High School Studio Lesson
Celebratory
Cakes
Cakes are no longer the simple desserts they once were. The cake has evolved into an elab- orate, sculptural form that
represents a special occasion. Sculptural cake forms have become expressive designs using three-dimensional
shapes, an array of surface textures,
and a range of colors. The use of cakes
in the artwork of David Gilhooly,
Wayne Thiebaud, and Claes Oldenburg
provides students with examples of
how artists use this edible art form as
an expressive, creative concept.
With the basic shape of a sheet or
tiered cake in mind, I asked students
in my high-school ceramics class to
each handbuild a ceramic cake to celebrate a person, place, or event. The
design process started with a work-sheet on which students listed words
for forms, colors, shapes, and images
that they associated with the theme of
their cakes.
Ellen Mahoney
are ready to be assembled. Plastic
from the dry cleaners works
best for wrapping the clay
as it clings to the clay and
keeps it moist.
On large handbuild-
ing projects like
this, it is impor-
tant to slip and
Creating the Basic Cake Forms
For handbuilding we used low-fire
white clay with grog. Students first
rolled out the base and all slabs
needed. After each ¼" thick clay
slab was cut out, it was wrapped in
one piece of newspaper, stacked, and
wrapped together tightly in plastic.
The newspaper helps to stiffen the
clay just enough so that the clay will
be self-supporting and leather-hard when all the slabs
Pattern Making
I handed out a sheet with phrases
using the word “cake” to help explore
imagery and open up the options that
could be incorporated into the design.
Using rulers, students next completed
a scaled drawing of the cake, then
made scaled pattern pieces by referencing the measurements on their
drawings. For more elaborate designs,
students made mock-ups of the cakes
with oak tag and tape.
