Playing with Clay, Pottery with Kids at Home

 This is another fun pottery kit for children that we picked up on sale at a craft shop. We've played with another similar kit and posted about it here. I've always had a huge fascination with pottery since I was a child, mainly because one of my friends mother was a potter and I thought it was just magical.
My renewed interest has come from a friend who is a brilliant potter, who creates hand built pieces. I so love the idea of hand built pottery, and think that most likely this is the style I will favour in the coming future.

Someday I will purchase a kiln, but I need to think about getting some electrical in line to make it happen in our garage workshop. A larger kiln that I'm looking at requires a 240 volt outlet (kitchen stove voltage).
Our children also have a huge fascination with the idea of pottery, making these types of kits fun to try. Clay and sculpture are things that most children love, and it usually begins with play dough in some form. Air dry clay is amazing and fun as well. We've played around with it all 💕

Ava wanted to work with this kit outside and this was pretty perfect, because it was a gorgeous summer day. The contents are quite standard and come with some fun sculpting tools, clay, paint, sponges, and of course a small battery operated wheel.

Ava set herself up with a bowl of water💕 and an apron. 

This type of wheel is not strong and will not really work for any amount of true hand spinning, though it's really fun to try and actually is a wonderful experience and opportunity to chat about friction 😉 

Regardless of the function or lack there of, the fun truly outweighs the mechanics of the wheel. I think Ava had the most fun using the tools! The tools work extremely well for shaping, and were most effective.

I think that the experimentation and play that happens with kit's like this, are completely the point ~ working with your hands and having fun! Ava created a few small projects before moving on. 

She painted them later on with the paints that came with the set. 

I am so looking forward to a kiln in our shop someday soon, but until then we are having some pretty cool fun 💕