Tendergarten, produced by WHA Television for the Wisconsin School of the Air.
Your teacher is Ruth Mork.
Where in the world did all of this mud come from?
Tuffy, where have you been? Are you the one who tracked this in?
Grey mud, black mud, and some of this looks like clay.
I wonder what I could do with all of this.
I know this is a case for my what to do box.
I'm going to look in here and see if it tells me that I can do anything with mud.
I'll look under the letter M because that's what mud begins with.
And sure, not here is a card. It says mud is like clay.
Clay is better to work with than mud.
You can make many things from clay. There are four ways of making things.
The first is the pinch method, the second is the coil method, and the third is the slab method.
Then it says seat chart number five and call Mr. Glazer.
Let's see if we can find chart five. Here it is.
And it talks about pinch, coil, slab, and wheel.
I better call Mr. Glazer and see what this is all about.
Hello. Mr. Glazer, this is Ruth Mark.
Well, hi. How are you this rainy day?
Well, I'm fine, except I have a kindergarten full of mud and clay.
Boy, I can bet. What are you going to do about it? I bet it's a real mess.
That's just exactly why I called you. Is there anything we can make out of it?
Well, it could be that some of that mud is just about like clay.
So why don't you have the children gathered up? Maybe they can make some little animals or maybe a little bowl or something.
Well, I do have a picture chart here that tells me something about pinch and coil and slab.
Yes. And also something about a wheel.
Well, you don't have a potter wheel in your kindergarten class, do you?
Well, why don't you come over and I will demonstrate to you how to make a pot on a potter's wheel.
Wonderful idea. Okay, I'll try the pinch and coil on the slab here and then we'll come over to studio to see you.
Good. Fine. Thank you. So long. Bye.
Well, he said I should gather up the clay that's on the floor and we'll see what we can do with it.
First of all, let's try the pinch method.
Now it says here with the pinch method to get a bottle of clay and I have that and then just pinch it with your fingers and make a bowl.
I'm going to use this board. If you don't have a board like this, you can use a newspaper and then the clay doesn't stick so.
You can see why they call this the pinch method. You just pinch it with your fingers.
But this method of clay, working with clay is a little bit difficult.
You don't have very much control over the clay, you can see that in places it gets too thin and then it cracks.
But let's look at my bowl.
Does it look like the one up in the chart?
Kind of does, doesn't it?
All right, now I'm going to try the coil method.
Now it says take your hands and roll it out, it looks like a worm, doesn't it?
And then make a foundation, and then I'm going to try and make a cup like that.
MUSIC
Have you made these before?
Just like making a worm or a snake is in, thanks you, I like the coil of it.
I'm going to roll it around here and make the foundation like the chart showed me.
I've been humming a work song that I like to sing when I'm working. Would you like to hear the
words for it? I'll sing it for you while I finish up making the cup. Remember as you work, working
is a joy and every day delight for every girl and boy. So wear a jolly smile, be happy all the
love. Yes working is a joy for every girl and boy. So you see when you do this you just keep making
coils or snakes if that's what you want to call a worm and just wind it around here.
This is a method that people have been using for many many many years but it's a slow method.
I'm going to use some of these other coils that I have made over here to finish up this path
I don't just sing the work song with me while I'm doing it. Would you like to listen to the words once
more and then you'll be able to sing it with me I know. Remember as you work, working is a joy
and every day delight for every girl and boy. So wear a jolly smile, be happy all the love. Yes working
is a joy for every girl and boy. Now why don't you sing it with me?
Ready? Remember as you work, working is a joy and every day delight for every girl and boy.
So wear a happy smile, be happy all the while. Yes working is a joy for every girl and boy.
There. I put a handle on just like the picture showed me. Does it look like that?
That's the coil method or you might like to call it a snake method. Now the third method that
they talk about on our chart is a slab method and I need a rolling pin and I need a pencil.
So let's find that.
Here's my rolling pin. If you'd like to sing the song to help, I work easier for me fine.
Remember as you work, working is a joy and every day delight for every girl and boy.
So wear a jolly smile, be happy all the while. Yes working is a joy for every girl and boy.
Now I need a pencil to cut the shape of the bird.
Should we give them some wings?
And then a tail.
This is like making bun pies isn't it? Roll them out and then just cut it out like this.
And there's our bird.
He needs a little beak and let's make the wings go up. His tail goes up. Oh and I forgot his eyes.
There. There's our little bird using the slab method.
So now you see we've used three methods of making things with clay. The pinch method we
made a ball and we use the coil method to make a cup and we use a slab method to make a bird.
Now let's go over and visit Mr. Glaser and have him show us how to make a pot with a potter's wheel.
Hello Mr. Glaser. How are you? Just fine. Children this is Mr. John Glaser and he's a potter.
And you'd explain your potter's wheel to them. Well all I have to do is kick this big wheel on
the bottom and it makes this clay go round and round. Almost like a miracle round isn't it?
See that? Now when we were making things from clay we had certain steps that we had to follow.
Do you have the same thing when you use the potter's wheel? Well certainly. The first step is just
getting the clay centered like this. But before we make anything let's take a look at some pots
behind me. Oh fine. Did you make these beautiful hanging ones? No a friend of mine made them.
Yes. There's three types of pot, cylinder, a round one, or a bob shape and an open pot.
That's the kind that we've shown on our picture chart. And I'm going to demonstrate how I make all
three. Oh wonderful. Have to keep it wet. Yes. When we're using clay like we just did do we have to
should our hands be wet? No no it'll get too sloppy. It's just when the clay moves round and
around real fast you have to have it wet so it doesn't stick to the hands. Okay first of all I'm
going to start with my two thumbs. Put them together and plunge it right down the middle.
Now you watch what happens. All right we will.
Get some more water.
Can you see that? Look what's happening. Is that hard work? Oh it is.
This is why we start because I have to get my hand inside of this clay so that I can push out
with this hand and push in with my right hand. And that's how you make your shape of it.
That's how it starts. And what happens when the two hands go together?
Something has to happen. The clay has to go someplace so it's going to go up.
And that's how we get that tall cylinder shape. And that's what you're going to make first with
the cylinder. Do you begin to get taller?
I notice the wheel is going much slower now.
Well that's because I applied so much pressure with my hands that it slowed the wheel down.
And I can't kick it all the time. I just gave it one good kick in the beginning and let it run
until it goes slow. And on this wheel it's the kind that you do kick when you put
but there are wheels that are mechanical aren't they that are run with a motor.
Yeah something like a sewing machine. I see. And then you adjust it with a lever with your knees
or something like that. See now the form is coming up. Yeah.
All those little lines that you can see he's making with his finger nails.
And his knuckles to our guess. Can't help it but really it's kind of like natural decoration.
Yes it is. Very pretty.
Well pretty soon we'll be able to make a bobby round form.
You make a lot of these out of the same path is that right?
Out of same place. Out of same place.
Well for now yes but I always watch this. It's going to come out like that.
And that's because the hand inside is pushing out and the hand inside
isn't pushing too hard. There it comes. There it comes.
You're working so hard. I think maybe we should sing our work song and make your job easier.
Would you like us to? Yeah.
Remember as you work working is a joy. And every day delight for every girl and boy.
So wear a jolly smile. Be happy all the while. Yes working is a joy for every girl and boy.
That's a nice song. I could use something like that. Well it makes our work much easier.
Oh you have to teach that to me. I'm going to bring this top in a little bit.
That's by putting pressure with this hand and no pressure with this hand.
Now when you finish with these what do you let them dry?
Uh huh. Oh about a week. And then what's the next step?
Well then we have to make them real hard. So don't break. We put them in a special
friends. It's like an oven. And you bake them. And that's called a kill. Very kill.
And how long are they in the oven? Oh about a day.
And then sometimes they are glazed. You can put color on. It's really a thin coat of glass.
And you bake that right on the pot.
I see. That's a bold one isn't it? Uh huh. Should we make an open pot? Oh yeah.
Okay. Then I'm anxious to see how you take it off as a wheel. We'll do that in a minute.
Lift it up. All right. Okay. Now watch this. It's going both fast.
Oh. That is hard work isn't it? It doesn't look so difficult when you just watch it. But I know
that it must be. Just make you feel like you're on a merry-go-round and this goes round and
round and round like this. Yeah. Should we take it off? Oh yeah. Now how are you going to do that?
With a string. Can you imagine that? No I can't. It's a real surprise.
Watch it. I'm just going to let this string wrap it off around.
Not like that. Give it a good pull. All right.
There it comes off just like that. May I take this back to the kindergarten? Sure.
Oh thank you. What a lovely pot. Thank you so much Mr. Glaser for showing us about the potter's wheel.
And thank you for that nice little song. You're very welcome. Good. Goodbye.
Now let's look at all of these things that we have. Remember we used the pinch method.
We had a ball of clay and we pinched it with our fingers and we made a little bowl.
And then another method for working with clay is the coil method that is like making a snake.
Isn't it where you use two hands and then we've made a foundation and put all the coils on the top
of each other and made a cup. That's another method. And then another method that is a lot
like making mud pies when took a rolling pin and made a fat piece of clay and then used a pencil
and cut out a shape. Remember I made this little bird and then Mr. Glaser showed us how
with his potter's wheel to make a lovely ball. Now this is very wet and it has to dry
and then it'll be put in an oven and it will be a lovely ball. Well who would have guessed
that all of these things could be made from the mud on your boots? Is mud just mud?
So
kindergarten is designed under the supervision of Professor David C. Davis,
University of Wisconsin School of Education. Your teacher has been Ruth Moore.
Production by WHA for the Wisconsin School of the Air.