Welcome to The Helpful Art Teacher, an interdisciplinary website linking visual arts to math, social studies, science and language arts.

Learning how to draw means learning to see. A good art lesson teaches us not only to create but to look at, think about and understand our world through art.

Please click on my page to see my personal artwork and artist statement: http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com/p/the-art-of-rachel-wintembe.html

Please contact me at thehelpfulartteacher@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Creating your own ceramic mask: Masks from around the world



How to create your own Ceramic Mask


Before designing your own mask, check out these amazing masks from cultures all over the world:


Pacific Island Masks 
From the Museum of Natural History in New York City




 Here you will see examples from "a group of 80 such masks in the collection of The Field Museum in Chicago. Carved from soft wood and painted in traditional patterns and colors, they are among the oldest and most beautiful Indonesian masks in the United States."

African Masks



Above are three pictures of the same mask affixed to a wall. The lighting in all three pictures is the same. Only the camera moved. Noh theater masks are designed to display different emotions depending on the position of the actor's head
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The three photographs above show the same mask from different angles. What emotions does it convey from each view? What directions would the actor have to turn his head in order to look happy, worried or upset? What emotions would you like to convey in your own mask? When creating a three dimensional mask remember to keep turning it and reexamining it throughout the sculpting process.




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If you would like to learn more about Noh masks, click here to visit the Noh Masks Data base.

To search the collection data base of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, click here

To learn more about mask making, including directions for how to create masks from papier mache and Paris Craft, click here. 

READY TO CREATE YOUR OWN MASK?

What you will need:
White earthenware clay
Access to a kiln
Potter's needle
Fork (small cocktail fork works best)
Slip (small container of clay mixed with water to create a wet, muddy mixture)
Piece of paper to roll the clay on 
Rolling pin


HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO, CREATED BY ONE OF MY STUDENTS, OF ME GIVING DIRECTIONS FOR THIS PROJECT TO A SIXTH GRADE CLASS 

1 comment:

  1. Wow! Such amazing work! I will share your blog with the teachers at my school.

    ReplyDelete