NYLON STOCKING SCULPTURE First student create a base using a square block. They drill holes into the base and attach wire into the holes. Then the students cover the wire and the base with a single nylon stocking. They then form the wire to a pleasing form. Students then cover the nylon with Gesso. After sculpture are dry student can use paint to give their sculpture character. Painting the sculptures took them to the next level by creating character and bold statements.
Helpful collection of Alexander Calder teaching resources and complete Calder Famous Artist Unit lesson plans to teach elementary art class.
Relief sculpture is an art form that is midway between painting and sculpture in the round. It is a process in which the subject stands out or projects a surface from the background. The surface can be several levels including high relief (deep or almost in the round) or low relief (shallow) or anywhere in between. To create their relief sculptures, seventh graders first learned about the difference between shape and form. A shape is two-dimensional (it has height and width) whereas a form is three-dimensional (it not only has height and width but also depth). Students experimented creating forms out of basic paper shapes by rolling, bending, folding and gluing them. After trying a variety of forms, students chose their favorite and created sixty variations of that form. Students then considered space and balance to position their forms into their final sculptural arrangement. These look awesome on display as they protrude from the wall- it's hard to really see the depth in these individual photos, but the shadows and dimension are super cool up close! Some photos of the students folding, rolling, arranging and gluing: The final pieces: Some views from an angle and up close:
NYLON STOCKING SCULPTURE First student create a base using a square block. They drill holes into the base and attach wire into the holes. Then the students cover the wire and the base with a single nylon stocking. They then form the wire to a pleasing form. Students then cover the nylon with Gesso. After sculpture are dry student can use paint to give their sculpture character. Painting the sculptures took them to the next level by creating character and bold statements.
As a child I really loved Alexander Calder's sculptures. Whimsical and colorful, they let me see that art can be fun too! Today I'm sharing a really simple paper sculpture project inspired by Calder's large scale metal ones. They take only minutes to whip up and certainly would also make for fun scissor practice with younger kids as well! Kids Calder-Inspired Art Sculptures This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support! In case you're looking for some great art books to go along with this activity, here are... Our current 20+ favorite art books: Colorful Dreamer Lester Fizz Bubble Gum Artist The Iridescence of Birds Modern Art Adventures Mix it Up Press Here Any Ed Emberley Book The Day the Crayons Quit Beautiful Oops Dog's Colorful Day Too Much Glue Harold and the Purple Crayon Day with No Crayons Artist to Artist Artist Ted The House Baba Built A Blue Butterfly: A Story of Claude Monet Sandy's Circus A is for Art The Artful Parent This Bridge Will Not Be Grey Art Workshops for Children I shot a video generally showing how to make one of these sculptures. Calder-Inspired Paper Sculptures from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo. But in case you like to read directions, here they are! 1. Cut out a rectangular piece of paper. I used construction paper, which stood up fine at home, but fell down with any bit of wind. If you want to make these sturdier, use cardstock (Optional: Decorate it with markers!) 2. Fold it in half. 3. Make cuts like pictured. Cut lines and curves until they almost reach the fold. 4. Optional, decorate with groovy circle stickerrs. 5. Open it up and fold the strips to the front or back in an alternating fashion. (This will help the sculpture to balance.) So on the left side you would fold the strips (starting from the top) front, back, front, back, and front. And on the right side you would fold the strips (starting from the top) back, front, back, front, and back. Once you get the basic design down, you can play around with your cutting ... like I did below! It's really neat seeing all of these guys standing up! They're kinda addictive to make... and I hope you try making them with your kids too! If you liked this paper art project, you'll like these other ideas as well! Easy Matisse Murals 3d Twisty Snakes Woven Paper Banner Jasper Johns Wall Art Slinky Paper Garland Paper Net Garland Kirigami Flowers Kirigami Stars Let's keep in Contact! You can always find fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts! (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.) Happy making, friends!
My daughter’s last term project was exploring artists. With little time to spare (due the following day!!) and a Matisse exhibition in town and a little pinterest for inspiration (saw a ballo…
I'm sure many of you have seen the packing tape sculpture craze all over Pinterest. As soon as I saw it at the beginning of the school year, I knew it was something I had to try with my art club kids. We looked at the artwork of Mark Jenkins. Jenkins is an American artist who creates packing tape installations. The kids loved his work. It was so fun and unexpected. To start, the kids got into groups of 3-4 to help speed up the taping process. The first layer of tape had to be wrapped sticky side out. The following 2-3 layers were wrapped sticky side in. Once they got a large section wrapped (or when they wrapped too tight and the model started losing circulation), they cut the tape off and taped the form back together. Every student in art club will get to be the model for this project. I cannot wait to see these finished! Some important lessons we learned today was to not wrap too tightly and to not wrap too many layers or you run out of tape quickly. Here are some progress photos! And here is a fun little video of a quick way to wrap the torso... Here are more photos from 2/5/13 "The proposal" Gangnam Style The tangled mess of body parts! More photos from 2/6/13
Keeping up with the Sculpture Class
I'm sure many of you have seen the packing tape sculpture craze all over Pinterest. As soon as I saw it at the beginning of the school y...
The ultimate curriculum platform for K-12 art teachers. FLEX gives art teachers access to a rich library of standards-aligned curriculum materials so they can save time and focus on teaching and student learning.
My wonderful Grade 1 artists studied the work of Alexander Calder and made their own kinetic sculptures with fishing line, wire...
I have found that nearly every art teacher has struggled with teaching kindergarten at some time. I think the reason is that they are like a magical bag of tricks: you never EVER know what to expect! That's why I dedicated an entire section of my book Art Teacherin' 101 just to them! I share all of my tips and tricks of working with that herd of cats. As an art teacher, I like to change things up. I don't repeat a lot of lessons (unless I know they are kid-faves) but with kindergarten, I have a routine that I use at the start of every year. In fact, if you've been following my YouTube channel then you may experience deja-vu when you watch these next couple of videos I'm going to share as this is my same song-n-dance routine for kindergarten. If you tap the link A Glimpse Inside on my playlist, you can find many more videos just like these! I've also been sharing snippets of these on my Instagram! Just a little backstory: my art classes are 30 minutes long. I see my students twice a week. I have no more than 20 students in each class (I know, I'm very lucky). We work on these paper sculptures for two art classes and then dive into painting the third week. At the bottom of this post, I'll add more links to kindergarten lessons and project ideas for you. Until then, here's a glimpse inside my first day of art with kindergarten: My second day of art, I introduce some of my behavior routines. I use a happy/sad board to help manage behavior. I use an open/closed sign to help keep the chatting to a minimum because, hello!, 30 minute art classes here! Here's my second day: Want to hear more about the happy/sad board? You can check out this video. I will say that I'm doing an extension to my board this year which I'll share in a blog post later this week. I'm really excited about it! I'll be sharing more of a look inside other grade levels first days of art soon but, if you just can't wait, try these blog posts! This one is from 2019-2020 (I just shuddered at that one...we all know how that ended!) and this one from last year! Need more info on this line project by kindergarten? Check out this blog post! And if you want to know where we go from here, look at this blog post. Have a great week, friends!
With graduation season upon us, and another school year drawing to a close, this is a great time to help students think about where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re heade…
I think teaching elementary art involves a lot of choreography. You plan so that there aren't too many wet paintings at once for the drying rack, too many sculptures for the storage... oops. Somehow my 3-D projects have all bumped into each other as a result of bad timing. So I have those 6th grade "people in motion" plaster bandage sculptures, 5th grade papier-mache flying pigs, and now 1st grade abstract cardboard sculpures growing - all at once! Things are piled EVERYWHERE. It's going to get crazier when the papier-mache projects all get gooey, and even moreso when the pigs get their wings. And the cardboard sculptures will get taller, and then everything will need to get painted. YIKES!!! BUT... The cardboard sculptures are one of my easiest, favorite-ist projects, always successful (at least as long as I'm using Elmer's Glue-All and not the inferior product, Elmer's School Glue). And it's no secret that I absolutely LOVE papier-mache. So my room may look like a disaster area, but it's happy! * By the way - the piggie armature is a plastic bread bag stuffed with newspaper, and toilet paper rolls are cut in 1/2's to use for legs and snouts. Cereal boxes make ears, and will eventually make wings as well. Stay tuned, more to come!!
The wire artists featured below are all well known for their work with this unusual and creative medium. Drawing with wire and sculpting with wire.
I put together a booklet for the staff of the primary school I work in. They were wanting to learn about clay and some ideas of what they...
Paper mache! You have to love it. So much spontaneity, fun and mess. It's right up my street. So needless to say I adore the work of Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao .
These five teaching strategies help students move beyond traditional notions of art to better grasp the concepts that drive contemporary art making.
Please give me some feedback on my teaching, the class and the room. I'll use the information to improve the next class! Here's the handout:
MAKE CRAZY PASTA SCULPTURES
British designer Dominic Wilcox self portrait made from tin foil via Book of Joe.
Aganetha Dyck latest collaboration with bees teaches us about natural design.
The 3D art class is working on a quick wire exercise. They are using photos from a variety of social media (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) or from a portrait session in my class room. They are using li…
Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite glass artist. You see his work a lot here in the Northwest. He even had a piece on the Frasier TV show. But not all of us can do blown glass. I really like wh…
I saw this post by the Art Bar Blog which gave me the idea to make these cylinder sculptures with my 1st graders. We started with toilet paper tubes and paper rectangles rolled into tubes. The be…
The Whitney Museum currently has a show featuring Alexander Calder's Circus project. Read more about Calder and the exhibit in the New York Times HERE and HERE. Last spring, my Second and Third grade students studied the work of Alexander Calder and learned about his fascination with the circus. Then, students used their knowledge of Balance and Motion to create an amazing Flying Circus with household items such as toilet paper rolls, straws, yarn, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and Styrofoam.
Welcome! This blog post features a guided tutorial of how to craft a DIY mini room and challenges the creator to think like an interior designer. The goal is to make the mini room have a sense of UNITY, which is an important principle of design. Unity in art can be achieved when the visual
Jean DeBuffet (1905-1985) was a French paintor and sculptor known for his childish style of artistry known as "Art Brut" (pronounced br-oot). Art Brut is a style which shows frustratng energy in it's execution, and DeBuffet defined that in his form and materials. For my project, I wanted to incorporate found object materials, and yes...I did create this project on a cart going from room to room. Materials -Wire Hangers -Pantyhose Socks (I found these at Walgreens for .99 a pair, which is the cheapest I've found them) -Styrofoam Blocks -Gesso -Tempura Paint -Newspaper -Water and Water Bowls Directions Gather all the materials for the project! Have students collect wire hangers, parents even donate the styrofoam, but I purchased all the pantyhose socks. Day 1 is for the PowerPoint, construction and gesso. I shared images of DeBuffet's work, and explained how the students are to create their own sculptures using the provided materials. The styrofoam block is to be the base, the wire hangers can be formed any way they wish, and the pantyhose placed over the entire sculpture (starting from the top and ending under the base). There will be leftver of the pantyhose socks at the bottom, so trim off the leftovers. Also make sure the students write their names on the bottom of the base, either with black marker or on a piece of tape! Once covered, have students paint gesso over the entire sculpture, leaving the bottom unpainted. Make sure you have newspaper for this step because it will get messy, especially if you're working on the students' desks. Day 2 is for first step of painting. If students do not finish their gesso step, they need to complete the step and let it dry before proceeding to the colored paint. I instructed students to paint black lines around the sculpture to create sections for paint schemes and patterns. Day 3 was for the addition of colored paint to the sculptures, creating patterns, color fills, and completion of project. For storage containers (to store projects during the week), I use large flat plastic bins and store projects up high in the classroom. This project can be done on a cart if you communicate with the homeroom teacher and custodian for storage!
The ultimate curriculum platform for K-12 art teachers. FLEX gives art teachers access to a rich library of standards-aligned curriculum materials so they can save time and focus on teaching and student learning.
I have seen variations of this project many times but have never tried it with my students. I am pleased with how our assemblages turned out! This was a great opportunity to clean out the …
