Mother's Day Gift Pendants - Classroom Project

This week I spent the day with a long time friend, Joanne.  We had a wonderful time enjoying the sunshine and each other's company.  She said she was willing to help me out with anything I had going on with Shoot the Moon, so I took her up on it.  She jumped right in and helped me make up some samples to use for a Mother's Day project for a 4th grade class. 

Porcelain pendanat samples before bisque firing.

 

It was such fun to sit, visit and get creative with our little clay pendants.  We rolled porcelain clay to about 1/2" thickness and the used tools and metal cookie cutters to cut our our shapes.  The textures were created using various materials:  rubber stamps, tools, shells, etc...  I even used the bottom of my daughters Converse shoe to create the basket weave imprint on the flower on the upper left.

I have various hole cutting tools, but I've found straws really work the best for these kinds of projects.  I like them because they always leave the best holes in wet clay - you get a really clean edge on both the front and the back, which I don't always get with a metal tool.  It's particularly important to have a smooth clean edge on the back of these, since they might be laying against skin when they are worn as a pendant.

Completed pendant with black cord and silver bead

Teacher Tip:  Normally, I have kids write their names and the year on the bottoms or backs of pieces for identification and nostalgic purposes.  Usually I have the kids use dull pencil or the wood end of a small paintbrush to "write" their name with in the clay when it's soft.  Since I'm trying to avoid creating a potentially scratchy texture on the back of these pendants, I think we'll be using a Mayco glaze pencil for their names.  The trick will be to keep track of what each child's piece looks like until it's through the bisque firing and they can put their name on it.  I'm planning on putting their name on a small piece of tape and taking a quick photograph to identify each piece. I typically use my phone to capture quick images of things like this. Here is an example of this.

I've made the mistake before of thinking the kids will recognize their pieces a week later.  Sometimes they don't - especially when some of them look similar. 

These will be a gift that will have a "life" - which is one of the things I really love about making clay projects with kids.  Mom's will keep these pendants and hopefully wear them for a long time. 

4th Grade Finished Mother's Day Gifts

 If you read this and try the project out, I'd love to see comments and/or a photo!

Update:  I've heard for many of the mom's that received these pendants and they LOVE them.  It really was a simple project that had great results.