Maria Martinez Coil Pots

Tasha Newton
Apr 29, 2016
2 min read

I wrote this lesson a few years ago but was nerves it would not go over well finally took the leap and tried it out this year. Oh man am I impressed with the results and students loved it. On the first day I showed students this video of the MESA VERDE national park and had a small group discussion on why people would build houses and communities on the sides of cliffs.

Then we watch this amazing video of Maria Martinez and her process. We paused a lot to talk about everything she is doing and why she is doing it.

Unfortunately this year I did not have the kids work with clay on the first day, which was kind of a bummer so next year I am planning on giving each kid a little bit of clay to practice rolling coils.

On the second day we reviewed Martinez's process and I demoed how to create their own coil pot. they started with a small ball of clay and made it into a small pancake for the base of their pot then began to roll their coils. Using a tooth brush dipped in water to slip and score the coils on.

The third day students continued to add coils to pot and then we used our finder tips and spoons to smooth the outside of our pots. On the finally day we use black Teachers Choice glaze and put oil pastel patterns over the top. When fired where ever the oil pastel is placed turns into a mat black which is perfect for our black on black inspired coil pots. This was a super fun project and great way to incorporate Native American art into my curriculum. How do you incorporate the Native American arts into your programs?