Pretend Porcelain
What kinds of designs have you seen on dinner plates, teapots, and vases? Porcelain is just one of many Chinese inventions.
1. Many items we use everyday were invented in China centuries ago. Find out how porcelain has been made for more than 2000 years. You will find that it traditionally is decorated with blue and white designs of bridges, tea houses, boats, and willow trees.
2. Use Crayola® Air-Dry Clay to make decorative replicas of Chinese dinnerware to show what you are learning about Chinese history, inventions, and traditional designs. Working on a clean dry surface, roll a ball of clay. Then decide what you want to sculpt—perhaps a plate, bowl, or teapot. If you change your mind, add a little water and start again!
3. Plate. Flatten the ball. Use a craft stick to cut out a plate. Pinch the outside edge with your fingers to create a rim.
4. Bowl, vase, teapot, or cups. Push your thumb into the middle of a clay ball. Keep your pointer finger on the outside. Pinch and shape until you have a pleasing form. Make handles or a spout by rolling small snake-like shapes. Scratch the pot surface with a craft stick. Slightly dampen the area with your finger to attach a handle or spout. Roll out and cut a lid to fit.
5. Smooth the surfaces with damp fingers. Air-dry your pretend porcelain for 2 to 5 days.
6. Cover your art area with paper. Decorate your sculptures in traditional Chinese blue designs with Crayola Tempera Paints and Brushes. Air-dry the paint before you prepare a display showing these and other Chinese inventions.
Adult supervision is required for any arts & crafts project. Observe children closely and intervene as necessary to prevent potential safety problems and ensure appropriate use of arts and crafts materials. Some craft items, particularly beads and buttons, are potential choking hazards for young children. Avoid use of such small parts with children younger than 3 years. Craft items such as scissors, push pins and chenille sticks may have sharp points or edges. Avoid use of materials with sharp points by children younger than 4 years. Read all manufacturers' safety warnings before using arts and craft supplies.
Crayola Modeling Materials including Crayola Model Magic®, and Model Magic Fusion™, Crayola Air-Dry Clay, and Crayola Dough—
- Keep away from open flames. Do not use to make candleholders, hot plates, trivets, or other similar objects that will be used or placed near fire and other heat sources.
- Do not put in an oven, microwave, or kiln.
- Do not make into vessels/containers that will hold unpackaged food.
- The use of modeling material to make items that look like food is discouraged for children younger than age 5 to avoid their confusion with real food.
- Unless sealed with a water-resistant glaze, do not make projects exposed to or immersed in water, such as boats or outdoor bird feeders. They would disintegrate when exposed to moisture.
- Crayola Dough—contains gluten (wheat flour) as an ingredient.
- Crayola Air-Dry Clay, Crayola Model Magic and Model Magic Fusion are gluten-free. However, they are produced on the same machinery as Crayola Dough which does contain gluten. Although the machines are cleaned prior to the start of each production run, there is a slight possibility that trace amounts of gluten from Crayola Dough may be present in the other modeling compound products. For information regarding specific ingredients or allergic concerns, please call our Consumer Affairs department at 1-800-272-9652 weekdays between 9 AM and 4 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Crayola Washable Paints—Not for use as body/face paint.
Modeling Tools—Use the least dangerous point or edge sufficient to do the job. For example, craft sticks, plastic knives and forks, and cookie cutters can cut or carve modeling materials.
Wood—By its nature, wood is rough and may contain splinters or sharp points
- Children with special needs might create pinch pots. To make plate circles, suggest they use a plastic plate to cut around.
- Try painting by dripping a few colors of tempera on the piece. Swirl it with cotton swabs or large paint brushes.
- Study various types of pottery decoration and glazes. Visit local potters to see how pottery is sculpted, fired, and decorated.
- Study Chinese exports to the United States in the 17th to 19th centuries.
- New Englanders eagerly awaited shipments of Chinese porcelain. What other countries imported Chinese porcelain? What trade routes did the Chinese take to deliver their goods?
- Assessment: Note whether the shapes of the pottery are similar to Chinese work. Determine whether the decorative designs are reminiscent of authentic pieces.
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