Ceramic Tic Tac Toe for Kids

May 01, 2023

This is a simple yet fun project for pottery class with kids. It is suitable for kids 5+ years old. There is no need to use any sharp pottery tools and you may alter the project to any season. Now we go for the Spring Edition of Tic Tac Toe because we want to welcome this coming season.

First, what do we need for this project:

- any clay you like to work with
- rolling pin, ruler and plastic knife or pastry cutter
- cutters (square and round one)
- texture rolling pin and stamps
- wooden pottery tools
- plastic wrap
- glass beads to be melted
- iron oxide wash (optional)
- two different colors of underglaze
- wooden or plaster boards
- sponge and small round brush

2. Decorate the slab with any roller you like, you may also use any set of stamps (we used the Hexagon Rolling Pin and Spring Animal Stamps).

3. Using a ruler and knife or cutter cut out the square base for your board game. Your square cutter should fit nine times into the base.

4. Cut out 3x3 squares from the base so you create places your game stones will fit.

5. Now roll out another slab, slightly bigger than the first one and stick them by scratched and watered sides together, cut away excess clay from lower slab and clean the edges and joints.

* you may make this easier for younger kids by only rolling out one thicker slab, decorating it with stamps and then creating nine shallow spaces just using fingers or trimming tools.

6. Once your board is finished, let it dry between two wooden or plaster boards to prevent warping.

7. Now we are ready to have fun making game stones. Choose two different stamps that will fit into your round cutter. Stones should easily fit inside the holes we have created on the board.

8. Roll out another slab, about 5mm thick and stamp each stamp five times into the clay with enough space around.

9. Cover the slab with light plastic and cut stamps out through it with round cutter - you may skip the plastic wrap by cutting out the stamps directly but with plastic wrap you will achieve very smooth edges as you can see in photos.

10. Clean all stones with a damp sponge and let everything dry. Bisque fire the game.

Decoration:
There are many ways of decorating and finishing this game. Here we choose an iron oxide wash to emphasize the texture and stamps, mix of green glass beads to imitate the grass and colorful underglazes to distinguish animal game stones.

1. Wash all the pieces with iron oxide and clean the excess color with clean sponge until you are satisfied.

2. Put glass beads into the shallow spaces for game stones creating thin layer - by mixing different colors of glass you may gain more interesting surface.