The Ancient Greeks were known for their incredible skill with pottery and created some of the most recognisable ceramic artefacts in the world. These beautiful pieces are in many museums around the world.
Black-figure style (where the bodies and objects were painted onto red ceramic in black) was popular from the 7th century BCE, until it was replaced in the 5th century BCE by red-figure style, where the main figures were outlined and details were often scratched into the glaze to expose the underlying red, before the vases were finished by firing in a kiln. We used a similar method to make our own paper version!
First, we drew the outline of our vase on white paper. We were inspired by common shapes that ancient Greeks used.
Secondly, we coloured in our whole base shape with crayon pressing very firmly so we had a thick shiny coating of colour. We used oranges and reds to imitate the orange colour of Greek pottery.
After, we mixed a few drops of washing up liquid into our black paint. This is so that the paint spreads better and does not leave brush marks. We painted a layer of black over our vases and allowed them to dry.
Today we started decorating our vases. We used sharp tools such as wooden skewers to scratch away the black paint and we were able to see the coloured crayon underneath.
We took inspiration from photos of ancient vases, our favourite ancient myth, or our own stories. We looked at the different kinds of decorations that the Greeks used like; meanders, flowers, and spirals. Some of us wrote our name on the vase – in Greek of course!
Thank you to all the parents who helped us for our Creativity Morning today. We had a great morning.
