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Every materials in play, starting from its original appearances or involving tools or items, would present infinite possibilities that bases on the player’s perspectives. Materials not only provide senses of feelings, different properties or made in different forms for the players, but also enhance our thinkings with various ways during the play (Pacini-Ketchabaw, et al., 2016, p4).

Clay, one of the materials provided and discussed in this unit, would be the one that I chose, discussed, and played within this paper. The reasons why I took this material is because I had no experience to play with clay before, moreover, clay is strongly connecting with ecologies (Pacini-Ketchabaw, et al., 2016, p18) that given inspiration for me and interested me to play with.

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Loose Parts Randomly Picked from Home & Nature

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Loose Parts Randomly Picked from Home & Nature

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There were some loose parts I prepared for this play, including a round container, a plastic scraper, a pair of chopsticks, a kit of piping bags, wooden cutlery, a twig, and seeds. I picked them up randomly except for the round container. This is because I wanted to play clay with water. Long words to short, I was ready to play with!

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In the beginning, I cut and took a big chunk of clay from the original one in the other classroom. When I had backed to my seat, I used my hands to knead the clay, trying to make different shapes and sensory textures. It was a bit wet and cool, as well as very hard and stiff. It was just like Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016) claimed that clay would be hardest fast due to warmth and dryness in an indoor place. So, I wondered how to make them in small pieces. I could not separate by my fingers, what was I supposed to use? After I made them in pieces, what I can do? Pouching it? Throwing it? Or Rolling it? Finally, I grabbed the scraper to cut the clay, as it was the easiest tool for me.

During the process, I found that clay does not sound! Only the scraper clashing with the table sounded. I say this because I thought firm things being cut or seperated by tools or hands, will sound. Was it not dry enough? But I thought it was dry enough! How about I hammer it by with a twig? I took a twig to hammer it. I noticed that the clay produced no sounds and it acted as a buffer, softening the sound of the impact between the table and the twig.

Furthermore, during this experimentation, I also found that clay is has gotten marks. As I had used the scraper to cut the clay, the marks were left in shape and straight. Then, I used the twig to hammer the clay, the marks became circular and matched with the twig’s shape. This shows that clay can be incredibly versatile to show it how to reflect the humans, the things, and the methods that occurred on them (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016).

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At this experience, I made two chunks of clay. The left-hand-side one was original and the right-hand-side one was absorbed with water (See the left-top picture). I noticed that the wet clay was easily shaped with my hands but the hard one did not. Then I wondered how the clay could extend by the same power and heavy, which used my fist (See the right-top picture). I found that the firm clay was fixed and hard to change its shape, even when I punched it, too. In contrast, I just pressed through my fist to the wet clay, it became bigger and marked with my fist.

After that, I wondered if using the twig to roll both clays would happen. A similar situation occurred, in which the soft clay was widely extended while the firm one was just slightly extended (See the right-button picture). However, I noticed that the marks on both clays were very different. As you can see the left-button picture, the wet clay presented softer and lighter marks from the twig and a small piece of tree skin was glued down. On the other hand, the firm clay produced deeper traces of the twig. When you touched both of them, you could feel the depth of these shapes.

Although I did not play with the clay in a river but a container filling with water, I could feel the clay interacted with the water as drawing my attention to water (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016). Clay with water would produce different forms which it changes depend on how it plays with.

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Unfortunately, this play did not go to a forest or river to experience clay’s beauty, but playing clay outdoors was a good alternative. I took both clays going to a car park just next to the classroom’s building. Firstly, I wondered what the colours of the two different clays under the sunshine would be (See Figure 1). I noticed they were in the same colour, no matter whether they were dry or wet. This was a different result than the indoor. Was it because natural things would not present differences under natural things? If I placed them in different time frames, such as morning, midday, and night, can they be in different colours? It is a pity that these considerations were not proven and experimented with the time.

Next, I stuck the firm clay onto a tree (See Figure 2 and 3), then the soft one (See Figure 4 and 5). I found that no matter whether they were wet or dry, they could stick in study on the tree. Then, I took them from the tree, and I noticed the moisture one left some clay on the tree with a deeper and clearer mark, while the other clay was taken perfectly but the mark was not as dark as the soft one. I found that clay in moisture would easily separate through every way but the clay in dryness would be a strong chunk hardly to separate. This made me think if a material (person) is nourished by different nourishments, methods, or environments, it (I/he/she/they) would collaborate in many ways and obtain various results. Adding more and more possibilities into the thing (clay/person), you will see numerous or infinite chemical reactions based on your curiosity, creativity, and inspiration.

Finally, I removed both clays from the tree and took a step back to look at the tree. I noticed no mark on the tree! But when I went close to the tree, I could see the marks there. I found that distances can also present different results! Or the marks’ colours were too similar to the tree so I couldn’t see it? I think because the tree and the clay are natural items, they integrated into the landscape I saw. I felt quite surprised because nature will accept nature as part of them. I also found that I realised this thing feeling peaceful and calm. This is because I expanded my thought about, how I am also part of nature, so no matter what I do something naturally or kindly then nature will include you together. As a result, clay in different environments produces different connections with me. It tells stories and emotions depending on your interactions. I can see clay relating to space, relation, ways, and context strongly as claimed in the article of Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016).

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Scan QR code or Use the link below to assess Ying-Chi Chen's Padlet (s8177772): https://padlet.com/s8177772/creative-works_ece6011-languages-of-children-zn2ltbag8svirel2