:  Connections

Unit Goal-Students will create a clay vessel.

Objective

-Students will understand the significance of folk art to a people.

-Students will create a clay vessel sculpture with an expressive face.

-Students will understand the processes of clay construction and application of glaze.

Vocabulary

·        Clay, slab, join, kiln, glaze, texture, vessel, Kongo, kaolin, artisans, legends, caricatures, contrast, expressive, folk art, symbolic

Materials and Resources

Sketch paper/pencils

Examples of face vessel folk art

Pre and Post Test on Face Vessels

Handout Face Vessels

Prezi (online presentation)

Book:

·        “Ceramics in America 2006” (Ceramics in America Annual) [Paperback]  by Robert Hunter (Editor)

·        “The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts”  [Paperback] by John Michael Vlach

Clay (both white and brown, other colors could also be used), modeling tools, rolling pins,cloth, brushes, slip, glaze, small sponges, underglaze, kiln, mirror, clear glaze

Motivation/Initiation

·        Pre Test on Face Vessels

·        Introduce students to the history of face vessel. (Prezi and handouts)
PREZI PRESENTATION: 
 http://prezi.com/svsnriafoqxk/creating-face-vessels/
 ·        Handout “Write one thing you learned about Face Vessels and draw 4 different examples.”

·        Photographs of face vessel- both past and present

·        Post Test on Face Vessels

Clay Activity

How to create Face Vessels:

I use approximately one pound of clay per student when beginning the process. Students work on large pieces of cloth, easy to roll and work on.

1.     Students will complete the handout of drawing 4 different expressions.  Give each student a mirror.   I encourage my students to be as expressive as possible in their designs. I also allow them to do monster faces, half-animal faces or any other sort of distorted or expressive face design that they can come up with. Real, fantasy or a combo! Imagination is the key. When the sketches are complete have each student choose one to use as inspiration for their face vessel.

2.     Begin working in clay. Teacher will demonstration slab technique as well as general scoring and slipping of clay.  I recommend they make their vessels approximately 5-10 inches high, but any size is possible. The vessel is created using a rectangular slab. (thick slab is preferred) If you have a slab roller, the teacher can roll out the slabs ahead of time. If not then the students will roll out their slabs, using cloth for the table surface and rolling pins.  Give each table a pile of various rectangles to trace for their form.  Students will trace the rectangle on their slab and using a pin tool cut it out.   Students may add bottom, joining well, at both seam on bottom and sides. The seam on the back may be smoothed down or left visible, artist choice.  A ruler helps with the paddling to smooth edges. As always I allow their own exploration at this point: some may add handles, covers, or turn it into a pitcher, their choice.

3.     Using remaining clay from slab students will sculpt their faces. This is done by adding and subtracting clay for a really three-dimensional face. Score and slip to attach features. Interesting affects can be made by combining the two colored clays, white (kaolin) teeth, white eyes). Remind students that white in African culture is symbolic of death, one of the stories that is behind the face vessel. Encourage contrast and variety when adding details.  Textures can also be added for effect, using various modeling tools.

4.     When hand building is done, clay is dried (often a week or more) and bisque-fired. Since the vessels tend to be thick, I often dry them slowly.

Bisque-fired clay is then painted using small amounts of underglazes (more color accents) and then carefully coated in clear glaze. I love the rich brown slabs with the clear glaze against the white clay and snippets of color. (Contrast) The vessels are fired a second and final time for a finished product.

5.      Students will write a short paragraph about their face vessel and its connection to the slave past.

Resources:

http://africanamericanslaveart.blogspot.com/

   *This blogspot is dedicated to the ART of the African American Potter and is filled with various resources.

A Face Jug History

Face jugs are sometimes called "ugly jugs."  Face jugs were first made in the early 1800's by slave potters and others in the Edgefield district of South Carolina.  They had bits of porcelain or white rocks for eyes and teeth.  Moonshine was traditionally stored in face jugs to differentiate them from other jugs. Children were told the "boogie man would get them" if they touched the jug.  Kaolin clay was combined with the dark stoneware clays on the jugs to make features that mimic human eyeballs and teeth. The southern United States has been the world's most prolific region for face vessels. Famous potters - Craig, Meaders and Brown, now deceased, could hardly get 25 cents for their jugs, but now one of their jugs are selling at four and five digit prices.