Art and Design – Making Plaster of Paris Seals
As part of their Connected Curriculum topic on the Indus Valley, Year 6 found out about many of the different artefacts discovered by archaeologists, which helped them to shape an understanding of this ancient civilisation. The Indus Valley Civilisation was prominent over 4,000 years ago, so finding these ancient artefacts is key to discovering more about the way people lived their lives at this time.
A particularly significant discovery was finding seals. These objects were small square tablets made from soapstone, which historians believe were used to aid trading. It is thought that the Indus people used the seals to show who had made particular goods – a little like how brand logos are used today.
The children looked at many examples of seals, and soon recognised that many of them had pictures of animals, nature and God-like figures on them. They also had other symbols, which looked similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs; these are an example of the Indus script. This was important as, to this day, historians have still been unable to decipher what this script means. Year 6 had great fun trying to work out the script for themselves.
The children went on to use this knowledge to design their own Indus seals. They began by sketching some designs with pencil. Next, they chose their favourite design and carved it into a piece of plasticine using clay tools, being sure to make the grooves deep enough for the plaster of Paris to set effectively. This took careful precision. Once they were happy with these imprinted designs, they put them into a paper cup, made plaster of Paris (by mixing sufficient powder with the correct quantity of water) and then poured this into the cups. The mixture needed to set overnight.
The next day, the cup and plasticine were carefully peeled away to reveal the seal underneath. We made some small clay pots to test how well the seals had worked and got some fantastic results. Many of the children had never worked with this medium before, so it was great to learn a series of new skills in Art and Design.
