We started with learning how to make just a perfect ball of clay, which looks easier than it is. Then, Uma Kant demonstrated how that ball has to be flattened out a little, added to on different sides and designed with a tool made of a plastic pen, to produce a tortoise! Each child made one of these on their own, with guidance from the artist. Next, we made the ball again and slowly turned it into fish, at the end of this there was a large family of tortoise and fish with a wide range of expressions. A few children were keen to keep making other objects, so a table, chair and car joined the aquatic ensemble. Later in the workshop, each child got try their hands at the potter's wheel, attempting to hold together the slippery clay and shape diyas out of them. Though they didn't quite manage to get perfect diyas out, it is a learning experience to just hold, feel and work with clay. For me too, it was a day of returning to a craft form that is rooting and meditative, and also a little difficult to manage doing on ones own. Clay work should definitely be part of every child's life!
Here are a few pictures from this workshop: