Alebrije-esque sculpture

Alebrijes are a type of Mexican Folk Art. They are brightly colored sculptures of fantastical creatures. Pedro Linares is credited with the use of the term and the first alebrijes in the 1930; after he dreamed of crazy creatures while sick, he created what he saw with cardboard and papier mache. Oaxaca already had a history of caving animal scupltures from copal wood, and they began to incorporate Linares' designs, pioneered by  Mauel Jimenez.  The art is still practiced and popular today.

We decided to do our own spin on Linares and Jimenez's creations...by creating Oaxaca Alebrije inspired sculptures out of Model Magic. Our creations are different, because we are not Mexican Folk Artists, nor were we carving ours out of wood, however, we aimed to create brightly colored creatures filled with patterns and designs. We weren't aiming to copy designs already created, but to simply be inspired by the artwork of others to create something of our own. The students created their animals by rolling, pinching, and manipulating the soft foam into shapes of animals. Once hardened, they added patterns with paint.  So here are some examples of the our Alebije-esque Animals.

Rosaries

For this lesson, we had a guest, Nicole Krohn, come to the class to teach us how to make beads and rosaries! Nicole had come up with this idea the year before, and she was really looking forward to put it into action. We spent 3 weeks: 1 week making beads, and 2 stringing rosaries.  The students got to trade beads with one another, which was a neat addition--it made them Friendship Rosaries.  Two rosaries were also made using the students' beads to be sold at an auction for the school (St. Joseph the Worker).  They were fabulous!

First we made bead out of Sculpey clay.  They rolled out snakes in 3-4 colors, and then twisted them together. They then rolled the twisted snakes to smooth it into one roll. We helped them cut the roll into small, equal sizes, which they rolled into beautiful swirly balls.  After that, Nicole, some of the parents, and I had the task to string the beads onto wire and bake them in our ovens.  Nicole did so much work! She is amazing!!

Once the beads had been fired, we met again to string them into rosaries.  She purchased centers, Our Father beads, and crosses.

Such beautiful work. Such a great idea.

St. Patty's day brooches!

March 17th

In honor of St. Patrick's day, we did an Irish and St. Patrick inspired lesson: Brooches!

We started by talking about St. Patrick and St. Patrick's day. The kids, being Catholic, already knew a lot about St. Patrick.  St. Patrick is the patron of Ireland. Born in Scotland (Some sources say Wales or Brittain), he was captured in his teens and taken to Ireland to be a slave. During his captivity he turned to God in prayer. God revealed how to escape in a dream, and he was able to free himself. Later in life, he had another dream where the people of Ireland were begging him to bring them the Gospel. He studied for priesthood and was ordained a Bishop; He returned to Ireland and converted many. It is said that he used the Shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity.  He lived a life of poverty, traveling and suffering, but he feared nothing, not even death, because he had complete trust in God and understood the importance of his mission: to bring God to Ireland. He converted Ireland to Christianity. It is also said that he drove away all the snakes!  March 17 is the day that he died, and the day we commemorate his life and work for God. 

To make our pins, the students drew a design on paper, scribbled the back of the paper in with pencil, attached it to a foil covered circle of cardboard, and traced over their lines.  The lines were etched into the foil. They then covered the foil with black paint and wiped it off with cotton balls, to leave black ink in the lines, giving the pin an antique look. They could then add colored rhinestones or glitter paint if desired to add a bit of sparkle.   To finish, we attached a pin to the back (just a regular safety pin with a piece of duct tape: simple!).  I encouraged them to create designs that represented St. Patrick and his teachings: Shamrocks, Celtic knots (which are said to represent everlasting life), crosses, etc.  I set out pictures to give them ideas.

They made awesome pins! They look great, and they couldn't wait to wear them.

Tunnel Books

The inspiration for the Tunnel Book lesson came from the following site: Pop Art Tunnel Books
I would love to do this lesson again as a tie in to Keith Haring, especially since his hometown is the nearby town of Kutztown, PA!

Over the summer, I did this lesson with my summer camp at Paint Some Pottery, and it turned out great.  Instead of Pop Art, we (My co-teacher and I) decided to keep it general, since we weren't sure how well the project would work with such different ages all together.  We focused on creating a scene.  We explained what a scene was We talked about background, foreground, and middle ground.  We also talked about characters and props.  We brainstormed ideas of where are scenes could take place. 

I decided to repeat this lesson with my Home School Group.  It was near the holidays when we started, so I thought it might be fun to create some Christmas or Winter Scenes.  I presented the lesson similar to how I presented it over the summer. We started talking about what a scene is.  Some students connected it to a scene in a movie or play, which I thought was great. We talked about what that scene would need--a place, people, and things (aka, a setting, characters, and props). I explained that our background would show the place or setting of where the scene was taking place.  I showed them my example, just so that they could understand that there would be multiple levels for their characters and props.  We brainstormed a list of places that our scenes could take place--Knoebels was a popular suggestion, as was a living room set up for Christmas. I told them they could choose anywhere they would like, and they started by drawing their backgrounds and coloring them in. Over the series of 4 weeks, they created the backgrounds, characters and props, along with the different level frames that they would need to create the finished piece. To finish, they glued a character or prop on the background with little folded pieces of paper to raise them up, then they folded two side papers accordion style.  They glued the background sheet to the back accordion, and then attached their next level frame on the next level of the accordion. They added their next character or prop and then repeated until their final and 3rd frame was in the front.

Winter Camp Day 5

Sorry about the delay in getting this last day up!  It's been a crazy few weeks, with New Year's, spending time with various families, and with spraining my ankle. =(  That part wasn't so fun.  But alas, the final day of winter camp and what we did!

Our day started with glass painting.  The owner of Paint Some Pottery, Sharlene (come see her amazing artwork at the store sometime!) told me a recipe for painting on glass--acrylic paint and glue.  We didn't have very much glue, so I added some ModPodge (Our love of Modpodge PSP is insane! But who can blame us?!) figuring it would help seal the acrylic.  We painted on glass jars (similar to canning jars) that were bought cheaply at a local store.  The jars came with a nifty candle holder lid that features a seashell cutout, so we went with a beach theme.  We brainstormed ideas of what you might see at the beach, and then I set out the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow!), and we talked about how to make the primary colors into secondary colors if we would need to (mix two primaries together!).  I love the creativity; they all turned out different despite a common theme.

 After painting, we worked on Mosaics!  I cut some rectangles out of cardboard before hand.  We discussed what mosaics were; I was surprised how much the students know.  A mosaic is when you assemble small pieces of a chosen material (usually glass, tile, or stones--but you could use almost anything!) to create an image or design.  In high school, I created a mosaic using glass that I had to cut with a cutting tool and hand-built ceramic tiles. We used grout to hold it together.  With the students this week, we went a little simpler. We used ready-made ceramic tiles, smooth glass stones, and some strong glue. If I did this again, I would give the students a bigger piece of cardboard, color the background first, and use smaller pieces.  I would really love to do this project with an older group, to be able to use the materials that I used in high school; that is a great art form that many young artists do not get to experience! Before they began, we talked about making a simple shape or symbol, so that it would be easily recognized. This was a difficult project, but we had some success with it. 

by this point, the students were tired and ready for their break.  I really wanted them to add more to their mosaics, but I didn't want to push them to their breaking point.  It's important to understand students' needs.  So we took our break. Afterwords, we went on to our final project. I decided that instead of pushing them to work on the mosaics more (which I knew would elicit many cries of "but mine is dooooonnnnneeeeee!" ) we would do something fun.  In the school setting, I probably would have spread the project over a couple of days to avoid the lack of motivation to finish. It's a lot for one day.  However, winter camp is about one day, take home projects (with the exception of clay). 

We didn't have a whole lot of time, so I pulled a quick project I had done out of my head, and quickly found some fun materials for us to use (See the  Veteran's Day Stars I made with my Home School Students).  I changed the project by having them cut their star pieces from foam. We used foam appliques, sequins, and rhinestones. Instead of standing stars, we made them hanging stars!

The students happily went home with 3 projects today. Their happy faces made me happy. (And it seemed to make their parents happy, I heard many parents saying that they couldn't wait to sign up for summer camp!)

mini-project for Veteran's Day

We finished up our van Gogh paintings on Veteran's Day.  We needed a little project to do to fill the rest of class, so we made patriotic standing stars. We talked about Veteran's Day and what a veteran is-any person who has served or is currently serving, no matter how new, in the armed forces--and then we discussed what it means to be patriotic. We then made these simple stars with card stock and markers.