Making the trees

To make the trees, the children rolled out slabs of clay and then pressed the slabs with various stamps. The stamps have been made by Debbie out of clay and then fired.
After the slabs are stamped, debbie joins them to make the tree shape. Then the children painted the tree with underglazes and slips - white, grey, black and brown. The black slip was watered down so that it would flow into the impressions made by the stamps.
After the tree is finished it has to be cut into smaller pieces to fit in the kiln. When it goes up onto the mosaic wall it will be different because the parts of the tree will be used where needed to form the tree. It will have leaves and animals covering up some of the areas where branches might have gone.