Greek Pottery Project

Logan and I first attempted to make a Greek-style pot by covering a glass vase with air-dry clay, which worked years ago for his older brothers, but this time the clay cracked as soon as it dried. 

His brothers were younger when they made their Greek pots out of root beer bottles covered in clay.

We went back to the drawing board and decided to make a paper mache Greek-style pot, using instructions in the Story of the World Volume One Activity Book, and gleaning various ideas online. Mixing together one part Elmer's school glue and one part water, we found that smaller pieces of newspaper worked better than longer strips.  Logan got a bit tired of paper mache after one layer on the balloon, and I mostly did the second layer.  However, four to six layers would have been more adequate, because our pot dented in at the top a bit when I cut a hole and inserted a plastic cup, and it dented in at a spot when painted.

Logan painted the pot with terra cotta and black acrylic paint.  We looked up pictures of Greek pottery online for design inspiration, but for the main pictures, he re-drew a picture of the Trojan horse.  

The handles are made out of Model Magic and hot glued to the pot.

With such a detailed project, Logan did the work off and on over a period of many weeks.  It helped that he is a very detail-oriented kid.