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

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.