Paper Mache Mini-Course Ages 10 and up

Another mini-course that I ran this summer at Art at Tower summer camp was a paper mache class where the students could make anything they chose, including bowls and animals, etc. Instead of using paint, however, I had them use torn color tissue paper to finish the pieces. I must say I really love the look of this technique!

Here are a few fabulous results from this summer's mini-course:

Sudsy! Soap Carvings Ages 10 and up

At Art at Tower I ran a one week mini-course on soap carving. While the first day ended up being more like a course on making piles of soap shavings, by bar number two the kids got the hang of it and crafted some pretty awesome creations. Some made seashells or their initials. Architectural elements were very popular, as were animals.

Here are just a few of the more successful carving attempts:

Exciting Things Are Being Created

The first session of Art at Tower just wrapped up on Friday with the end-0f-session arts festival. While I am sad to say that the Masterpiece Painting class was dropped due to low enrollment, the mosaics classes were a HUGE success, especially the new Mosaics Unleashed course. In Unleashed the students brought their own 3D items to put mosaic on and one brought in this huge mirror. I can't believe she finished it. The pictures I took of the mirror and the other items will be in a later post when the next session ends.

Also, I really enjoyed teaching paper mache and soap carving in the two mini-courses that I offered. Both were filled to capacity with happy students. This week I am planning the Duct Tape Creations mini-course that I wanted to do. I just finished two duct tape roses and a checker board patterned bi-fold wallet for samples.

And I think the Masterpiece Painting class may actually have enough students to run this time -- here's to hoping!

Art At Tower July 2011

As previously mentioned I will be returning for my third year as an art teacher at the summer art program at Tower School in Marblehead.

There are two sessions in July and both are still accepting students for enrollment. The camp offers lots of creative classes in a fun atmosphere. Students can express themselves in visual and performing arts, fashion design, computer graphics, photography, and lots of other ways.

The link to the Tower School website: ART AT TOWER/SUMMER AT TOWER

Here are the courses that I will be teaching:

Masterpiece Painting

Students in this course will learn from the masters! A wide range of master paintings will be presented and students will be given the opportunity to create their own large scale masterpieces inspired by the paintings of their choosing. As students create their own works they will learn about the master artists and a variety of art movements and techniques spanning from the Renaissance to Post-Modernism.

Marvelous Mosaics

Using ceramic and glass tiles as well as seashells and found materials students will create mosaic pieces that incorporate selective color palettes, visual rhythms and balanced compositions. Students will leave with a basic understanding of mosaics techniques and materials including the planning and transferring of a design, the laying of tile in a variety of styles, the handling of tools, the applications of grouting and the method of finishing mosaics.

Mosaics Unleashed

In this course for students with some mosaics experience or a desire for a more complex approach to the medium, ceramic shards, found materials and grout will go 3D. Students will develop imaginative designs using such elements as color, pattern, repetition and balance, but on a more challenging surface. Students should come to class with a three-dimensional object of their own choosing. Porous materials work best, such as unfinished wood or clay. Suggested objects: clay pots, medium jewelry boxes, small step stools, folding tables and medium to large bowls. Students may also wish to use mosaic on only a small area of a larger object, like a trunk or chair, etc.

And some mini-courses that I plan to offer:

Mini Mosaics

A great way to get a taste of mosaics without a huge commitment. Work with smaller ceramic tile shards and create a design motif while learning simple mosaics techniques.

Miniature Worlds

A mini-course on miniatures where students make furnished and decorated rooms, foods, accessories, party or beach scenes. Thinking small in a BIG way!

Soap and Plaster Carving

Students learn simple carving techniques beginning with animal “soapstone” carvings and working up to small scale abstract plaster carving.

Wearable Art & Accessories

Using duct tape and other materials students make wallets, purses, bracelets and more!

Coiled Bee Hives Age 6

This clay lesson is a fun way to introduce the coiling technique while making something other than the usual pot or bowl. The project starts with a longer coil and the coils get shorter as you build up and close off the hive. Then bees are made from the clay and slipped and scored before they are attached. Yet again, because I did this project at camp and did not have use of a kiln, I used Crayola Air-Dry clay. I still recommend regular firing clay if it is available. The dried pieces were then painted with tempera and glazed with acrylic gloss medium. Overall I think they came out pretty cute. This would be a fun lesson to tie into a science unit about pollination, honey production and bee colonies!

Some students liked yellow hives and some liked brown, here is one of each:

Overlapping Objects Age 8

So this was a challenging art problem for some of my summer camp students. I asked them to choose an art supply to trace over and over again making overlapping designs. Then they were asked to use only a few colors to fill in the outlined designs. The complex part was that where the parts overlapped they should have chosen a new color. Most of the students stuck to a particular color family, for example, using only cool (blues & greens) colors. I allowed them to use either markers or watercolors. Rethinking this project, I would 1.) use smaller paper and fewer objects, 2.) use different media and 3.) insist on a black outline in Sharpie so that the overlapping areas stand out more.

Nonetheless, here are some of the better samples of student work from this project experiment:

Mr. Roboto Ages 6 & 7

This lesson is very fun because it uses recycling, painting, assemblage, and glow-in-the-dark wiggle eyes!

Step one: Make hand-painted paper using various metallic paints. I pre-cut the papers to half-sheets (6x9) and let the students paint four sheets each. At least have to use more than one metallic color, maybe striped or using some other pattern. The other two sheets can be one solid color each. The papers need time to dry, so it is best to paint when finishing up another lesson or before starting a mini-lesson.

If you plan to do a lot of work with painted papers, it might be a good idea to have a paper painting day. Paint lots of 6 x 9 papers, metallic and others, to suit whatever painted paper lessons you have planned for the year or the next few weeks. They make great collage papers, background papers, etc., and the scraps work well towards the end of the year when you have limited supplies to work with. After the papers dry, give each student a "folder" to keep their papers in so that they will have them available for future projects.

Step two: Either bring in or have students bring in small boxes, like those from jello, powdered water flavorings, toothpaste, etc. These boxes are perfect for making small robots.

Step three: Use the boxes to trace onto the painted paper (unpainted side). Trace around the boxes, using all sides. The traced shapes get cut out and glued onto the box sides to make the robot metallic. As an extra step, smaller pieces of paper can be cut to put on the edges of the box seams. Also cut smaller pieces in different colors to make eyebrows, control panels, etc. Glue all the detail pieces onto the robot. Remind students that this is a 3D object, so they should add details to all sides!

Step four: Use metallic markers to add dials, buttons, rivets, etc.

Step five: Twist metallic pipe cleaners around pencils to get spring legs and arms, or even antennae.

Step six: Glue on the pipe cleaners (with hot glue) and glue on the wiggle eyes (with either Elmer's or hot glue).

Here are some student robots:

Design a Postage Stamp Ages 7 & 8

This was another summer camp lesson, so the theme was kept very open to interpretation and imagination. The students were asked to design stamps of fantasy places using markers and colored pencils. I pre-cut the paper to squares and made the stamp edge with decorative edging scissors. First, the students made sketches of their ideas, then they transferred these ideas onto the final papers and added color. Everything from the name of the place to the monetary-value of the stamp had to relate to the idea they came up with. For example, the stamp I made to show them was for a place called "Bunnytopia" and the currency was "carrots."

I could easily see using this idea for a social studies integration for students learning about the U.S. states or even other countries. The stamps would have to have imagery that represented that state. When I was in fifth grade we learned about states and I was assigned Wisconsin. I know more about Wisconsin than any other state, including the one I live in! So my state stamp would have had a badger, a violet, a Holstein dairy cow, or something else representing the "Grand Ole Badger State."

This lesson could be extended to include "Design a Postcard," "Design Currency," or "Design a Travel Brochure."

Here are some fantasy place stamps designed by my students:

"Fairyland"

"Giants"

"Candyland"

"Candyland"

Teacup Animals Ages 4 - 6

So this is another project that was made with the Crayola air-dry clay, which I don't like to use, especially in warmer months. If I did this again and had a kiln, I would definitely use firing clay instead.

The form starts out as a simple pinch pot. The students rolled their clay into a ball first (we sang "roll, roll, roll. your clay" to the tune of "row, row, row your boat"); then they pinched into the middle with their thumbs; next the cup is shaped; finally details are added on using slipping and scoring. Elephants, bunnies, kitties, and puppies were popular animal choices. The tail for most animals became the handle of the teacup. For the elephant it was the trunk.

The dried clay was painted with tempera paints. I would probably still paint the fired clay, only I would use watercolors like a stain instead.

Here is the teacup menagerie:

Cave Art Mini-Lesson Age 7

If you happen to have sandpaper available that works best, but you can substitute sandpaper with brown paper grocery bags cut to size if you need to. You can also alter this lesson to work much larger and make a mural with tempera paints and chalks. But the artwork seen here was made with low-grit sandpaper cut into strips and cray-pas oil pastels.




I showed the students lots of images of Lascaux cave paintings so they had a feel for what colors were like natural pigments and what images were typical -- animals and hunting. This would be a good lesson to leave for a substitute teacher if using cray-pas, but not if you want to make a mural.



And finally, a little Mammoth Love!

African Masks - 2 Versions

The first time I taught a lesson on African masks was at summer camp when I had two different age groups to work with. I taught the lesson in much the same way, introducing the art and culture through books and visuals, as well as an example of the project that would be made. The concepts were very similar -- students were to use additive techniques, paint with attention to pattern, line and symmetry. Really only the materials varied. The younger students (aged four to six) used paper plates that they painted with tempera paints and embellished with yarn or other materials that were handy. The older students (aged seven and eight) used more complex materials, like cardboard, plaster strips, and acrylic paints. I really like teaching sculptural mask lessons like this one because students gain knowledge of other cultures while creating really unique works of art.

Here are examples of the younger students' projects:





Here are examples of the older students' projects:

Tropical Frogs Ages 7 & 8

This is another project from summer camp. I used Crayola air-dry clay, which I don't recommend for longevity because the clay took a long time to dry in the humidity of summer and when it finally did it was still softer and more fragile than I would have liked. If you have a kiln, by all means use firing clay instead.

The eventually dried frogs were then painted with acrylic and glazed with acrylic gloss medium to get a nice seal and sheen. The kids had lots of reference images of tropical rain forest frogs to look at when sculpting their own frogs. Overall the results were adorable!

Here are some fabulous frogs:







This lesson would integrate well with a science rain forest unit. You could also introduce patterns if you wanted to. And if clay isn't in your budget, you could easily make these from paper-mache.