In the Art Room: EASY Two Day Pencil Sculptures

Oh my goodness, y'all! These wee pencils were just about the easiest two day sculpture project ever...and look how stinkin' cute they are! If you follow me on Instagram, then you know all of my kiddos are creating sculptures of art supplies. So far, we've made sculpture of crayons, scissors, glue sticks and big pink erasers. I'll be sure to share all of those with you, as well as how-to videos. But today, I thought I'd share these super cute pencils that my fourth graders made in just 2 one-hour art classes! 

Here's a video I created to share the simple process!

 Day One: Our inspiration for this project is the artist Lucy Sparrow. If you are not familiar with this British artist, she created an installation that looks just like a convenience store with everything available in the store created from felt. It's AMAZING! We watched a video all about her. I told the kids that we'd be creating our own Art Supply Store for the art show. They are super stoked. 

 From there, each kid got a TP tube, a piece of tagboard and a couple pieces of masking tape. After tracing a template for the cone of the pencil, the kids cut it out and rolled the cone. That proved to be the part that was the most difficult. When I found a couple kids who could roll cones, I put them on cone-patrol. After the cones were rolled and secured with tape, they were taped to the top of the tube.

Once the armature was complete, the kids were given about 5-6 pieces of plaster to completely cover their pencils. I really like Rigid Wrap. I did emphasize not adding too much water so the tube would not collapse under the weight of the water. Also, if the plaster gets twisted or "messed up", according to the kids, they have to unravel and smooth it out. The plaster wrap is not cheap so I really stress using only 5-6 pieces and not wasting any. Then we set these on styrofoam plates with our names on and allow to dry.

If plaster wrap is not available, you could always use papier mache. We did that when we created these pencils and crayons a couple of years ago! 

 Day Two: The following art class, we watched this video that the kids LOVED. Learning how a pencil was made really struck a cord with them. From there, we painted our pencils using yellow, pink, light brown and black. Once they were finished painting the pencil, they set it aside to dry and began working on the ferrule. 

The ferrule was created with metal tooling. I cut the tooling down to 1" X 7". The kids created their design and I hot glued it to the pencil. The kids were thrilled how cute, small and realistic their wee pencils looked! Now they are all about creating more art supply sculptures.

Read more »

In the Art Room: Andy Warhol Inspired Flower Prints

Today my second grade friends started a new printmaking project that I thought I'd share with y'all. In our 30 minute session together, they were able to watch the first half of the video, discover a little about Andy Warhol, learn some new vocabulary, work with printmaking tools and complete about two sets of prints (one positive and one negative). Whew! Next time, we'll print again to insure that we have enough crisp prints to pick from to create our own Andy Warhol Flower-inspired collage. Lemme show you how we are creating these pop art beauties:

Here's what you'll need:

* Colorful copy paper. I found mine super cheap in the Back to School section of Walmart a while back.

* Fake flowers. I tried real sunflowers in my experimenting and found that the petals kept falling out onto the printing plate. Fake flowers from the Dollar Tree were my best find. 

* Acrylic paint. I tried using tempra and it didn't work on the Gelli Arts printing plate. 

* Brayers

* Printing plate. I used Gelli Arts but you could also use this recipe to create your own gelatin plates. 

* Scissors and glue

* Those two little words that get everyone excited: PUFFY.PAINT.

After the kids have created their prints, we'll proceed on to the collage and puffy painting portion of the video. I'll keep you posted in a follow up on just how these colorful beauties turn out. 

In other news, I kinda sorta totally wanna wallpaper my entire house in these. Who's up for a flower printing weekend?! Party at my house, you bring the flowers, I'll bring the brayers. I'm telling you, this project is so fun, just ask Andy...

I mean, doesn't he look thrilled?! Ha! Love that wonderful Warhol, y'all. 

This lesson is going to be followed up by a flower painting project by our next artist inspo: Vincent van Gogh. I thought printing the sunflowers would give the kids a good opportunity to see them up close, check out those textures and better prepare them to recreate them in paint. I'll keep you posted. 

Until then, have a super happy and colorful week, kids! 

Read more »

DIY: Needle Felted Masterpiece Hats

Hello, my most amazing artists! (this is how I greet my students every class to which I've taught them to reply "Hello, my most amazing art teacher!"...makes an art teacherin' type feel good. Y'all should try it, it's fab-u-lous!). I'm here today to share with y'all some masterpiece head-toppers I recently created. I've been plotting and planning my ensembles for ole NAEA 2016 and while I would just love to have the time to whip new 'fits, I'm just gonna have to go with some ole favorites. For that reason, I made hats to go with my wacky wardrobe! This one is for my Mondrian coat and dress.

Of course this bad boy with go along with my Warhol-inspired Campbell's soup can dress. 

And this one for my Lichtenstein pop art dress! I was inspired by my Target sweater for this one. In other news, I thought I was gonna POP a blood vessel while the 4th graders were painting their 3' long pencil and crayon sculptures today. I might have gotten impaled by a giant No. 2 pencil more than once...it wasn't pretty. 

Here's my lil mini-collection all complete. I've been dying to make more hats since making my donut hat last year. I know these lil guys aren't technically hats as they don't do much head-coverin'. They're more like headgear.

{shivers} Okay, not THAT kind of headgear, praise the Lord! That'd be what 12 year-old me wore whilst opening my birthday prezzies ('twas my birthday yesterday! I turned 41 which I was totes okay with until one of my students told me his grandma was the same age.) In other news, WHAT KIND OF PARENTS MAKE THEIR KID WEAR HEADGEAR ON THEIR BIRTHDAY?! AND get them an office chair?! Y'all better believe I was all about that office chair, I have one just like it in my art room. I mean, look at me all batting my baby bro Kris away from my seat. It's DELUXE, son! Back the funk off!

Oh how times haven't changed. I'm still wearing headgear. Thankfully this one doesn't make me look as sad and tweenie. Or maybe it do, I dunno!

So I created these hats with these hat-starter thingies I found on Amazon for like a buck each. They pretty much look like what I shoved inside my bra as a teen (okay, still do) with clips on the back. 

I busted out the Mondrian hat first. I began by using regular ole craft store felt cut to a larger size than my hat. 

 And commenced needle felting like crazy. 

Look, ma, I made an egg hat! Squares and rectangles were added in primary colors.

 And outlines in black. This hat came together super fast. 

From there, I hot glued the needle felted design to the hat/bra padding thingie. 

The can was done totes differently. I needle felted it as a flat label. Then I turned the needle felted label right sides together, stitched then flipped it right side out. I added a can lid to the top (as well as the peeled back lid) and stuffed it from the bottom before attaching it to the hat. 

Laziness prevented me from adding a plate under the can of soup. 

Here you can see how the top looks. I thought a flat can would be boring so I opted for the peeled back lid look.

 CAN you dig my SOUP-er hat? How 'bout my puns? 

 This one is my fave, can't wait to wear it out!

This hat is the biggest one and prolly my least fave because of it. I tried to make the letters smaller but they just didn't have the impact when I did. This hat really only looks good from the side tho I am thinking of trying a big ole beehive and putting it at the base. That should work, right?

Yarn really came in handy with this hat. I used it to outline the letters and the blue shape.

I've had so much fun making these (and spent so much less time than I do when I make clothing!) that I'm sure to make more. I've already got a sketchbook full of ideas...I just need me a spring break to bust 'em out. Till next time!

Read more »

In the Art Room: The Andy Warhol Mural

So you've seen it as a backdrop to some crazy DIY Campbell's dress, now it's time to shine some light on this 4th grade mural. In case you don't know the back story, I'll give it to you in 20 words or less: parent wanted posters for upcoming canned food drive; I wanted a mural for the cafeteria; student teacher Rebecca suggested this. Because she's a genius.

Because the kids were in the middle of creating their dots for this project, I decided to ease them into all things Warhol with a coupla of my fave books: Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia and Dropping in on Andy Warhol by Pamela Geiger Stephens and Jim McNeill. As the kids finished off their dots, they trickled to the floor as I read. By the way, one little trick I use to reinforce the names of artists is this: as I read, I'll only read the artist's first name and the kids are to say the last name. I've found this really helps them retain the names of artists...although I have had this happen on more than one occasion:

Me: Vincent...

Kids: DA VINCI!

So, it's not a perfect formula.

 Speaking of Vincent da Vinci, er, van Gogh, here's a Starry Night mural created by this same group of kids way back when they were in second grade town. So they are experts at this grid-thang.

Because this project was all Rebecca's idea, she did the planning. She found this image online and created a grid that would provide at least one image per student. We have between 24 - 25 students per 4th grade class so some early finishers were given another piece of the pie, er, can to draw. Rebecca made several copies of this can and colored each of those copies in a different Warhol-inspired color scheme.

This is actually one of the color schemes that didn't make the cut but I thought I'd share it with you to give you an idea. After each of the 4 copies were colored, Rebecca then cut them along the gridded lines.

And here's how they looked chopped to bits. Each 1" X 1 1/2" (and that's a rough measurement) was given a code on the back to help keep when gluing down the pieces. Each student was given a piece of paper that measured about (and I'll have to get back to you after a visit to school tomorrow for a more accurate measurement) 10" X 12".

Each of the 4 class' different cans cut, organized and clipped. Which would be all Rebecca's doing as I'm not nearly as organized as that gal.

Directions went a lil something like this: 

• Name and code (as seen on the back of the small paper) on the back of drawing paper
• As you start your drawing, look at the 4 edges of the little square. Where you see the beginnings of a line, like the curve of a can or the start of a letter, put a little tick mark on your drawing paper. Think about the scale of the drawing and how you will have to enlarge your drawing to make it to scale.
• Use a pencil, trace with sharpie, color with corresponding colors in oil pastel.

I'm not gonna lie, the lettering, especially the cursive font of the "Campbell's" wasn't a walk in the park. For those kids, another demo was given, this time more of a one-on-one or with some peer-tutoring thrown in the mix, and it worked. The kids really seemed to enjoy the process and they loved the result. As they finished their pieces, Rebecca spray glued them to a large sheet of bulletin board paper which you can see the pink coloring of in the photo below.

Okay, despite the fact that there's a glue bottle on the ladder, I promise you no Elmer's was used in the hanging of this piece. We had a couple of drawings where the edges were coming off the bulletin board paper and that glue was our solution. We had a wee bit of tack strip at the top to hang the piece from...but that didn't solve the dilemma of the fly-away-bottom (which sounds like a personal problem, if you ask me...symptoms of fly-away-bottom include a bottom that just won't stay attached, use Elmer's Glue only as directed). So, we resorted to the Hotter than Hades glue gun (seriously, I watched it burn a hole clear through my fingernail and It. Was. Awesome) which, at my school, is a Big Fat Hairy No-No. But my principal's away on maternity leave, and, as the saying goes, when the principal's away, the art teachers are gonna hot glue the crap outta the school. Or something like that.

I can't believe that in just two weeks, this girl is gonna leave me! I mean, how could she?! What am I supposed to do, teach or something? That's just crazy.

A coupla more close-ups. In retrospect, a chat about David Hockney's photo collages would have been a great tie-in with these cans.

Since Rebecca had to go and teach, she left hanging the last coupla cans in my hands. No problem, says me, I got this!

And with one tug on the extension cord, I managed to make this magic happen. Sigh. Seriously?! I really don't think this girl outta leave me, do you?

In all seriousness, I hope you'll give a big ole mural a-go at your school. The impact is amazing and the kids love it. If I've failed to answer any of your questions, please feel free to either email me or leave a comment...and I'll try my best to answer your questions. And thanks for dropping by!

Read more »