2nd Grade "Mille Fiori in progress, or in the words of a parent- "What is it"?

We are in the process of creating a "Mille Fiori" installation using organic shapes, Chihuly style. Except for the use of glass of course. We used cardboard tubes, plastic cups, etc, to create forms, then covered them in tissue, and a layer of glitter enhanced glue. We are working together to create one Mille Fiori in the foyer area of our school.

Ikebana Flowers

Adding on to the 4th grade Ikebana project, we created recycled flower forms while waiting for the clay to fire (see earlier post)

Chihuly-3rd Grade

So my students in 3rd grade used paper mache' over a balloon to create a version of Chihuly's "Nimja Floats" or as one of my students wrote- "Ninja Floats". It was a mess, but as you can see from our installation in progress, well worth the experience.

Each student painted their sphere one solid color, and then used paint in glue bottles to add accent colors on. I used them to create an installation a la Chihuly in our hallway. I think it really gets across the idea of a group project. Individually, they were o.k., but the impact was greater as a group.

There are 18 more spheres waiting to be painted and added to the installation.

It's A Mess....

Clay Ikebanas- we'll make flowers out of found objects while we wait for these to be fired.
"Floats"
My 3rd graders are making Chihuly "Floats" using balloons and paper mache', and my 4th graders are using clay to make "Ikebanas" a la Chihuly. WOW- are we having fun, and WOW what a mess. Seriously though, the kids have been so good about helping each other, and cleaning up afterwords, that the mess is not my concern. Today however, the janitors informed me they wanted to buff the floors, and I had to put all of the paper mache on tables for the weekend. I had them lined up in the hall to dry, but oh well, we bend so that we do not break. I cannot wait to see them all painted up, and hanging in the school. Note to self though- save the big projects, requiring storage for next year, when my new art room is built. In the meantime- do you think the classsroom teachers would notice if I just tucked a few in the back of their rooms? HAHAHA

Chihuly Cylinders (1st Grade)

Continuing my lesson with the 1st grade of comparing the Navajo Blanket Cylinders that Chihuly designed, to actual Navajo blankets, with their various line designs, I had students paint the bottom half of a water bottle with a mixture of black paint, Crayola "Pearl It" and a smidge of Acrylic Polymer Medium. Today, we dipped strings in starch, and laid them across the bottles. When they dried, the string stayed put, adding the textural element of the lines. In order to control the chaos, I gave each student a piece of paper on which they wrote their name. I showed them how to use 2 small balls of modeling clay on either side of their bottle to steady it. That way it wouldn't roll while we were working. After school, I wrote their name with a silver sharpie, and can re-use my modeling clay.

Chihyly "Towers" kindergarten

I had a donation of 2 bags full of styra-foam peanuts. I laid them out on a cookie sheet and spritzed them with a mixture of mostly water, and acrylic paint. After letting them dry overnight, they had shriveled slightly, but were colorful, and ready to use. We looked at Chihuly's towers, and used toothpicks, styra-foam cups, and the peanuts to assemble our own. I added in some small pipe cleaners at the end, to bring in another sculptural aspect. This was not only fun, but it made the point that Sculptures are 3-D.

Kindergarten "Chihuly" ceiling

So- I had the kindergarten students use permanent markers to draw designs on their cup. I asked them to choose either warm or cool colors, and we had a lengthy discussion on the meaning of PERMANENT. After their cups were complete, we melted them in a toaster oven (near a vented window). It gave the effect of Chihuly's Machias. They were then hung to the plastic sheeting over our light fixtures in the hallway.

1st Grade- Chihuly

Original Chihuly
Future Chihuly??

I thought that Chihuly's Navajo Cylinders might be a great object for the 1st grader to focus on. We compared Navajo Blankets to the designs fused onto his Cylinders. After drawing some of our own line designs, we made pinch pots (extremely successful this year). I gave each student a tooth pick and had them carve line designs into their clay. I intend to have them use starch and string next, to lay over a painted water bottle, to get a more "Chihuly" looking end result. We'll do this while we wait for the clay to come back out of the kiln.

In the Midst of Chihuly!

An original Chihuly Drawing, for comparison.
Mushroom :)
LOVE this Tiger- and even better was how complimentary the students were to him, without any prompting from me.
Can't decide what he's going for- I think bug- but he was way too busy for conversation.

So my 2nd and 3rd graders are making Chihuly "drawings". They are using alternative paint tools, like sponges, scrapers, corks, etc to spread the paint I drop on their paper for them. After they are happy with the texture achieved, they are using "squeezy paint" (paint mixed with polymer medium and poured into old glue bottles) to "draw" an image from nature. We discussed what ORGANIC means before the drawings, to avoid confusion amidst the mess of this project. As they finished, I gave them a choice of gold, silver, or glow-in-the-dark- fabric paint to sign their name. I did help the 2nd graders with this, as they are in love with the idea of cursive, but not always able to write it by memory yet. The third graders were on their own. Who knew how popular glow-in-the-dark paint would be. I guess I could have predicted. I was so pleased with the results. My intention is to put up an entire wall, to mimic the display at the Frist Center. What I liked about this is that the students got to try out a variety of paint application techniques in a short time. At the end, I just had them drop all the tools into a big rubber maid bucket, and I was able to fill it with soap and water, for easier clean up.

Kindergarten Art

I'm working on introducing my kindergarten students to the variety of materials in the art room. They immediately think paint, and not much else, but I like to work into that. I was pleased with this line lesson. It introduced a lot of great art vocabulary, and allowed the students to experiment with cray-pas AND a little bit of paint!

An Artsy Start to the School Year Continued

For the 4th graders, we are doing some color theory. Students love their name- and they are learning cursive writing. So, we did a repeated line design, which abstracted their name. Then, they chose a color family to use as their color scheme. Some were more successful than others- I thought this one worked well.
I loved the personality that came through in these simple drawings.

An Artsy Start to the School Year

3rd Grade-Still Life with Black Glue Line

3rd Grade- Self Portrait using Guidelines

3rd Grade- Self Portrait Using Guidelines

2nd Grade- Me and My Family

2nd Grade- Me and My Family

I've now had all the kiddos in the art room for a few sessions. We're moving past the "warm ups" into the meat of the standards for each grade level. I'm really trying to work on drawing skills and craftsmanship this year. I'm trying to plan some lessons that will lead us into the fun of the Chihuly art projects, along with producing artwork that will work for our Original Works Yours fundraiser.