3rd Class’s Clay Workshop By Diarmuid Cahill
On Friday the 6th of November 2015, a lady called Helen came into 3rd class, Shanbally National School, to teach them how to do clay. As she lived in an area where the majority of people spoke Irish, she was also there to improve their Irish.
She started off by asking us our name and our hobbies. While 3rd class were answering, she was cutting clay evenly. She did this using a special type of wire. After she had done this, we had all a lump of clay. Helen then asked us to soften the clay by rolling it around in our hands. After about 3 minutes of doing this, we were asked to split the clay in half.
Helen said to take one half of the clay and put the other half somewhere safe. She then put clay cutters into the middle of the table. There was a range of stuff including: ginger bread men and women, stars, dogs, Christmas trees and hearts. Helen told 3rd class to make some Christmas decorations. While 3rd class were making their Christmas decorations using the cutters, the 3rd class teacher was writing their names on boxes. These boxes were then given out to the children to put their Christmas decorations in when they were finished. The 3rd class teacher, Ms. Tuohy, was putting their website: www. luoismulhahy.ie up to show 3rd class videos of how pottery was made.
After doing this, 3rd class were allowed to make whatever we wanted. Some people made houses, some made pinch pots and some made pencil holders. Helen was putting out a special paint called glaze. It is kind of weird because it might look like green, but turn out to be purple.
After all this, we thanked Helen. Then 3rd class had a photo taken with her. Three people then went with Helen to help bring the equipment out to her car. She was going to put them in a kiln to make it stronger. We thanked her again and said goodbye.
The End
Here are some photos of our Clay Workshop with Helen.
We looked at the Website of Louis Mulcahy and there were a few short films describing how to make and glaze the pottery.
Helen sent up these photos of our clay pots and decorations in the kiln in Ballyferritter.
This is the first firing of the clay, also called the Bisque firing.
Our Clay Workshop
Ms Tuohy’s sister came to our school and did some pottery. We made pinch pots and then she let us make our own piece. Helen was a very nice person. She lives in Kerry and in her village she speaks Irish all the time.
To make the pot we first got a ball of clay. Then we rolled the clay on the table. Then we covered our pieces with glaze.
Helen has brought them to the kiln and we should have before Christmas. I am giving my Mom and Dad my pottery for Christmas.
Everyone enjoyed our pottery workshop.
By Noah Morris
The clay workshop with Helen
by Billy Creamer
We made a clay workshop with our teacher’s sister Helen. I made a Minecraft house with clay. Helen would cut clay with a wire. Helen also came to improve our Irish. She will put our clay structures in a kiln for it form into a stronger structure.
The paint we used was a particular type of paint called glaze. We also made Christmas decorations and pinch pots and used a roller to flatten the clay. Some structures that were made might not be strong enough because it might burn in the kiln.
The clay that Helen bought was quite expensive for clay. Helen came all the way from Kerry. Some lamps are made out of clay as well as a lot of bowls plates etc. When she first came in we introduced ourselves to her while she was cutting clay. She also taught the other class using clay.
At the end of the day Ms.Corkery took a photo of the class, Helen and Ms.Tuohy.