Batik

Batik is usually a process that combines wax drawing and tie dye. The Indonesians in Java have the art down to a science, and there are some fun Youtube videos that can walk you through the process. In our class, we used Elmer's glue, rather than hot wax, and watered down acrylics, rather than dye.

First the glue is applied to a piece of fabric, in a pattern. When it driers, diluted acrylics are painted on top. It takes more than you'd think, since you want it to soak into the fabric. The back side of the fabric will probably still show the white lines pretty well. After the paint dries, you can wash it in warm soapy water to remove the glue, and it will create white lines on both sides of the fabric.

Bottles of watercolor worked well too until it was time to wash out the glue, at which time the color disappeared. But there's nothing wrong with leaving the glue in, if you are just going to use the fabric as a wall piece. It is easier to feel the texture of design for my students who are visually impaired anyway.

Face Pottery

There is a rich tradition of face jugs in the southeastern United States, in part because of our abundance of clay, and in part because freed slaves were the ones credited with the tradition. Some believe that because slaves weren't allowed to have headstones on their graves, that face jugs were left to scare off the devil. A few of the jugs migrated north and were buried by the front door of houses to ward off evil spirits. Ironically, in the 1920s ugly jugs were made to store spirits (i.e. moonshine) during the Prohibition era.


 I am so excited about the faces my students created for their "Ugly Mug" assignment. I worked with each of them on the wheel to make a cup or two. Then they came up with multiple face ideas before choosing one to add to a cup.

Nine of my students who made a couple donated one to the silent auction to support the senior's trip in the spring. Some sold for over $20.00. It just goes to show, that sometimes beautiful things happen when you try making something ugly.
















The elementary school students used the slab roller rather than the wheel and made flat faces, which will later be hung. I can't look at these smiles without smiling myself.

How to Make an Etching

Intaglio is a type of printmaking in which the ink goes under the surface of a matrix, such as a piece of copper or zinc. This is unlike a relief print where the ink sits on top of a rubber stamp or wood cut.  I am taking part in an print exchange suite, which means, in January, I created an edition of 30 identical prints. A bunch of other printmakers do the same.
Then we each get one of each other's prints in a lovely suite.

Here is how I made my print.

I took a zinc plate. I beveled the edges (with a file, scraper and burnisher) so that it would be able to run through the press without tearing the felt blankets. Then I covered the plate with a hard ground. This can be painted on or melted on with the use of a hot plate, and then rolled to make the covering even, depending on whether your hard ground came in a liquid or solid.

Hard Ground

I drew an image with an etching needle. Each line scratches through the hard ground and exposes the metal plate. The print is always a mirror image of the plate, which means, the question mark had to be drawn backwards on the plate for it look right on the etching.

When placed in a bath of nitric acid, the exposed metal will etch. In other words, the lines that were drawn will be eaten away by the acid and create grooves, which will later hold ink. Little bubbles are formed around these lines in the process, which causes uneven etching. You can avoid this by stroking the plate with a feather as it etches, or you can create a little masking tape tail from other the plate, which can be used as a handle to tilt the plate every 15 seconds. Both methods get rid of the bubbles.

Rinsing and drying the plate stops the etching process.

 The hard ground can be wiped off using kerosene, and then cleaned with a little dish detergent and water.

Soft Ground

I decided to add a soft ground. This is applied like the hard ground. Rather than draw, I used a feather and pressed it (with the help of the press) into the surface.  All other parts of the plate were blocked out with hard ground, and I etched it again.

Aquatint

Then I painted with the hard ground all the areas I wanted to be white. I used spray paint to create an even coat of speckles, which is one way to make an aquatint. The acid avoids the paint, but eats in the plate in lots of little tiny areas, which can make value. I pulled the plate from the acid bath every couple minutes and add another layer of hard ground to block out, until only the areas I wanted to be the darkest were exposed.

 Beveling 

Once the plate was cleaned, I had to re-bevel the edges with the file, scraper, and burnisher. It's important to get the edges smooth so that they don't hold any ink.

Inking

I used small squares of mat board to apply the ink. It is important to coat it thoroughly, by going in lots of directions. Mat is also used to scrape off most of what is on the surface before wiping the plate using tarletan. Some print makers wipe with paper (phone book paper) lightly before hand wiping, gently to help get even surfaces, and light lights. My husband, Dennis inked both his and my plates and I was the "clean hands" person to work with the paper and press. Our courtship began 18 years ago in a print shop, and it has served us well to know how to collaborate and cooperate on projects such as this.

 Printing

Finally, the inked plate is placed on the printing press.  A damp piece of paper is placed on top of the plate. I soaked and blotted an whole stack of printing paper before placing them in a plastic bag. This is called a damp pack.  I also created a template so I would know where to place my plate and paper in order for it to be centered and squared each time.

After running it through the press, I "pulled the print."  Really, I had to print a couple throughout the process to know how it looked and where it needed to be etched again. I'm willing to post an incredibly unflattering picture of myself just so you can see the press and the felt blankets that I'm pulling back to get to the print. Hey, I'm not proud.

After an 8 hour day, my poor hubby's back was killing him. 

The process is very time consuming. It is much easier to apply pigment directly to paper in a painting...but in the end, it is easier, less time consuming, and more possible to make 30 identical prints than 30 identical paintings.

Leaf Bowls

Last fall when my art lessons all about leaf projects (see the blog with leaf collages, prints, and ornaments), my older students made leaf bowls. They each made a large slab of clay using the slab roller. Then they pressed the vein side of leaves into the clay and cut out around the edges. It was as easy as making sugar cookies. There were a variety of styrofoam, plastic and stainless steel bowls to use as a mold. Students each chose a bowl, turned it upside down pressed their clay leaves together, texture side out around the the bowl. They added either individual feet or a donut shape of clay for one foot. It ended up being a nice way to marry function and aesthetics in project.

Painting Ceramic Houses

I thought I'd share how my students' clay houses looked after they'd been fired and painted with acrylics.

Painting the stones on this house only took a couple of class periods. Not bad considering that it is about 17 inches wide and all four sides needed to look similar.  

The bisque firing was perfect for a brick red color which meant some students only needed to paint the roof and trim. Spray paint was used for the barn roof to make it look metallic.

Of course one student opted to leave the roof unpainted, which is perfect for terra-cotta tile.

 This house belongs to a student who is entirely blind, so I had to tape out everything in the front of the house but the door, when it came time for him to use red.  I love his large stones.

Now go make something out of clay to paint and love forever.

Fabric Drawings to Teach Value

If fabric studies were good enough for Leonardo DaVinci to do in the Renaissance, they're good enough for me to do in the classroom. The use of lights and darks, value, is required to draw fabric in a way that looks three dimensional. The deeper the fold in the fabric, the darker the value on the drawing.
In this drawing Leonardo uses a middle ground and saved the lightest value for the highlights.

Below are some examples of work from my students, who are visually impaired. A couple of them had to sit very close to the still life; others, had to take a picture to print or view on an iPad just a few inches from their face.

Here is the work of a student with even less vision. There are no specifics when it comes to value and fabric folds in this drawing.

Students with no vision would feel the still life, and I would help them mimic the folds in the fabric with wiki sticks, which they would then use as guidelines when adding the value.

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

Empty toilet paper tubes are easily accessible and accumulate quickly with the help of school custodians and parents. Here are a few projects we did in my art class recently, using those tubes.

Relief Art

We cut each cardboard tube into 4 or 5 rings. Then we painted, arranged and hot glued them together to form several pieces of wall art. From a distance it looks like metal. I was more involved with this project since most of my students can't use a hot glue gun safely, but everyone kept busy with our collaborative projects and a few made their own ornaments and wreathes.

Tube Owls

These owls took about 30 minutes to make. I offered googly eyes and feathers, but most students chose to use markers and construction paper, with charming results.

Pattern Prints

The ends of tubes can be dipped in paint and stamped on paper to create circles. If those ends are cut with slits or triangles and fanned out, flower or star shapes are created. Tubes can be folded into triangles or squares as well. Since the tubes were free, there's nothing to loose with a little experimenting. Stamping is a form of printmaking and pattern/repetition is a principle of design, so we're covering the art standards in a way that is fun.