Clay Creations: Parents and Kids Connecting through Art

By Elizabeth Holman 

Issue 113, July/August 2002

Six-year-old Maya Babow beams with pride as she reaches into her treasure trove of colorful ceramic Beanie Baby props. Maya has been working with clay for nearly half her life. Her eyes sparkle with enthusiasm as she displays the exquisite miniature tea set that she formed and glazed from start to finish. Maya and her mother, Karen Levin, work together in a clay studio about once a week-Levin on the potter's wheel, Maya doing hand building. Levin appreciates the opportunity to share a creative experience with her daughter while at the same time doing her own thing.

As many parents have discovered, enjoying ceramics with a child opens doors to creativity, strengthens relationships, and is a lot of fun. Children are natural artists, and watching them play with clay is a lesson in the joy and freedom of creative expression. Margaret Fitzgerald, an artist and former elementary school art teacher, has guided children through a variety of clay projects. "Children respond with great enthusiasm to clay," she says. "It is always their favorite art project because of the immediate tactile experience." She notes that there is something primal in the way children react to clay and likens it to playing in the mud.

Fitzgerald has observed children venting frustrations while molding a lump of clay, then leaving the room calm and satisfied. Some of the younger children, she remembers, had difficulty rolling coils or joining slabs, but with a little help rose to the challenge of the more complex projects. When the projects were complete, the children were especially proud of their shiny clay bells, masks, coil pots, and animal figures.

Although many children are uninhibited artists, the same cannot always be said of their parents. For some adults, the door to artistic expression has long been bolted shut. While leading training workshops for teachers, Fitzgerald "saw a lot of anxiety." She heard the same story over and over, of people who had been humiliated as children and had never pursued art again. "For example, they had painted the sky orange instead of blue, and had been reprimanded for it." For some parents, working with clay has opened the door to their own creativity. Warren Dranit and his six-year-old daughter, Yanna, have been spending Saturday mornings at a clay studio for about a year. At first Dranit simply helped Yanna, or sat beside her reading the newspaper. "I never did art before, and I've never been creative," he says. But with a nudge from instructor Joan Lindt, he started working on the potter's wheel. Though he commented on the uneven thickness of the walls of his bowl, it was evident that he was well on his way to learning this craft.

Lindt, who has been teaching ceramics at her home studio, Family Tree Pottery, in Petaluma, California since 1996, observes how children and their parents interact there. Away from the home routine, she says, a special bonding takes place between parents and kids. Lindt's studio is small and crowded, but her energetic and interactive style makes the space work. Her eight-year-old daughter, Megan, often wanders in, followed by two tail-wagging dogs. Megan plops down at the potter's wheel and, with the help of her mother, forms a cylinder. Four is generally a good age for kids to begin working with clay, Lindt advises. By age five or six they can start working on the wheel (with a lot of help), and between eight and ten years, they usually have the strength and coordination to work independently on the wheel.

The creative possibilities of clay are nearly limitless. The evolution of the dry clay (green ware) to the dull pinkish clay (bisque ware) to the final glazed piece is almost magical. Once child and parent get hooked on clay, they may not want to quit. As children enter their teens, sharing an interest in ceramics can help parents stay connected to their kids.