From Judy: I have been watching the list for posts where I can connect to Dale Chilhuly's glass installations. The majority of high school teacher's do not have access to glass -- but they do have clay. Justin Kramer's Shells Lesson fit the bill. Justin has also seen Chilhuly's installations and has always been overwhelmed by them. See also Ceramic Sculpture- in particular, Gregg Luginbuhl (fish and Creation Series).

Resource:  Thais - Shell Images

To come:  PDF document -- Year 10 test paper to go with this unit of work for the appraising art component. 

Justin's students looked at several ceramic sculptors who are inspired by nature. He selected shells as the source of inspiration for his students since they are readily available to him. Students made sketches and planned their construction process.

Using pinch and draped slab techniques - the shells took shape. Surface decoration/textures was important. The pieces are larger than life - in some cases 40 to 50 cm in length.

Adapt Lesson Plan by Maria Lengauer: Organic Form in Clay 

They experimented with glazing  techniques and sandblasting to mimic the shells colour. Justin  was quite surprised how well they handled the concepts of layering glaze colours to achieve an effect. Justin has entered the installation  into a collaborative art competition for secondary students.

Resources for 2-D images throughout history:

Select any of these wonderful examples of Shells in Art. Page by Juan Carlos M. Coll and Alfonso Pina. Reverso Web Translation gives you a very accurate translation from Spanish to English.

Justin submitted lessons and other work he's done at Dakabin. You can see it by clicking on the arrow below: