In the Art Room: Time to Make the Donuts

So if you've recently smelled the delish scent of donuts (or heard the crazed chatter of sugar'ed up chil-rens), then there's a good chance you've been hangin' out in my neck o' the "with sprinkles, please" woods. 

This week, my fourth grade artists were introduced to Wayne Thiebald, Peter Anton and Lucy Sparrow (all artists with work that is sweet-tooth provoking) via this wee prezi I created. Feel free to use and edit (you just might wanna remove that pic of me in my donut hat!). My kids thought this was just about the best thing everrr so I thought I'd share the deets of this fun -n- fast lesson with y'all here!

After an intro to Mr. Thiebald and friends, I showed off my hat created this past weekend. The kids were all, "wait, YOU took an art class?! Why didn't you TEACH the art class?!" It was a fun chat about how even as a wanna-be grown up, I still have lots o' learning' to do. 

Y'all don't even know how obsessed I currently am with creating hats. Itz 'bout to get all kinda hat-making cray on this here blog, fyi-ness. 

So for this here lesson, you're gonna need the following:

* Donuts (not necessary but super fun and a GREAT motivator! I chatted with my school nurse about allergies beforehand, of course. Also, call the donut joints ahead of time, they will prolly give you a good discount if they know what you're up to!)
* 8" X 10" white paper. I've started trimming an inch off my paper before giving it to the kids. This way, I can easily frame it by just cutting my construction paper in half.
* 9" X 6" white paper for the donut. 
* Oil pastels.
* Tempra paint.
* Texture combs. 
* Doilies or paper plates.
* Puffy paint. 

This project took us two, one hour art classes. For me, that's a fast project. Which should really be a clue to me that my art projects take too long. I'm working on it!

By the way, I love puffy paint. Almost as much as the kids. They used puffy paint earlier in the year for this fun project. 

1. On their 8" X 10" paper which was folded in half lengthwise, the kids used "naked" oil pastels (paperless, people) on their sides (aka, sleeping-style) and created two different patterns: one for their background and one for the surface or table for the donut to sit upon.
2. On the smaller paper, the kids used oil pastels again coloring at random.

** NOTE: In my art room, when I have a lot of directions to give, I present the directions in bite-sizes. For example, I have them those directions and set my timer for 7 minutes. This gave them enough time to "go shopping" for their supplies, write their names on their papers and complete steps one and two. When my timer goes off, the kids know, finished or not, they are to report to the floor to hear the next set of directions. 

3. The kids were told to go back to the store this time for a texture comb, a large paint brush and a messy mat. Once at their seats, they used whatever color they wanted for their "wall" and their "table". As soon as one section was painted, they immediately created texture with the texture comb.

**I LOVE my texture combs. We use 'em all the time and the kids find them fascinating. I purchased this set a million years ago from one of the art supply catalogs. I used to make my own outta cardboard but those break down after while. These have lasted me for years. 

4. The last step for the first day: paint a donut. We chatted about point of view and foreshortening for this portion. They simply painted an oval, painted a smaller oval hear the top of the donut and filled it in. Because these kids just finished a big fat color-mixing unit, they knew how to mix a good color for a donut. Once the donut was painted, they used the back of their brush to draw the icing.

Once complete, we slid these puppies onto the drying rack and gathered for our donut dining session. And that was the end of our first day.

Now you'd think the kids wouldn't be as excited about the next day being that it was donut-less. But, I tell ya, you bust out the puffy paint and the kids get real excited, real fast. 

5. The kids cut out their donuts. Several wanted to have a colored icing so they mixed up tints of colors for that. Others were content with they way their donuts looked with the scraping method. Like this dude. Once the donuts were cut out, either a half a doily was glued to the table or a 1/3 of a paper plate. Those that used plates decorated them with paint.

6. The final step: El Puffy Paint-o! Twas the perfect thing for sprinkles and an outline. The kids were absolutely thrilled with their delish looking work. I can't wait to see them on display for our upcoming art show!

I hope your week has been as sweet as these yummies! Have a great one, y'all!

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DIY: A Wayne Theibald-Inspired Donut Hat

So I've been a-thunkin' about this for sometime: my wardrobe is missing something. The prob? I don't have a whole lotta real estate left on this here head-to-toe o' mine to bespangle any further. From the dresses I stitch to the shoes I paint, I've pretty much got the crazily-dressed territory covered. However, there is one last bit of unchartered territory that could use a lil bit of panache: the top o' my noggin. Therefore, when I heard that my fave local art museum, the Frist Center for Visual Arts,  was offering a hat making class, I jumped at the chance. Best part: a whole bunch of other art teacherin' buds decided to join the fun as well. Cuz nothin' keeps craziness crazy like good company, know what I'm sprayin'?

And, ya gotta admit, this here hat is pretty cray. As if you'd expect anything less coming to this here blog, amiright?!

I gotta tell you, the best part of the class was our instructor, Mark Sloniker. I mean, look at these hats of his! I think we were separated at birth as these are my kind of awesome sauce. Mark was so kind to walk us through just how each of these masterpieces were created. I love it when an artist is transparent with their thought and creative processes, aren't you? I love that Mark is a self-taught hat maker as that made us all feel at ease with our novice hat-making skills. It also opened us up to endless possibilities. 

I had one idea for a hat coming in to the class but when I saw Mark's hats, I was inspired to go much more fun and funky with my look. His creations totally put me in the mind of Wayne Thiebald so I decided to create a hat dedicated to him!

I love Thiebald's yummy looking works of art and I've never introduced his awesomeness to my students. What better time than the end of the year, right? In fact, tomorrow morning I'm popping over to Dunkin Donuts to scoop up some still life goodness for my students to work from. I can't wait to see their faces during art tomorrow! More on that later this week.

Of course, Peter Anton has some super yummy sculptures as well. I think he'll be a fun tie-in as well. And you better believe I toooootally just ordered some donut themed fabric for a brand new dress, y'all. Any excuse to buy fabric, kids. It's a disease, I tell ya. 

Oh! Here's a snap of Mark talking us through his hats. We all cheered when we found out were got to keep our mannequin heads...it's the little things, y'all. 

So I decided to create my hat around the platform of a headband. I created the "plate" for my donuts out of stiffened felt (found at craft stores) with a pattern of ribbon glued to it. A ribbon trim was added to the edge of the plate (by my friend Crystal. Thanks, buddy!). In the bottom of the photo you can see my three stitched and stuffed donuts in the making. 

Meanwhile, everyone else was also hard at work. I love the messy creativeness of each artist's work space. 

Once all of my donuts were decorated (my fave part) and complete, I was ready to begin assembling. My initial thought was to simply glue the donuts to the plate and attach to the headband. But when Mark suggested that I make the donuts look like they were flying off my head, I was sold. This required some sculptural skills on my part which I seriously lack. With Mark's help, he showed me how simply it was. Here's what I did: I glued a piece of aluminum wire to the headband. Then I wrapped the headband in ribbon to hide the wire. I cut a small slit in the plate and slid it down the protruding wire. Each donut also received a small cut at the top and bottom and were also slid down the wire. 

This may or may not have been when I was trying to sweet talk Mark into finishing my hat for me. I'm tooootally one of those "can you do it for meeeee" students, y'all. P.S. check out my super cute friend Crystal in her palette hat!

So, if you can imagine, there's a wire coming from the headband up through the plate and all three donuts. Faux strawberries and a wee doily were added to balance out all that donut-y goodness. 

Meanwhile, all my buddies were making totally classy and sophisticated hats. Some of 'em even managed to make two hats in the time it took me to create one. In fact, I was the very last hat maker to finish with my buds Virginia (seen above in the peacock feather hat) and Crystal (seen above the flowery palette hat) helping me along the way. Thanks, ladies!

Here are just a handful of the finished masterpieces that were created that day. I love them all! And I'm so stoked to introduce hat making to my students. I just wish we had the time to do so this school year. 

I did wear my hat today and the kids loved it. My head, however, did not. I brought Mannequin Mary to art so she could wear it when I could not. 

 

So what does one wear with a donut hat? A pink gingham number with Frankenstein green tights, of course! That is, until a donut dress is created. I'll be back later this week to share those donut masterpieces my kids will hopefully complete. I'm off: Time to Make the Donuts, y'all!

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