MARGUERITE MAKES A BOOK and Illuminated Letters

As part of our year-long unit on Art History 4th and 5th graders learned about the history of illuminated manuscripts. They began by doing an illuminated version of the first letter of their name. They had to measure and draw a one inch border, fill it with a design or pattern, then add mythical or natural elements to decorate their letter. They could use metallic sharpies to "illuminate" them, like gold leaf  was used in medieval times.

For the second phase of this projects students recreated their letters on slabs of clay. They rolled them flat and traced templates to get a uniform size. We added a variety of texture to the background, then used "scratch and attach" to add coils for their letters. When they had been fired we glazed them!