REPOST: Symmetrical Paper and Clay Butterflies

It's been a long summer here in New Hampshire--my kiddos have been on break since June 10th and don't start school again until September 8th--WOW! So, the long and lazy days of summer need some crafting with mom time. Here's a butterfly that Little Miss did today. This is a post from back in September of 2012, but it's a good one--very fun (and shhh....educational too!). ENJOY!

And here's the original post:

Do you know some students who are studying butterflies? This is a great project for children in Kindergarten and elementary school. You can work in so many great concepts with this project: parts of an insect, symmetry, pattern, and more.

I started by having my students cut out the wings and design them and then I walked them through the making of the butterfly body. We finished up by adding the details such as antennae and legs. I really enjoyed this project because it taught science and art concepts, but it also because it allowed the students some self expression; a win/win in my book!

Clay Butterfly With Paper Wings

Supplies Needed:

• One 6" x 9" piece of construction paper for the wings (light color)
• Pencil with eraser
• Scissors
• Assorted markers
• Model Magic by Crayola (about the size of a chicken egg), whatever color you want
• 3 pipe cleaners (chenille stems), whatever color you want

Directions:

1. Fold the construction paper in half the short way (hamburger or taco fold).

2. Arrange the construction paper so the fold is on the left. Draw a capital letter "B" on the paper extending it so the top and bottom of the "B" touch the top and bottom of the paper.

3. Cut out the "B" shape, but don't cut the middle line (in between the upper and bottom bumps). Write your name on the paper and open it up so your name is face down. These are your butterfly wings.

4. Decorate the wings with whatever designs you would like: big dots, little dots, lines, etc. I showed a couple of butterfly books to the children before they started drawing. I asked them to make their designs symmetrical, or the same on both wings.

5. I then gave each child a ball of Model Magic the size of a chicken egg. I had them pull off a piece and roll it into a 3/4-1" ball. This is the butterfly's head. Place this ball of dough at the top of your butterfly's wings and press down slightly.

6. Divide the remainder of the dough in half (two equal parts). Form he first into a ball. This is the thorax for your butterfly. Place this ball of dough below your butterfly's head on the wings and press down slightly.

7. Roll the remainder of the dough into a hot dog shape about 3" long or so. This is the abdomen of your butterfly. Place this ball of dough below your butterfly's thorax on the wings and press down slightly.

8. Use scissors to cut each pipe cleaner into three equal sections. Poke 2 pipe cleaner pieces into the butterfly's head as his antennae. Wrap another pipe cleaner piece into a coil and poke it into the head for the butterfly's proboscis.

9. Poke the remaining 6 pipe cleaner pieces into the butterfly's thorax (3 on one side, 3 on the other). These are the butterfly's legs.

You're done! Enjoy your colorful butterfly!

What I've Been Up To: Ceramics Fall 2014 Slideshow

Hello!

I was a busy lady this fall taking a ceramics course up at Plymouth State University. I hadn't taken ceramics since high school so, at first, I felt pretty overwhelmed! The course was offered during the day and I was the oldest student by 20 years or so :-)

My classmates were sweet and fun to be around and very helpful to me--some of them were ceramics majors and/or had taken ceramics all through high school so they were full of great info and project ideas. There were also a bunch of future art educators in the class and it was interesting to hear what they were learning as undergrads versus what I'm learning in the grad program I am enrolled in.

Anyhow, I thought I'd try a bit of technology and tried to make a slideshow using PhotoSnack. Let's see how it goes!

Enjoy!

Three Sisters Pottery Lesson

This pottery lesson is perfect for introducing Native American heritage and basic pottery techniques to children.

In this activity, children will learn how to make a pinch pot, a coil pot, and a slab pot.

Because of the complexities of the later clay techniques, this lesson is best for students in grade 3 or so. Of course, if you are working one-on-one, younger children may be able to complete all three pots. This would also be a nice project to spread across grades: have a first-grader do the pinch pot, a second-grader create the coil pot, and a third-grader complete the slab pot--THAT would be great!

Begin by reading the Legend of the Three Sisters to the children. With this legend, students are introduced to the foods, customs, and stories that evolved from the planting of corn, beans, and squash--the three sisters. This is a tradition of several Native American tribes from the northeastern United States.

For this art activity, students will create a pinch pot to represent a squash (mine looks like a pumpkin), a coil pot to represent a string bean (mine is open slightly so you can see the "seeds" or beans inside), and a slab pot to represent an ear of corn and the husk. I chose those particular clay handbuilding techniques for each vegetable since they shared similar attributes: the pinch pot is round and simple like a squash, the coil pot reminds me of the tendrils that allow the bean plant to clim way up high, and when I am shucking corn, the husks come off in sort of flat planes that remind me of the slab technique.

Here's the project! Enjoy!

3 Sisters Pottery

Supplies Needed:

• Legend to read aloud
• Real examples of pumpkins, green beans and corn in its husk to look at (or really great pictures)
• Clay (we used Crayola air dry clay since I don't have a kiln)
• Plastic knife, optional
• Paint (we used tempera)
• Paintbrushes, water bucket, paper towels
• Newspapers to work on

Directions to make the SQUASH SISTER:

1. Take a bit of clay about the size of an egg and gently press your thumb into the clay squeezing the wall of your pinch pot between your thumb and pointer finger, moving around the wall of the pot, enlarging the opening. You're making a little bowl. Make sure the sides of the bowl don't flare out too much, since you are creating a pumpkin-looking squash. 

2. Once you are happy with your pinch pot, gently turn it over and use a plastic knife to gently make the indents you see in the sides of a pumpkin. Don't press too hard or saw through the dough, you are just adding a little interest to the pot. 

3. Use a pea-sized amount of clay for a stem and gently attach it to the center of the pot.

4. Let dry and use at least two colors to color the pumpkin and the stem of your piece. Let dry.

Directions to make the BEAN SISTER:

1. Take a piece of clay the size of an egg and pinch off a bit the size of a grape, set aside.

2. Take the larger portion of clay and roll it out into a big, long, "snake" of clay. 

3. Starting at one end, coil the clay around and around in an oval shape, gradually stacking the coil upon itself to make the outer portion of the bean. 

4. Divide the small portion of clay into three or four bits and create the bean "seeds" that are inside a green bean. They are kidney-shaped. Place them inside your coil pot bean. 

5. Let dry and use at least two colors to color the bean. Let dry.

Directions to make the CORN SISTER:

1. Take a piece of clay about the size of a baseball and roll it out on the table to 1/4" thickness. Make sure it is nice and even. For this part, I created a template out of cardstock that was a slightly curved,  elongated triangle. I had my children cut five of those triangles from the clay using the knife. Three will be the corn cob: before assembling, use the end of a marker or your knife to gently press corn kernel texture onto those three pieces. 

2. Gently pinch the edges of the three corn cob sections together to make a 3D corn cob.

3. Take the other two triangle sections and "scratch and attach" them to your corn cob--these are the leaves of the corn husk. Gently fold the corn husk portions down and out a bit.

4. Let dry and use at least two colors to color the corn cob and the husk of your piece. Let dry.

I printed out a copy of the legend, glued it to a scrap of mat board
and then hot-glued the three pots on there so the 3 Sisters can be displayed together.

-------------

NOTES: You may be able to use Model Magic for this project, I didn't have any to experiment with. In that case, you could use colored Model Magic and you'd be done quicker.

If you use air dry clay and some bits fall of during the drying precess, just attach with hot glue or tacky glue.

There are many follow-up activities to a project like this. You could have students write about their work, plant the vegetables mentioned in the legend, cook a recipe containing all three of these vegetables (search for Three Sisters Stew on the internet), act out the legend, and much more!

Here are two nice links to get you started:

Cornel University:
http://blogs.cornell.edu/garden/get-activities/signature-projects/the-three-sisters-exploring-an-iroquois-garden/

The Michigan Land Use Institute:
Has this wonderful lesson by FoodCorps Service Member Kirsten Gerbatsch from Michigan. This file is a pdf.

Survey Says: CLAY!

I'm going to be returning to my teaching schedule soon and wanted to poll my previous after school students to see what they wanted to see more of in the coming year and the media that won was: CLAY!

This is probably no surprise to some of you, but this means I am going to make a serious effort to include some awesome clay projects with this year's classes! This does take a bit of planning since I don't have a kiln--this means air dry clay it is. I have some plans for Model Magic, Crayola Air Dry Clay, and plans to test a couple of new (to me) air dry clays on the market. Any suggestions?

Another downfall: drying space. Since I'm "art on a cart" I don't have space to store the items safely where I teach while they dry. That means I pack all the clay items up, load them in the car and bring them home to dry until the next class. This stresses me out! I worry that one of my kids will get into them or the dog will knock them over. I'm come up with some good ways to transport and store clay creations in progress, but it will be nice when I don't have to worry about moving them.

So, without further ado, I repost this lovely "Forever Sandcastle" post I did awhile back. The lesson is from Family Fun magazine and is really fun for the children to make. Make one yourself and enjoy those summertime memories all year long!

Whip up a batch of air dry sand clay
to make a forever sandcastle of your own!

Check out these projects...

"Busy, busy," is the lament of the art teacher and mom at this time of the year! I've been running all over doing some super-awesome art projects with kiddos in Kindergarten all the way to 8th grade. I had been shying away from a couple of art projects because they were beyond my comfort level, but I made myself push on and try some projects I really thought would be worthwhile. Here are the projects I tried with my students with my notes on each project. I didn't get photos of any of these since I was very, ahem, engaged due to messes, etc. But check them out...

Kimmy Cantrell slab masks: So awesome and very engaging! I saw this project on Shine Brite Zamorano. I had never heard of this contemporary artist, but once I saw his work I knew my kiddos would love them. 

Pros of this project:

• Students get to work with clay--yippee! Who doesn't love that!? Learn slab techniques and "scratch and attach" method using slip to adhere clay pieces together
• Students draw out their masks before creating in clay. Great for them to work from a plan!
• Students learn about symmetry/asymmetry 

Cons of this project (for my situation):

• I don't have access to a kiln, so I used Crayola air dry clay. It works well, but it isn't as sturdy as fired clay. I've hot glued finished air dry clay projects to mat board for stability, that helps most times.
• I needed to transport these between home and school for the drying stage (I don't have a classroom) and I am super-paranoid that something will happen to these in transit or at my home. If you have a classroom, this is a non-issue, I guess.

VERDICT: This is a keeper!

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Marbled Paper Journals: I love Mr. E's site so when I saw his super-simple technique for doing Marbled paper using shaving cream and tempera paints, I thought, "I can do this!" I thought the marbled paper would be great as covers for art journals. What a unique keepsake for my "All About ME!" after school art class.

Pros of this project:

• Students get to learn about marbling and making a book. Wow!
• Students get to have a wonderful tactile experience with the shaving cream and get to do all sorts of experimenting with drizzling paint and choosing their own color combinations.
• The shaving cream smells good (teachers from other classrooms kept coming in to see what smelled so good!).

Cons of this project:

• I had an energetic group that had some, ahem, listening problems. This was a bad idea for them. Many of them would have been happy just playing in the shaving cream. The. Entire. Time. That's fine, but they were playing in the shaving cream that had paint mixed into it and it was dripping on the floors, the tables, their clothes, etc. And then when they "helped" to clean up, the water from the sink somehow poured onto the floor and we had GIANT puddles everywhere. It was a bit of a challenge. So that brings me to my next "con:"
• This project can be messy if not managed well. I take responsibility for the mess, certainly, but it's pretty bad when I go through an entire roll of paper towels and I have to ask the custodian for a mop and bucket and spray and spend 45 minutes cleaning with said items--and that was one class!
• This technique is very teacher-focused. I worked with three kids at a time and they made two prints each. This focus made it so some of my rowdy students had some time to wind-up and get into trouble. I felt like I was constantly juggling naughtiness and shaving cream. It was a great stress test! :-) I think I passed, but then I had lots of time to think about it as I cleaned up after class...Mr. E--you are a saint!

VERDICT: Not again.

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Kinder Rainbow Windsocks: I had my final volunteer art session with the Kindergarteners at Clark School in Amherst in May. I had done all sorts of wonderful projects with them using collage, printmaking, and paint (a bit), but I wanted to make the final project special. I knew I had my project when I saw these beautiful rainbow windsocks online at Kinder Craze. The windsocks have paint and streamers to create the most awesome and beautiful windsocks perfect for Spring! But 60+ kids with 6 different colors of paint and 30 minutes? Was this beyond my skillset? I worried, I planned, but it was awesome in the end...

Pros of this project:

• Paint! Rainbows! Streamers! Need I say more!?!?
• The children needed to use each of the colors to made large arcs on their papers moving from left to right. Great for hand/eye control, especially since subsequent arcs needed to touch the previous arc. Also, colors needed to be painted in rainbow order.
• Children saw that a 2D piece of art, could transform into a 3D form: a cylinder
• Children needed to share the foam brushes and practice patience. I placed a muffin tray in the center of each table with one of the six colors each well. One brush in each color. I had the first person start with red, paint their arc, and then pass the red brush to their neighbor who would paint and then pass the brush to his/her neighbor. This was repeated through the colors. I was worried this would take too long, but it was awesome.

Cons of this project:

• It uses 6 colors of paint and six colors of streamers, so it would be pricey if you were buying everything for this one project, but we had everything we needed already.
• Cleanup can be difficult. I had a helper who rinsed my brushes and trays, but I'd allow for 1/2 hour cleanup. It really wasn't all that bad at all. Those Kinders are awesome.
• It doesn't get done in 1 day. We glued the streamers on first, then painted and then put them on the drying rack to dry. The teachers then formed the pieces into cylinders and stapled them closed the following day. They said it was super-easy (I try not to leave the classroom teachers with anything to do once my visit is done).

VERDICT: This is a keeper!

-------------------

Jean Dubuffet Paper Sculptures: What could be easier-a sheet of white paper, some markers (limited color palette--2-3 colors, plus black), scissors, glue stick and a piece of black mat board--TA DA! Instant art just like Jean Dubuffet. I've had this one pinned for a while now, but never quite had the chance to get to it. Then, in Sculpture class, we had a little free time after painting our Kimmy Cantrell masks (see above) and I thought I'd try this project. I'm glad I did--it was perfect! See a similar project here at Art Smudge.

Pros of this project:

• Limited supplies (and the supplies needed are inexpensive).
• Limited teacher involvement--YEAH! This is great for a sub or if you are helping students finish up/clean-up.
• Children saw that a 2D piece of art, could transform into a 3D form.
• Allowed for creativity in the lines, pattern, color, and 2D and 3D shapes and forms.

Cons of this project:

• It is over quickly--I'd say, 1/2 hour from start to finish. That could be a pro, but if you are planning for it to take an entire class session, it's a con.
• They are relatively delicate. May not make it home on the bus and cannot be stored, really.

VERDICT: This is a keeper!

-------------------

I'm very happy I tried these projects! What projects have you been hesitant to do but, in the end, were glad you did? I'd love to hear about them!

Easy Art Activities For A Snow Day Or Any Day (Part 3)

This Part 3 in a multi-part series. Here are the previous posts you may have missed:

• Part 1: Setting Yourself Up For Success: Creating An Art Center in Your Home
• Part 2: Allowing Experimentation and Exploration in the Art Center

------------

So your children have moved beyond experimenting with art supplies and you need some ideas to engage them? No problem! My solution? Collect, save and access art ideas as needed.

3. Gradually Gather and *Actually Use* Easy Art Ideas

Before Pinterest, I was a ripper. If I saw a cool art or craft idea in a magazine...RIP!...it was torn out and filed away. But that takes up space (which I don't have) and if you are a piler (like me) I'd have to sort through MOUNDS of ideas to find the one I was looking for. If you are a filer, it would be easier, but who has time to file!?

So I love Pinterest. It allows me to pin ideas and categorize them (quasi-filing) and access them later. I rarely rip stuff out anymore (which is helping the clutter a bit).

The point is--gather ideas as you go. If you see something that you think your child may like to do in the future--grab it and file it so you can easily access it in the future. Think easy projects with supplies you are likely to have on hand. Then, on snow days or lazy days at home when you hear the "I'm bored!!" posse coming for you, whip out the ideas and look through them with your child. I often browse my "Art Ideas" board with my five-year-old in the mornings when he needs to create but can't think of something. Sometimes just looking at a picture of a project is enough and he'll run off to the art center and create-a-way. Sometimes I need to get involved and gather some special materials not in the Art Center and walk him through getting started.

We've done a TON of projects this way! It's great because we are actually doing the things I pin (my Pinterest surfing is not in vain!) and he's practicing his cutting, gluing, collage, and painting while being truly engaged since he's the one choosing the projects.

So here are a couple of pin-worthy projects for you to keep in mind for the next day off:

Aluminum Foil Quilt Squares
These are easy and addicting and all of my children were able to do them (even the 2 1/2 year old with a but of help). We mounted a few of them on mat board to protect them and make them easier to display. I found the instructions here at Piikea Street.

Chalk Shapes
This project kept my little ones busy for a while the other day. Cut a shape from cardboard (we used cereal box cardboard), put a little roll of masking tape on the underside to keep it still on your paper and then place it on a dark piece of paper. Trace around it with colored chalk or pastels, then *before you remove the cardboard shape,* gently wipe with tissue to smudge the chalk a bit. Ta-da! Beautiful!

Other Projects to Check Out:

LOVE these Magic Carpets from mnartgal.blogspot.com--they use materials you have on hand and who wouldn't want to make a magic carpet and go to a far off land! Where will YOU go?

And check out these Paper Sculptures from Sharpie Woman! Awesome! My five-year-old made a ton of these last week and even the two-year-old tried her hand at them. They are fun on a shelf or hung on the wall ad are a great way to use up all of those paper scraps you've been saving in your Art Center!

Other ideas to get you started? 

• Use masking tape to "write" your name on cardboard or poster board, paint over the whole thing and then remove the tape for a great sign for your room!
• Try your hand at printmaking using Legos or other found objects around your home (ask mom first!!).
• Make Magic wands or fairy wands or search the web for "Notan" for some paper-cutting fun! I have an easy version of this here with my "Positively Cute I Love You Project."
• Get out the clay and make dinosaur fossils or press found objects like sea shells into the dough
• Make a snow sculpture outside or bring a bin full of snow inside and make a snow sculpture in your house! Or make a snow fort inside for your Playmobil guys or Matchbox cars!
• And of course, you can always search the Create Art With Me site for more inspiration! (Hint hint!)

What are some of your go-to projects for easy fun? Anything you've done that engage your kids for awhile. I'd love to hear about them!

Lung Project Done

Many of you read about my experience watching my son make a 3D plaster cast of his body for a science project on the respiratory system...well, the project is done (and he got an A+!). This was a great project from a mom point-of-view: the supplies were cheap, it allowed for TONS of creativity on my son's part, and he could pretty much handle the whole thing himself--oh, and it didn't chew up a entire weekend! He worked on it one Saturday morning (taking breaks to go sledding and visit with company). And he was super-proud of it! That's my kind of project!

So here are the finished picts. Hopefully it inspires you to try something new!

The details of the project (in case you were wondering):

The plaster cast was made using three packages of plaster tape bought at Michael's. The strips were about 4" wide and 8' long--we cut them to size (some 4" strips, some 8" strips and some 12" strips), dipped them in warm water, and then applied them to my son's body (make sure you coat the model's body with petroleum jelly before putting the strips on).

The dried cast was painted with leftover house paint my son found in our garage (I am worried I needed that paint, but c'est la vie!).

The red stuff (used for the nasal cavity, mouth, trachea, and bronchi) is model magic--I think he used one standard size package.

The lungs are sponges that he used scissors to cut into lung shapes.

The bronchioles are made from some leftover moss we had that he sprayed with red and blue spray paint (which he also found in the garage).

The whole thing is mounted on foam core (from the Dollar Store) that was covered in leftover colored paper. He also went crazy using the hot glue gun on this project.

Big Mouth Gargoyles

This past week, in Medieval Art, we explored the 3D art of gargoyles and chimeras. We learned some neat facts such as the name gargoyle means "water spitter" or "water vomiter" which is quite accurate since gargoyles have a gutter where rain is funneled through and then exits their mouths (sometimes the water exits the nose or, ahem, other places). Sculptures that do not have holes for water to travel through are actually called chimera (ki-mare-ah). Gargoyles and chimeras do not have to be scary--we saw some that looked like elephants, sea turtles and even Darth Vader! This art form is a great way for children to explore clay modeling techniques while experimenting with telling a story and expressing emotion in their work.

Love the fangs and curly tail!

We used a technique where the children created a pinch pot with clay first and then flipped it on its side to create the mouth of their gargoyle. This created a large caricature mouth and immediately made their sculpture more expressive. The children then utilized the "scratch and attach" method of using slip (watered down clay) to attach their features to the gargoyles. Since these are made from air dry clay, I took them home to dry and my husband sprayed them with a metallic faux-stone paint to make them look as though they truly are gargoyles carved from stone.



Thus technique of using a pinch pot to make a gargoyle is different than my previous approach. I thought the pinch pot gargoyles were very expressive, and great for a younger group. 

And a big "Thank you" to one of my students who brought in a few gargoyles from his personal collection for us to see firsthand. Seeing gargoyles and chimeras in 3D really helped facilitate the discussion.

Big Mouth Gargoyles

Supplies Needed:

• Air dry clay (we used Crayola), about the size of a baseball
• Newspapers and a paper plate for work surface
• Little cup (for slip)
• Plastic knife
• Crayola Marker (one of the thick ones), color not important
• Toothpick
• Paint (acrylics, or faux stone spray paint), optional

Directions:

1. Knead the dough to get it more pliable. If it is too dry, dip your fingers in a bit of water. The dough shouldn't be goopy, but it shouldn't crack when you mold it either. Divide the dough in half and put one half aside for now. The ball of dough you are working with should be about the size of a golf ball or an egg. 

2. Using your thumb and pointer finger, gently squeeze the dough to create a pinch pot. The walls of the pinch pot should be thick enough to support its weight, but thin enough so that the piece dries properly (about 1/4" thick is good).

3. Place the pinch pot on its side on the paper plate. This is the mouth of your gargoyle. Feel free to gently manipulate the pinch pot so that the mouth is expressive: a smile, a grimace, a frown. 

4. From your excess clay, pinch off a bit, about the size of a large blueberry. Place it in your little cup with a couple Tablespoons of water. Stir the clay around in the water until it dissolves and makes mud. This is slip and it will help the clay pieces stick together better.

5. Use the rest of your excess clay to form the features and appendages of your gargoyle. Gargoyle parts you may need are: eye(s), ears, a nose (with crazy nostrils), horns, scales down the back, arms, legs, claws, fangs, teeth, tail, and/or wings. The list is endless! Some things to keep in mind when creating your gargoyle parts:

• Don't make any piece too thin--it will crack as it dries.
• Legs, arms, wings and tails should touch the pinch pot and/or rest up against each other for support. Parts that stick off the pinch pot too much will get damaged. Have the legs and arms fold up like your gargoyle is crouching and make the tail wrap around the body. Look at pictures of real gargoyles to see how the sculptors handled this challenge.
• All "parts" need to be attached with slip. To do this, scratch the area you'd like to attach the "part" to the pinch pot, add a dab of slip, and then press the part onto the pinch pot. This will form a nice bond between the pieces of clay. I'm not sure if there is a formal name for this technique, but I use "scratch and attach."

I have my students use the tools they have to create all of the pieces for their gargoyles. The plastic knives are helpful to some students, the toothpick is great for scoring and poking little holes such as the pupils and drawing scales or adding a furry texture to the piece. The Crayola markers are good for rollers (the outside of the marker shaft) or to create circles for eyeballs (the end of the cap). I remind my students to add all of the parts they want to during this session, and when they think they are done I remind them to take a look again and make sure they've added details in the mouth (teeth & tongue), the top of the head (horns and hair) and the back (scales and texture). They can choose what they want to add/disregard, but I want to encourage them to add detail.

6. Once the piece has all of its "parts" on it, put it aside to dry for a few days. 

7. You can leave the sculptures as they are, or paint them. Before painting, I do a once over and hot glue any bits that seem to be falling off. Acrylic paint works well on the dry clay and you could always use a limited palette such as grey, black and white and have the students create their own faux stone look. I had a 50% off coupon for Michael's craft store and wanted to try the faux stone spray paint, so I picked that up. My husband is the spray paint guy, so I had him spray the gargoyles for me.

Note: One can of stone spray paint covered eight sculptures. I think the color we chose (a metallic stone) looked more silver than anything else. I would have liked a more "plain stone" look. Also, this paint is expensive. $5.00 for 8 sculptures is probably a bit much if you were doing this with a large group, but worked with my smaller group.

Great expression--love the two teeth in front!

Cyclops with big claws on the toes. The wings are resting against
the gargoyle's haunches so they are supported.

This student was inspired by some of the animal gargoyles we looked at.
This elephant has lovely ears. It has a trunk and tusks, too
(sorry the picture is kind of blurry).

Clay and Paper Butterflies

Do you know some students who are studying butterflies? This is a great project for children in Kindergarten and elementary school. You can work in so many great concepts with this project: parts of an insect, symmetry, pattern, and more.

I started by having my students cut out the wings and design them and then I walked them through the making of the butterfly body. We finished up by adding the details such as antennae and legs. I really enjoyed this project because it taught science and art concepts, but it also because it allowed the students some self expression; a win/win in my book!

Clay Butterfly With Paper Wings

Supplies Needed:

• One 6" x 9" piece of construction paper for the wings (light color)
• Pencil with eraser
• Scissors
• Assorted markers
• Model Magic by Crayola (about the size of a chicken egg), whatever color you want
• 3 pipe cleaners (chenille stems), whatever color you want

Directions:

1. Fold the construction paper in half the short way (hamburger or taco fold).

2. Arrange the construction paper so the fold is on the left. Draw a capital letter "B" on the paper extending it so the top and bottom of the "B" touch the top and bottom of the paper.

3. Cut out the "B" shape, but don't cut the middle line (in between the upper and bottom bumps). Write your name on the paper and open it up so your name is face down. These are your butterfly wings.

4. Decorate the wings with whatever designs you would like: big dots, little dots, lines, etc. I showed a couple of butterfly books to the children before they started drawing. I asked them to make their designs symmetrical, or the same on both wings.

5. I then gave each child a ball of Model Magic the size of a chicken egg. I had them pull off a piece and roll it into a 3/4-1" ball. This is the butterfly's head. Place this ball of dough at the top of your butterfly's wings and press down slightly.

6. Divide the remainder of the dough in half (two equal parts). Form he first into a ball. This is the thorax for your butterfly. Place this ball of dough below your butterfly's head on the wings and press down slightly.

7. Roll the remainder of the dough into a hot dog shape about 3" long or so. This is the abdomen of your butterfly. Place this ball of dough below your butterfly's thorax on the wings and press down slightly.

8. Use scissors to cut each pipe cleaner into three equal sections. Poke 2 pipe cleaner pieces into the butterfly's head as his antennae. Wrap another pipe cleaner piece into a coil and poke it into the head for the butterfly's proboscis.

9. Poke the remaining 6 pipe cleaner pieces into the butterfly's thorax (3 on one side, 3 on the other). These are the butterfly's legs.

You're done! Enjoy your colorful butterfly!

Three Recycled Art Projects in Progress

I haven't posted in a few days, but I have been busy. My students have three recycled art projects in the works! All three I've seen floating around on the web, but they are super-cool and my students seem very excited about them (as am I):

Abstract Sculptures (wire and pantyhose)
These are seriously awesome! You can't make just one! I've seen the idea in a couple of spots, but most recently on A Faithful Attempt. The basic idea is to insert a metal coat hanger into a wooden block. Twist and turn it & cover it with a knee-high pantyhose. Twist and turn some more & coat in gesso, then paint. Seriously cool. I'm doing this with one of my private art student (she's thirteen). Right now her sculpture is sitting in gesso. Next class, she'll paint it and we'll sketch it with charcoal from a variety of angles.

The abstract sculpture in gesso
(we used tempera paint mixed with Elmer's glue).

Sole Pendants
Also cool! I saw this on www.dickblick.com and thought my boys would love to make them. Now I'm making them with my Recycled Art class after school. My goal with this class is to get the children looking around and being inspired to create art from everyday object. These pendants get their funky texture from the soles of the students' shoes. How great is that? These were molded last week and this week we'll paint them and string them on a cord to make necklaces.

Some of the pendants in the drying phase.
The texture is made from the soles of our shoes.

Magazine Bowls
Ah...the humble magazine! Great for collage and now used as the structural component for a funky bowl! Once the after school students were done molding their Sole Pendants, I had them start prepping their magazine strips as suggested on the blog Mini Matisse. This week, we'll start coiling the strips into the form that will magically transform turn into the magazine bowl.

My magazine bowl demo with some of the strips cut from
National Geographic Magazines.

WHEW! Lot's going on here! I'm loving the energy and creativity of my students! So what are YOU working on?

Big Mouth Critters

OK, so I've seen those clay critters on the internet where students make pinch pots and use those for the mouths of a critter frog, fish, beaver, monster, etc. They are CUTE and I knew I had to make them with my home school kids. They've been working so hard these past few weeks I wanted to treat them to some clay time!

What a cute doggie!

I showed the children examples of caricatures. We discussed why an artist would use that technique and compared real photos of people to caricature drawings of them. What a great conversation we had!

I don't have a kiln, so we used air dry clay for this project. The children seemed to have a great time making these! And I could see doing a variation of this for medieval gargoyles or for a fun nature project.

Here are some of my notes from this project:

• I started by giving each child enough clay for a pinch pot only and walked them through the technique of making a pinch pot.
• Then I gave each child another ball of clay (about the same size as the first) for their critters' features and limbs. This helped to ensure that the critters did indeed have a large mouth and the students were able to create the pinch pot--an integral part of the project.
• Air dry clay works OK. I used Crayola brand with my students, but one bucket of clay was more moist than the other. I just had the kids knead the dry dough and work in a little water to make it more pliable. I used 2 five pound buckets of Crayola air dry clay for 12 critters.
• I used a bit of the clay in some water to make slip (a slurry of clay and water used to attach clay pieces together). I demonstrated to the children how to "scratch and attach" the clay pieces such as eyeballs and legs to the pinch pot form. I gave each student a cotton swab and a toothpick for this.  Using this technique allows the pieces of air dry clay to fuse together better than just squeezing them together.
• I brought in a hot glue gun the next week to attach any pieces that may have come off during drying. Most were pretty good.
• We used acrylic craft paint to finish our critters. The colors are nice. Next time I might try finishing them with a varnish or clear coat to make them shiny.

We loved this project! Try it yourself (and send me pictures!!)!

Enjoy!

A bunny.

A turtle.

A "blood thirsty" beaver
(I'm not making this up!).

A frog and its dinner (a fly).