Clay Balloon Bowl Assignment

Slab bowls are easy to make for beginning art students. For this assignment we used balloons (taped to cups for stability) as a structure. We rolled out slabs of clay on the slab roller, but a rolling pin works as well. Then we cut the clay in to circular or oval shapes and draped it over the balloons. Some students created texture by stamping or rolling wooden tools over the surface before forming it into a bowl.

 

Students decided if they wanted the form to be crinkled and organic, like draped fabric, or more smooth with the excess trimmed away. 

Then they added a foot using a score and slip technique. They had the choice of creating a coil to make a circular foot, or rolling three small balls to make legs, some of which were formed into pyramids or cylinders after attaching to the bottom of the bowl. The balloon doesn't create very much resistance so it was a challenge, but only one student ended up popping their balloon while scoring the clay with a ceramic needle.  Once the clay is leather hard, they can be set right-side up, and the balloon can be popped or just allowed to shrivel up, while the clay dries completely. We did a bisque firing in the kiln at cone 06, and then glazed the inside. Some students glazed the inside and the outside, but it's important to keep the glaze off the feet so the bowl doesn't glue itself to the kiln shelf. It is a simple project that yields great results when it comes to the basics of working with clay.

Watercolor Self Portraits

We really got as much as possible out of our photography unit, and have been trying to find as many ways as possible to make self portraits. We documented, photo collaged, painted ourselves, painted our photos, and now we are moving further and further away from the actual photograph, but only using paint and marker...but working from photos.

These portraits were created by tracing photographs on light tables or on the window. We used Sharpie markers so that they wouldn't bleed once they got wet. And then students were able to be as conservative or crazy with the color as they chose. It was a quick enough assignment that it was just done in a day by those who had worked ahead. I traced the photographs for those who couldn't see well enough to do it themselves, and I hot glued the lines for those who were completely blind. But everyone was able to paint independently once they could at least feel the boundaries, and the examples in this post were done without help.  Everyone was pleased enough with the results that we may be revisiting this assignment when we find some extra time in the future.

Op Art and the Element of Line

 

Op Art was a movement in the sixties that played with people's minds: it made 2D lines feel 3 dimensional and still lines seem to vibrate or move in unexpected ways. 

Line is the first element we will cover in our Elements of Art lessons. One idea for a project is to use the edge of a bulletin board border. (To my virtual students, I sent you each a piece of this in your last packet of supplies). Hold it vertical and trace the bumpy edge near the left hand side of of a vertical piece of paper. Then move the boarder template to the left and down just a tad and trace another line. Repeat the process until the entire paper is full. If you are using a chisaled marker, consider using the wide edge on the in stroke and the thin edge on the out stroke over visa versa. When you turn the finished drawing on its side it gives the illusion of bumps or waves.

For students with little to no vision, there's an option to use Wiki Sticks to create a few simple shapes. You may use a circle in the middle of the page, or squares poking in from edges or a combination of those ideas.

 

Hold your paper horizontally and draw vertical, parallel lines in the background (around the shapes). You can use a ruler if you like. Move the ruler a little to the left each time and make sure it stays parallel to the sides of the paper. If you would rather it be tactile lines, use puffy paint, liquid glue, glued, strips of paper, or Wiki Stix to create your lines. 

Then rotate your paper 90 degrees or in an angle that aligns with the edge of one of your shapes, and create parallel lines going in that direction.

For a modification of this option, I have included paper with stripes of puffy paint. Cut the bottom 1/3 or 1/4 of the paper off. Cut it into simple shapes, like square or triangles. Glue it on the larger striped sheet being sure to change the direction of the stripes.

For my students with some vision, there's yet another option, Create a funnel shape, draw two lines coming in and down from either side of the paper. Start at the bottom of that funnel ad make a frown arch going up and off the top of the page. For the background make smiles lines going behind the funnel.

To create a funnel form a higher point of view, looking down into the top, make the lines curving up on the sides on top of the form. Verticle lines can come straight up and out of the top "smile" shaped line, and move out to the corners. (Lines on the right curve right and left lines curve left at the top of the page.

You may draw straight, parallel, horizontal lines in the background, for the illusion of flat space, or you can make frowny arched lines to make it look like the sides are curving towards you. I chose to make a flat space in the example below.

There are many ways to use lines to create optical illusions. Make spheres or cubes; fill the space. Play around and have some fun with it.

Worry Dolls Craft

The legend behind Guatemalan worry dolls is one of a princess who was magically endowed with great wisdom to solve problems. Tradition says that if you carry a worry doll, or put one under your pillow, you can give your worries and troubles to the princess and things will work out. Too many children have stress that can sometimes feel daunting given their limited resources and abilities. I like the idea of my students being able to make their own tiny doll to tell their troubles to, not as a magical device or idol, but as a reminder that they don't have to carry their problems alone.

You can make a worry doll by bending a pipe cleaner in half, wrapping it around a finger and twisting a time or two for the neck. Hold the two ends out to the side and fold them back on themselves to make arms. Make another twist for the waist, and bend up the ends to make feet. The little wire body can then be wrapped in fabric scraps, embroidery floss or yarn with the ends glued to hold them down.  Children can enjoy the process of creating, and then use the dolls for play, or tie them to a backpack for decoration. Stop worrying! Things will work out.

Drawing Lines and Stamping Potatoes: Beginning Art Skills for Little Ones

A kindergartner with no vision practices drawing directional lines before learning to create zig zags with a potato stamp.

My kindergartner students with visual impairments and my older students with multiple disabilities are often on about the same level developmentally.  I try to create lessons that meet them at their level and that can be applied in a variety of situations. That's why we started this school year learning about types of lines, including directional lines.  Vertical lines were practiced by standing and reaching for the ceiling and then pulling their hands down to the floor while repeatedly saying, "Vertical lines are up and down." We'd shift the exercise to pull their arms to be parallel to the floor and waving them from left to right. "Horizontal lines are side to side, left to right." We drew vertical and horizontal lines with chalk on a brick wall, with crayon and marker on paper, with Wiki Sticks, and with little tiles lined up.  The next class we repeated it all but add diagonal lines, zig zag lines and loopy lines.  It may sound like I am remediating too much, but many of the students will take months to understand. Besides, I spent two weeks on horizontal lines alone during my college Chinese Calligraphy class.

Next we added some shapes.  I taught them how to stamp with potatoes, first by having them feel the outside of a plastic bag and guess what was in it.  They next handled, smelled, (a few even licked) the potato to try to understand what the object was.  Once it was understood that I had brought potatoes we talked about how potatoes grow and all the ways we can cook them.  Finally I sliced it open, creating a smooth, wet, flat surface.

Every class chose a couple shapes for me to quickly carve (draw with a knife perpendicular to the surface before cutting in from the sides) and then have the student dip the potato in a shallow pool of tempera paint and then stamp it onto the surface. "Dip and stamp. Dip and stamp."  Sometimes students would find a cadence such as "Dip and stamp, stamp, stamp." Other students would count.

The second day we used potato stamps, I had them review the types of lines we learned by repetitively drawing them on their paper.  This activates the negative space helps us to review vocabulary, and frankly fills some time because the stamping itself only takes a couple of minutes. We branched out to foam stamps and sponges shaped like animals.  It's only been a couple of weeks and I'm not sure anyone has created anything worthy to hang in the hall, but the fact that my students can be heard outside of my class talking about potatoes, saying, "Let's draw vertical lines!" Or whispering, "Left to right," as they sweep their white canes from side to side as a win!

Monster Mash-up Mania

If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd end up teaching children with multiple complex needs how to design monsters, I wouldn't have believed you. Yet here I am, and  I'm loving it! A normal art teacher at a normal elementary school might model how to think through each part of "building" a monster before opening the gate to let students run wild with their imagination. They might make 20 arms, or eyes on elbows, or create fuzzy tentacles.  But I have a couple dozen art students who aren't able to function on that level. All of them are legally blind, some are in wheel chairs, and many of them are non-verbal.

Inviting participation is a matter of giving them choices, often only two choices.  So in our make-a-monster assignment I walk these students through each step by asking questions.

"Do you want your monster to be on a yellow or blue piece of paper?"
"Do you want your monster to be tall or short?" (vertical or horizontal paper orientation)
"Do you want the body to be soft or rough?" (felt or upholstery fabric or burlap)
"Do you want the body to be purple or green?"
"Do you want the body to be a circle or a square?"
Questions continue about head, hair, arms, legs, feet, eyes, mouth, etc. until the entire figure is completed.

When I have a student with echoalia (who always repeats the second choice back to me), I ask the question a couple times changing the order.  For a nonverbal child with no sight, I move their hand from one option to the other, and then have them touch their choice. One of my students carries a communication device with preprogramed buttons, so I ask only yes or no questions.  "We have ribbons and tape. Do you want to use ribbons for legs?" If she pushes the "no" audio button, then I ask, "Do you want to use tape for legs?"

Every student is expected to help me squeeze the glue, position and pat down every collage piece. The most important thing to me is that each student takes ownership in the finished piece and does as much work as they can possibly do on their own. Progress is very slow, but when I see one of these students use a pair of scissors, or learn the word, "collage" I feel like I'm Anne Sullivan, living a scene from "The Miracle Worker"!

The World in my Classroom

If you can't take the students to Paris, bring Paris to the students. The music classes at my school are learning songs from around the world, so my little mural making class has taken the opportunity to create a backdrop for the program. We have four 8'x4' panels each with a different landmark. The pagoda for Japan and towers from Italy and France were no brainers. When it came to an edifice for various African songs, I was stumped. Lucky for me, my Art History Professor sister, Lynne, focused her dissertation on African architecture. She suggested The Great Mosque of Djenne, which is a huge, 110-year old earthen structure on the flood plain of Mali.

I projected my drawings for low vision students to trace with chalk over last year's spring sets, then we did underpainting and added the final touches. So even though we didn't explore the actual places, there's something to be said about exploring painting techniques.