Mosaic Table Project

My art club students took on the huge task of making and assembling little ceramic tiles into a mosaic table that will be displayed in the school for years to come.  The tricky part?  Each sq. inch tile has a student or staff member name carved into it!  The art club members started out by each submitting a design for the table.  They did their sketches on graph paper.  After compiling the final design, they hand-rolled the slabs of clay and cut the tiles.  Then, I distributed the tiles to my classes throughout the next couple of weeks, ensuring that everyone in the school had their name (or initials) on a tile.  Next, I gave the tiles back to art club to glaze.

Last week, we finally got to assembling all the tile pieces together to match the original design.

Looking forward to getting it all grouted.  I will post a picture of the table when it's finished!

6th Grade - Wire Action Figures

Some of the 6th grade students made wire action figures in their spare time.  This student made hers for her little sister.  Notice how she strung her name across the body.  How creative!

Art Show!!!

It's been such a busy couple of weeks preparing the art show but it's been so worth it!  The kids do such great work!  All 460+ students entered what they thought was their best piece so far this year.  Here are some pictures of the displays and some of the winning artwork. 

2nd Grade - Keith Haring figure paintings

Students loved posing for each other in this Keith Haring-inspired painting lesson.  They used their sketchbooks and drew at least 3 different poses - many did more because they were having so much fun!  Then, they used those sketches in their final painting.  They added patterns, designs, and a lot of color!

6th Grade - Plaster Relief Sculptures

My 6th graders really enjoy this lesson because it's something completely different than what they are used to.  We begin by looking at pictures of relief sculptures in Greek and Roman art/architecture.  I talk them through the brief version of the entire process so they can understand what they have ahead of them.  Next, I choose a theme, and this year it was animals, and they do a sketch of the animal, which will be the relief part of their sculpture.  The shape of their mold has to have some association with that animal (for example, a giraffe inside of a leaf shape, or a penguin inside of an iceberg shape).  Next, they begin building the mold out of plasticine clay (tip: we use a microwave to soften hard clay).  They start with forming the shape of their mold, and then carve out their animal.  Lastly, they form 2" tall walls around the bottom of their mold.

Working with the clay is definitely the hardest part.  After that, they love pouring the plaster into their molds.  We let those set until the next art class.

 

What's great about using plasticine clay for the entire mold, is that it peels off the plaster in one or two big pieces.  Then, they use a variety of carving tools to "clean-up" their sculpture.  They also can use sanding blocks to smooth their edges.

The whole process is a huge mess, but they love it.  I just make sure I give them extra time to clean their tables and sweep the floor!  The last step is optional, and that is to add color with watercolor paints.

2nd and 3rd Grade - Printmaking

This year, my second grade students used small styrofoam plates to carve out an animal and print with one color of ink.  They printed them in the center of a larger black paper.  When dry, they added a border with oil pastel around their print.  They also had the option of adding more color on the printed area.

 

Third graders learned about non-objective art before starting their printmaking unit.  Then they used a variety of plastic printing plates (cut from plexi-glass and thick overhead sheets) to practice additive and subtractive monoprints.  For additive, they painted ink onto their printing plate with a paintbrush.  For subtractive, they rolled one color of ink onto their plate with a brayer, and scraped away their non-objective design using a q-tip.  They were asked to explore both types of printing, and make at least three prints total.    They also added oil pastel to the dried prints.

 

 

5th Grade - Wood Sculptures

Here's some more pictures of the finished wood sculptures.  Students could choose to make their sculpture either realistic or abstract.  They used up to 9 pieces of scrap wood and glued them together with wood glue.  During this project, they found out just how important balance is to a piece of artwork!

 

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