Durer: Engraved clay print

Albrecht Durer, the great German artist lived in Germany around 500 years ago. His father was a goldsmith, and Durer spent his childhood in his father's workshop making jewelry, engraving metal ornaments and making fine sculpture. He especially liked wood prints, where he used to engrave beautiful and detailed (often tiny) pictures on wood, covering in ink or paint and then reproducing a print of the original engraving.

During the lesson, the children were encouraged to make prints and create pictures on clay, given that this is softer and safer to make prints, yet durable enough. The children observed the marks made by impressing several tiny objects in clay such as nozzles, sticks, wooden pieces, straws, screws and nuts. Then they covered their engraving in paint using a brayer, pressed a paper on it and revealed a print of their engraving. This lesson focused more on the process of experimentation of observing impressions made by different material, and familiarisation with the properties of clay, rather than the result itself, which proved to be very beneficial and stimulating for the young students.