Victorian Style Clay Houses

In this video we explore Victorian architecture by creating a Victorian style clay slab House.

Victorian architecture was prominent during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 – 1901. Some of the characteristics include stone or wood textures, two to three story high buildings, asymmetric shapes, steep rooves, bright colours and decorative trims.

We begin our work by rolling out an air-drying clay slab to an even thickness using wooden slats and a rolling pin. Once we have rolled out our clay we use clay tools to draw out our house design. We cut around our design using a potter’s knife.

We then decide which areas we will raise such as doors, roofs and decorative features. We roll out more clay, cut it to size and then join the clay to our slab. To join we score the surface, add water and then blend the clay together.

Once we have added our 3D features we add textures to our house using varies clay tools and texture plates. We make the surfaces look like brick, stone and wood in varies areas of our design.

We allow our design to dry before adding colour. We colour our clay houses with oil pastels. We then paint over the oil pastels with black water colour paint so that there is a contrast between the bright colours and the black paint. This draws out the textures and details which have been created in the work.

This range of video lesson plans are designed for teachers and can be shown to students. The videos come with downloadable PDF Lesson Plans that can be incorporated into a teacher’s curriculum plan. The lessons are also adaptable to suit at home learning.

Lesson Plan:

Lesson Plan: Victorian Style Clay House