Completing Our Clay Coral Reefs

We began by talking about the damage the Crown of Thorns starfish is causing across the Pacific, and how that loss shows up in real reefs. From there we explored clay as a medium, testing how shapes hold, how textures read, and how colour sits on the surface.

Students designed their own coral reef forms, using pieces of glass to represent the ocean around them. They decorated the clay with underglaze to bring out detail. Some chose to leave sections white to show bleaching and death, a deliberate visual cue in the finished work.

After decorating, each piece was glazed, the glass set in place, and everything went back into the kiln for a second firing to fix the colour, fuse the glass, and give a durable, glossy finish. The completed reefs were then displayed at our School Expo.