SchoolArts - February 2012

score the joints very well, and add a small clay coil to the inside seams to prevent cracking during firing. It is also a good idea to put a supporting slab inside the cake to hold up the top.

Make sure students put a ½" hole in the supporting slab, base, and connecting tiers, to make sure that air can vent out during both the drying and firing processes.

frosting, letters and shape cutters, and candy molds.

When students needed a specific item, we made plaster molds from an assortment of plastic toys. This allowed students to have repeating shapes for decorating the surface.

The frosting for the cakes ranged from smooth clay to using thick clay slip spread on the scored slabs for a textured surface.

After the cakes dried, they were placed on stilts in the kiln when firing to make sure the air was able to escape from the bottom vent holes.

After the cakes were bisque fired, students used underglaze stains to add color. Then the cakes were fired again.

Each time I
teach this assignment, I am impressed
and delighted by the variety of sub-
jects that students choose to cele-
brate—from sleep to Bastille Day. The
cakes have given students the expe-
rience of constructing a large-scale
handbuilt form to which they have a
very personal attachment.
The surface of the cake pro-
vides a wide range of possibilities
for the orchestration of textures,
sculptural forms, and lettering,
as well as expressive use of color.
Each finished ceramic cake is a last-
ing tribute to what each student felt
was most important to commemo-
rate at this point in their lives.

Each finished ceramic cake is a lasting tribute to what each student felt was most important to commemorate at this point in their lives.

Cake Decorating

I provided a selection of tools for decorating the cakes including icing smoothers to give texture to the clay

Ellen Mahoney is art department chair at the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks,

California. emahoney@buckley.org

NATIONAL STANDARD
Students create multiple solutions
to specific visual arts problems
that demonstrate competence
in producing effective
relationships between
structural choices
and artistic func-
tions.