"True art is an expression of the human being's search for a relationship with the spiritual, whether the spiritual longed for when his soul leaves the body, or the spiritual which he desires to remember when he dips down into a body, or the spiritual to which he feels more related than to his natural surroundings, or the spiritual as manifested in colors when outside and inside lose their separateness and the soul moves through the cosmos, freely, swimming and hovering, as it were, experiencing its own cosmic life, existing everywhere; or ... the spiritual as expressed in earth life, in the relationship between man's soul-spirit and the cosmic ... " - Rudolf Steiner
Course WC/ART
Art of Clay Modeling
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Course Outline
Art of Clay Modeling
Lesson 1: The Human Being Lesson 2: Animals Lesson 3: Flowers and Plants Lesson 4: Geometric Forms Lesson 5: Free and Imaginative Forms |
Introduction
Rudolf Steiner points out that the main purpose of pedagogical modeling is for teachers to make a start and have their students activate their hands regularly in creating forms. The forming and form-sensing activity is paramount, regardless of the malleable material used—“even street mud if it is the only thing available, it doesn’t matter!”
Observation of young children playing for lengthy times shaping cool, wet mud or sand or cold snow shows us what a primal impulse sculptural activity is for human beings. Our hands want to reshape and transform the earth.
Plentiful earth materials like sand, dirt, and clay lend themselves naturally and readily to modeling activity outdoors and indoors. Steiner emphasized the artistic value of young children “handling clay” and even “struggling with [such] outer materials.” Their exertion helps them develop willpower and connect actively with the world. In his words:
" ... Whatever subject is being taught, the child’s inherent impulse to play, which is an intrinsic part of his or her makeup, can be guided into artistic activities. And when children enter the first and second grades, they are perfectly able to make this transition. However clumsy children of six or seven may be when modeling, painting, or finding their way into music and poetry, if teachers know how to permeate their lessons with artistry, even young children as miniature sculptors or painters can begin to have the experience that human nature does not end at the fingertips, that is, at the periphery of the skin, but flows out into the world. The adult being is growing in children whenever they put their being into handling clay, wood, or paints. In these very interactions with materials, children grow, learning to perceive how closely the human being is interwoven with the fabric of the world. These [artistic channels] permit a freedom of inner activity while at the same time forcing the children to struggle with outer materials, as we have to do in adult work."
Caroline von Heydebrand (1886-1938), one of the twelve founding class teachers in the first Waldorf school who practiced modeling and the use of beeswax in her classroom, poignantly described its pedagogical implications:
"Just as the young child digs and plays in his sand pile or in the earth, making little men and animals or baking mud pies, so a little later does the older child occupy his creative imagination with more permanent materials. The nearer he approaches the change of teeth, the more markedly do the formative forces reveal themselves—since their activity in this change of teeth is now, as it were, concluded—in the impulse the child feels to use his creative powers of soul in fashioning forms, in painting, and in modeling. And just as the child Jesus [according to legend] was happy when he made his cuckoo-birds out of the moist, clayish earth which he found in the lanes where he played, and with which he made them look alive as he patted them into shape, so is the other child now satisfied also if he has a bit of loam or clay which he finds perhaps near at hand. If only he can make something, he will look for his material till he finds it. On the other hand, if his parents can give him beeswax, for example, to model with, then in the very act of kneading this noble material, his creative will—working as it does in the circulation of the blood and warming his hands till they are all aglow—makes itself felt even to the very tips of his fingers. Thus not only is the skillfulness of his hands increased, but his imaginative capacity is also aroused and nurtured. For we know how similarly the movements and gestures of both hands and feet react when the child is learning to speak: how they help him to learn, to form ideas, and to think. .. .In his play, first of all, is the child’s creative activity developed. Later, it shows itself in his happy enjoyment, his eagerness to recreate in his own way the beauty of the world. .The road lead[s] from a healthy, wisely-directed play-impulse in childhood to a consciously dutiful activity in mature life."
Similarly, Cecil Harwood (1898-1975), a founding teacher of the first Waldorf school in the English-speaking world, characterized the child’s early desire to shape objects with the hands as a profoundly organic, artistic need:
" ... young children ... need all the more to be given artistic food because the desire is still, so to speak, organic. Look at the imagination of children, their make-believe games, their wide-eyed love of stories, their uncontrollable desire to paint and draw, the itching of their fingers to shape and model, even if they have no better material than dirty clay from a backyard garden, or wax pulled fearfully from the melting wall round the candle flame. .Painting, modeling, acting, rhythmical movement—these must become for these young children the very way of knowledge. If you succeed in teaching in this way, you are uniting what is nowadays divided—the forces of the head with the forces of feeling and movement. You are strengthening the binding point of thought and feeling and will."
Clay with the right moisture is the quintessential, archetypal earth medium for modeling at all ages 3 to 103+. It gives way to hand pressure with just the right resistance and at the same time holds its form wonderfully. Clay’s water-permeated texture becomes almost magically flesh-like in feel and look. It is no wonder many ancient cultures associated it with the creation of the human being!
Clay also lends itself to handling good-sized pieces and “whole-hand modeling.” All parts of the threefold hand can be fully engaged in the process: concave palm (feeling), fingers (thinking/nerve sense), and the lower, very muscular base before the wrist and muscular thumb (will).
Observation of young children playing for lengthy times shaping cool, wet mud or sand or cold snow shows us what a primal impulse sculptural activity is for human beings. Our hands want to reshape and transform the earth.
Plentiful earth materials like sand, dirt, and clay lend themselves naturally and readily to modeling activity outdoors and indoors. Steiner emphasized the artistic value of young children “handling clay” and even “struggling with [such] outer materials.” Their exertion helps them develop willpower and connect actively with the world. In his words:
" ... Whatever subject is being taught, the child’s inherent impulse to play, which is an intrinsic part of his or her makeup, can be guided into artistic activities. And when children enter the first and second grades, they are perfectly able to make this transition. However clumsy children of six or seven may be when modeling, painting, or finding their way into music and poetry, if teachers know how to permeate their lessons with artistry, even young children as miniature sculptors or painters can begin to have the experience that human nature does not end at the fingertips, that is, at the periphery of the skin, but flows out into the world. The adult being is growing in children whenever they put their being into handling clay, wood, or paints. In these very interactions with materials, children grow, learning to perceive how closely the human being is interwoven with the fabric of the world. These [artistic channels] permit a freedom of inner activity while at the same time forcing the children to struggle with outer materials, as we have to do in adult work."
Caroline von Heydebrand (1886-1938), one of the twelve founding class teachers in the first Waldorf school who practiced modeling and the use of beeswax in her classroom, poignantly described its pedagogical implications:
"Just as the young child digs and plays in his sand pile or in the earth, making little men and animals or baking mud pies, so a little later does the older child occupy his creative imagination with more permanent materials. The nearer he approaches the change of teeth, the more markedly do the formative forces reveal themselves—since their activity in this change of teeth is now, as it were, concluded—in the impulse the child feels to use his creative powers of soul in fashioning forms, in painting, and in modeling. And just as the child Jesus [according to legend] was happy when he made his cuckoo-birds out of the moist, clayish earth which he found in the lanes where he played, and with which he made them look alive as he patted them into shape, so is the other child now satisfied also if he has a bit of loam or clay which he finds perhaps near at hand. If only he can make something, he will look for his material till he finds it. On the other hand, if his parents can give him beeswax, for example, to model with, then in the very act of kneading this noble material, his creative will—working as it does in the circulation of the blood and warming his hands till they are all aglow—makes itself felt even to the very tips of his fingers. Thus not only is the skillfulness of his hands increased, but his imaginative capacity is also aroused and nurtured. For we know how similarly the movements and gestures of both hands and feet react when the child is learning to speak: how they help him to learn, to form ideas, and to think. .. .In his play, first of all, is the child’s creative activity developed. Later, it shows itself in his happy enjoyment, his eagerness to recreate in his own way the beauty of the world. .The road lead[s] from a healthy, wisely-directed play-impulse in childhood to a consciously dutiful activity in mature life."
Similarly, Cecil Harwood (1898-1975), a founding teacher of the first Waldorf school in the English-speaking world, characterized the child’s early desire to shape objects with the hands as a profoundly organic, artistic need:
" ... young children ... need all the more to be given artistic food because the desire is still, so to speak, organic. Look at the imagination of children, their make-believe games, their wide-eyed love of stories, their uncontrollable desire to paint and draw, the itching of their fingers to shape and model, even if they have no better material than dirty clay from a backyard garden, or wax pulled fearfully from the melting wall round the candle flame. .Painting, modeling, acting, rhythmical movement—these must become for these young children the very way of knowledge. If you succeed in teaching in this way, you are uniting what is nowadays divided—the forces of the head with the forces of feeling and movement. You are strengthening the binding point of thought and feeling and will."
Clay with the right moisture is the quintessential, archetypal earth medium for modeling at all ages 3 to 103+. It gives way to hand pressure with just the right resistance and at the same time holds its form wonderfully. Clay’s water-permeated texture becomes almost magically flesh-like in feel and look. It is no wonder many ancient cultures associated it with the creation of the human being!
Clay also lends itself to handling good-sized pieces and “whole-hand modeling.” All parts of the threefold hand can be fully engaged in the process: concave palm (feeling), fingers (thinking/nerve sense), and the lower, very muscular base before the wrist and muscular thumb (will).
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Tasks and Assignments Art of Clay Modeling Lesson 1
1. Study the instructions below and watch the basic clay modeling videos provided.
2. Practice clay modeling for a minimum of 12 days creating pieces of artwork that relate to the subject of the human being and the human form (Gestalt). Start with creating simple human forms for the first few days, then advance to more challenging projects. 3. Take pictures of the creations from each day. Submit 12 pictures (one for each day) and accompanying notes regarding the sculptures and the process of creating the sculptures. Supplies needed
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Art of Clay Modeling - The Human Being and the Human Form (Gestalt)
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Instructions for the sculptures to be created
The first step is always removing a chunk of clay from your block of clay that can be held and worked with using both hands. We will need to add warm water but only small amounts, just enough to make the clay pliable in our hands. Working with both hands we slowly and deliberately form a round ball or sphere. Creating the sphere we regard as the first step and we should dedicate enough time to this process. Next we want to slowly and deliberately create the more egg like shape of the head by working the clay until we have reached a suitable and satisfactory form. We can now take a sculpting tool and indicate the needed lines on the head that divide the face into segments and indicate proportions. |
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The basic proportions and ratios for the face are as follows.
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Shaping the head and creating the facial features we work slowly and deliberately, mostly using our hands and fingers, and also the sculpting tools but only sparingly. We want to create the features by applying pressure and moving the clay outward, always keeping in mind that we should work the clay in such a way that the features appear so to speak out of the sphere, the round form of the head, by applying pressure and movement in such a way that for instance the nose is formed not from the outside but by pushing and working the clay from both sides until the nose starts to protrude from the surface of the sphere.
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The technique described here should be applied to creating the head but also all the other features of the head and face, and indeed this technique should be applied to all other projects.
For the 12 projects we are asked to complete for this lesson we might want to choose to complete several heads with different features, but we could also include other projects relating to the human form (Gestalt), for instance hands or feet, an ear, a knee or elbow, and so forth, or also attempting to create a sculpture of a whole human being.
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Please submit files of completed art project(s), comments and questions via the online form or via email.