We loved learning about ancient Greek pottery.
We completed several projects to learn about Greek vases.

We recently traveled to Greece and saw many beautiful examples of Greek pottery with all sorts of designs, shapes, and colors.
We loved the artwork of owls, octopuses, wrestlers, and more!

The handles on some of these vases are very ornate.
We loved reading about the different uses for the pottery based on their shapes.

First, we designed a vase on regular paper.

Tori was very particular about her geometric designs.

Katie loves any and all art projects.

We cut out paper vases with our designs.
We got the inspiration for our scratch vases here.
We practiced on the scraps of scratch paper to see how to use it since it’s a new concept.

Then we cut out colored scratch paper in a vase shape and made designs on the vases.

Our final project was to make actual vases!
I gathered the materials for our Papier Mâché vases project.
(We also have a fresco art project coming up!)
I collected free newspapers, balloons, tape
, and cardboard for the bases, tops, and handles.

The girls cut strips of newspaper.

I made the glue and we covered the balloons and cardboard pieces with strips of newspaper.
Papier-Mâché Recipe:
- 1 part flour to 5 parts water
- Boil about 3 minutes and let cool
I laid out newspapers to collect drips and we used our art trays to keep the vases steady. I poured the glue into an aluminum pan
.

Notice there are no pictures of the actual Papier-Mâché-ing.
It was so sticky and messy that we had to take showers and I had to mop the floor twice, even with the newspapers and trays catching most of it.
It took a looooong time for the bases to dry completely.

Then, we painted the vases a solid color!
We used tubes of acrylic paint – mostly black, orange, brown, red, and white to be more authentic.

We added fun details in another color like the vases we learned about: people, animals, geometric shapes.

Our completed vases!

We had lots of fun learning about Greek pottery and creating our vases.
Those vases are awesome!! The kids did a really great job. That’s amazing that you all were able to visit Greece….talk about field trip!
Thanks! We’re enjoying more fine arts activities lately. And we loved Greece!
This is so fantastic! My son has recently taken an interest in Greek mythology and checked out tons of books from our library. These vases might be a fun addition to what he is learning about. #HipHomeschoolMoms
We’ve had some amazing discussions about Greek mythology and history. It’s one of our favorite time periods!
Oh, I miss paper mache! What a great art project! My favorite (years ago) was paper mache Viking helmets! Great memories!
Ooh, paper mache is so much fun! Great pictures. Neighbors at Titus 2sday.
Jennifer, those are amazing! Thanks so much for sharing! GOD bless you, beautiful friend! :-)
First, I love the tile work on the floor – beautiful, Jennifer. Yikes! I have never done paper mache. I love this idea, it is so creative. Thank you for sharing this idea with Thankful Thursdays.