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.