In the studio: stuff in clay

Recently, Lucy has become almost completely independent with the clay. She gets a clay board, puts it on the studio table, opens the clay bucket, calls for help getting clay (because she's too short to reach all the way down in to the bucket), and helps herself to tools. Meanwhile, another child has become attached to using clay at my house, and it's his daily request. Between the two of them, they've got everyone interested in using clay on a daily basis.

One of their favorite things to do is to stick stuff in the clay. Yesterday, I set out copper wire to support this interest. Lucy loved filling her clay with wires, and was soon joined by two boys who helped her bend and twist the wire into interesting shapes. Then they started thinking about other possibilities, which soon led to this "birthday cake":

I suspect this year's group is going to be fluent in the "language" of clay. I'm eager to see where they take us next.