Umbrella Mushrooms & Eight Foot Checkerboards

We are thinking big in my art room these days. My set design class has been making the backdrops for our "Alice in Wonderland" themed prom. We went through a lot of painter's tape to make a checkerboard pattern on two white and two black 8'X4' pieces of birch.

Then, some of my daily art students and I took a couple of broken umbrellas and turned them into giant mushrooms. For the base, we poured cement into coffee cans and stood giant cardboard tubes in them. The umbrellas were inserted into the tops of tubes and from the bottom of the cans to the top of the umbrella handles were wrapped in big cardboard to give it the shape of a mushroom stem.

In order to change the shape of the umbrella top, we kept taping mounds of newspaper to the top, and trying to add poster board to the edges.

 Then we spent a couple of days with papier-mâché. Using strips of newspaper dipped in either fabric starch or a flour-water mixture.  We painted the mushrooms  tan with house paint and finally, we dusted with pink (or blue) and gold spray paint. Prom is still more than a month away, but we've got more ideas and projects to do.

Gingerbread Themed Christmas Sets

This year, I was given the green light to take the sets for our school winter concert sets any direction I wanted, so I directed myself towards a gingerbread theme. Yum! I had two high school students help me hone the idea, transfer my drawings on to 4 8'X4' panels, and paint the large areas.

Part of this theme came from wondering if there was a way to transform our giant (6 foot tall) Snoopy dog house from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" into a gingerbread house. The top had been flat, for Snoopy to use as a singing platform then; but I talked the set builders (horticulture teacher and two other students) to raise the roof, and close the front and back triangle shaped hole. The wood didn't fit exactly, but a little masking tape was used to cover the gaps, and with enough brown paint, no one can tell from a distance.

It was strange to see our spring musical images covered up little by little and gratifying to see a whole new look.



We also got to paint a Santa Sleigh for a student Christmas party photo op.

The day we took the panels out of my classroom to go to the stage and lobby was a bitter sweet day. My classroom feels like my house the day on January 2nd: almost naked and stark without all the holiday cheer, but also cleaner and bigger. The program today was wonderful, and I'm so glad I got to help.