Art-Based Gift that could be a Mess

If you have a creative child in your home, then most likely many art based gifts have left a mess everywhere in your home. My daughter has received many art making gifts for Christmas and birthdays. These include the marker and coloring page/sticker kits, bracelet making kits, paint your own ceramic kits, and so on. This year she received a battery operated pottery wheel. This art-based gift that could be a mess does not have to be. Just do these easy prep steps. Your family will have fun with the inexpensive pottery wheel with less mess. It came with a receipt from Five Below. It is not a master potter’s wheel.

Surprise…another messy arts gift

Now when my daughter opened this art-based gift that could be a mess, she did not know what it was right away. Even I was little confused. I remember potter wheels from collage. They are big and you sit with them between your legs. But when I realized what it was, I thought of the movie Ghost. To which I do not recall much about that movie and yet the scene with the potter’s wheel is popular. Next I thought oh my won’t this led to mess?

My experience with pottery wheels…

One time, my husband and I visited a ceramic shop where costumers paint their own pottery and they had an option to make your own bowl. So we tried it. My husband’s bowl turned out much better then my own, which is humorous because I am the one with art degree. That was my only experience with a potter’s wheel. How do I instruct my children to use this battery operated small one. And I will have to figure out how to not have clay flying everywhere, along with clay hands touching everything.

What we did with the art-based gift that could be a mess that doesn’t have to be…

First we opened it and hoped for some kind of directions. It came with the little plastic wheel, a bag of air-dry clay, a wire to cut the pottery from the suctioned plate, a row of paint, and a flyer with simple direction about how to make the wheel work and how to clean it. There were not directions on how to make a pot, vase, or bowl. So that was disappointing, since at this point no one is an expert. However, we managed to play around and figure it out. Playing around with art materials and learning on the spot with children can be fun.

Be Present…

It is important to be present with the children. Kids need an adult involved to help guide the art making. By being present, the adult can direct how messy it becomes. Also the adult creates good memories with the children. So that when the children look back at the art, they remember who was present and how that made them feel.

Organize for less mess with the art-based gift

Second, we organized the space. We took over one side of the table. I got out some clay tools I had from my hand building class back in collage. We had laminated paper as place mat to keep the mess. So all clay was suppose to be either on the laminated place mat, the potter’s wheel, in the water cup, and on the hands. For the most part that is how it turned out. As you see in the following picture the plastic potter’s wheel got super messy.

Let’s make pottery.

Thirdly, we set out to make the pottery. The air-dry clay that came with the kit was very moist and worked well. However, it was not a lot. So we used air dry clay by Crayola that was two years old. After adding water and playing with it, it became malleable. This allowed everyone to make two vessels each. Without directions, each of us figured out how to manipulate the clay and our hands to help form the clay vessels.

What is needed for cleaning up in the end?

Because we are turning it on and off and changing the speed, the plastic outer shell became messy. It was not very difficult to use wet paper towels to wipe it off. The laminated films were washed under the laundry/utility sit. The table was wiped down like the wheel. In the end the most mess was on our hands. In the end that seems like a limited mess and easy clean up for me. The kids had to do the most clean up. Hands had to be doubled washed to get the clay out of finger nails and from between fingers.

Letting them dry…

We left the vessels to dry. It took a couple of days. Then the paint came out. Painting can be its own mess. However, we have a system for that too. Everyone choose their colors and we had water containers with paper towels nearby. Many different size brushes to limit the need to wash the brushes between colors helps too. Afterwards, everyone had their own way to paint their pottery, which makes it original.

How about you?

Are you interested in using an inexpensive pottery wheel with your children, but are afraid of the mess? If so, I hope that you have read enough to know it will be fine. Making functional art with children is a wonderful activity. But I know for some, we are just concerned about the time it takes to clean it all up. Just organize ahead of time and the clean up will be easy. In addition, in the end you have these beautiful and wonderful little pots, bowels, and raised plates.

Check out this blog post where we play with frosting dough:

Sugar and play dough is an interesting mix!