Hand Building Clay

Everyone or at least everyone should be familiar with hand building. Two common techniques often taught are coil pot and pinch pot building. Here are a few examples.

Paper Mache

Paper Mache translates in french to mean "chewed paper". In the past linen and papyrus was used to build layers. Nowadays we use newspaper. The mix I use is regular school white glue and water. We had an assignment to construct a bowl with paper mache. We used balloons as our mold. He are the results.

Armature

Armatures are often used by sculptors. Armatures are essentially skeletons or the framework for sculptures.  We also studied Alberto Giacometti as he constructed armatures as his art.The students used copper wire to make their skeleton and some used plaster on top of their armature to construct their structure.

Found object Robots

So the task today was to use the available materials to construct a robot. The students had a blast. Tip to all the educators out there open ended projects work really well with students as it allows them to assume some control of the assignment and it will also allow for great buy in.

Mosaic

Mosaic originated in Africa. Africans would put fancy stones and ivory pieces into a cement mix. We adapted  this technique in America by using glass tile pieces. Here are some examples.

Paper Quilling

Paper quilling is an art form that started in the Early Renaissance in which nuns and monks took scraps of gilded paper( usually made of gold or silver) and decorate book and other objects in the church. In our lesson we used construction paper strips to create the various rolls and scrolls that make these works of art look great. Here are some examples

Struggle

So I have a kiosk for my classroom to display student work. We also have monthly character themes. February's theme is struggle. All throughout the month I highlighted famous African American artists who struggled to gain acceptance. Here are some images.