During Mrs. Boyd’s 6th-hour art class, students are challenged to work with clay to make some different styles of pottery. Students were challenged with two different styles of creating their pottery artwork. “It is not easy but it has been fun to do,” said Jesse Abbot. Students had to learn the skills of both scoring and slipping before they were able to start on their clay projects. Scoring is a technique consisting of making scratches into both pieces of clay that someone wishes to stick together. Scoring both sides creates a Velcro-like effect between the two pieces of clay. Slipping is a technique used in clay work that acts as a glue between two scored pieces of clay. By wetting down a small amount of clay, it creates a paste that acts as a glue to hold the other pieces of clay together. “Learning to properly score and slip was difficult, but I am glad we had enough time to make mistakes and then learn how to fix it,” said senior McKayla Reynolds. The second style students worked with was the slab method. The slab method consists of using a flat piece of clay that is equally thick through the entire slab of clay. Students were able to achieve this technique by rolling out their clay with a rolling pin that is leveled with two equally thick pieces of wood on either side. For slab pottery, students were given the creative freedom to either lay their slab of clay over another object in order to leave an indent in the clay, or build a box by scoring the edges of the clay to stay together. So far, the students have been able to complete two clay projects and hope to start using the clay wheel soon.