From a lump of clay come many stories

DINGMAN — Art students at Dingman Delaware Middle School were given just three instructions to complete their eighth grade art assignment:

Start with a cylinder base
Compute the diameter and circumference to determine the amount of clay you will need for your slab

Have a concept of your final design

The results were storybook worthy — Rapunzel’s tower, green-faced villains, trees outgrowing containers, Olmec stone temple busts and a deceptively simple basket of fish to name a few.

“My favorite thing about working with clay is that everyone smiles as soon as I put a piece in their hands,” Ms. Edmonds says.

Several of her students smiled again to learn that their pieces were being entered in the annual Scholastic Art competition.

Students Ciara Dinidyal and Trevor Harvey said they wouldn't consider themselves artists.

“I can’t draw if my life depends on it — well, stick figures maybe," Ciara said.

However, despite having little to no prior experience working in clay, both students’ cylinder sculptures are being submitted to Scholastic.

But the students weren’t the only ones smiling when they took the clay in their hands. The face that inspired Trevor’s final piece was much simpler.

“As I did more of it, it just started coming together.” said Abbey McFeely, whose piece was also submitted to Scholastic. “Originally I was going to do a willow tree, but it wasn’t working. I still wanted draping branches, so I just went with what the clay wanted to do.”

Three simple instructions, a lump of clay, and storybook endings — perhaps the clay smiled too, knowing what it could become.