They had looked at and drawn various different shapes and textures and also looked at the work of other ceramic artists.

Upon arrival at Biss Nanxiang we were greeted by Heather Collins, Head of Art, and shown to her Art rooms. Together with her year 10 IGCSE students we took a look at all the sketches and drawings that had been made in preparation for the workshop. To get a feel for working in clay and as a warm-up exercise everyone was given a small piece of clay and then challenged to make a small sculpture in just ten minutes! Ms Collins then demonstrated several different techniques for clay sculpture, and students had to consider which technique would best suit the type of artwork they were planning to make.

After a short break everyone got started and the rest of the day was spent sculpting and creating. Students worked really hard and were back in the art room even before their lunch hour was up! As the day drew to a close everyone had managed to realise their initial 2D design ideas into great 3D sculptures. The results were particularly good considering that for most of the students this was the first time they had ever worked with clay! In a weeks time the sculptures will be returned to us from the kiln at BISS Nanxiang, and students will spend another week painting and decorating their artwork.