Last term, Year 5 were studying the story of Beowulf within their English lessons. Drawing upon their descriptions of the monster in their writing, pupils designed and constructed Grendel’s severed head from clay.
Beware, these sculptures are grotesque and incredibly scary!
We began the project by studying the structure, proportions and features of the human head and pupils drew a self-portrait using a mirror. They went on to design their Grendel heads using their knowledge of the human head as a starting point. Before making the sculpture, each pupil made their own armature (structure) using aluminium foil. They then moulded clay around it to form a head shape. They considered the form of the 3D head and the position of the features on the face. Pupils used the blending technique to add clay features; they used tools to draw into the clay and added string, wire and other small objects to describe details (such as hair).
We had a terrifying morning making these! I love them. Please check out our gallery below:
