Pinch Pot

A recent art assignment Holly did was to work with clay and create a pinch pot. First we talked about what a pinch pot was, saw some examples through an art book we use and watched a small clip online on pinch pots. Then she set to work familiarizing herself with clay and quickly learned it is a bit more difficult to use then play dough. She had to work with the clay with moist hands, really get her hand muscles working and have a lot of patience! She created a little pot with an attached butterfly on the front, making for some sensitive pieces. Over all she loved working with the clay.

We used the Crayola air dry clay, which meant her project had to dry for a few days. Holly had a bit of impatience in the drying process and had to keep touching it to check it... resulting in a small chunk breaking off. A lesson in itself, I made her work with it versus fixing it. Once dried she then painted the pot in watercolors. It turned out very cute and will be a fun touch on a shelf in her room.

Rainbow Batik

I saw this wonderful project at this great site Pink and Green Mama (a favorite of mine)- as soon as I saw the project, I just had to try it out with Holly as this was right up her alley. When I showed her what we were doing, she was very excited. We started with a white cloth napkin and if she enjoyed this project we would later tackle something larger like an apron or book bag. This was just the right size for now though.

You take your Elmers Gel Glue and draw a design all over your fabric. Let is sit and dry for a couple of hours, we set ours in the sunshine. Then you paint your design with acrylic paint - rainbow colors for us. Again, let this dry for a couple of hours, we set ours in the sunshine. Once the paint is dry you will then soak your fabric in a sink of hot water for about 15 minutes and the glue will begin to dissolve. You can scrunch/rub the fabric together to encourage it to happen quicker, this will not ruin your paint job. Once the glue has fully dissolved from the fabric it will reveal the design you created, a batik.

This project, though it looks fancy, was amazingly easy and quick! Holly truly enjoyed this - we'll be doing more I am sure! A fun art project!!!

Rainbow Shells

Holly chose some white shells from her collection of shells today to paint. She had a selection of paints to try and she opted for watercolor paints. Since the water color will wash off I plan to seal them with clean acrylic paint. These new rainbow shell treasures will be added to her sensory tub or nature collection - which ever she sees fit. Holly loved this rather quick and easy project - perfect for a nice drizzly afternoon!

Symmetry

This week we started a unit on butterflies and with that we also did a nice lesson on symmetry, a good review. This lesson works great with butterflies since they are fantastic examples of natural symmetry.

Holly enjoyed the classic art project of folding a piece of paper in half and painting one side, refold and smoosh the paint well then open to see a symmetrical design. She did this with plain paper and a butterfly cut out. She was bummed on her butterfly design the paper flapped over and the paint mixed in the wrong area... she quickly enjoyed her design and accepted the mistake on her project. All part of learning!

As well, we watched a small YouTube video on natural symmetry in our world and then she went in a scavenger hunt in the house for objects that display symmetry. She finished up with a worksheet on line symmetry and she cut our her own symmetrical design.


The YouTube video we used was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX4cx-9zT1A&feature=player_embedded

Art Treasury - Wassily Kandinsky

Today we did a small study on Wassily Kandinsky from our Usborne's Art Treasury book. We also spent some time online looking for more information on this artist and viewing several of his art works. Holly learned about the specific piece Squares with Concentric Circles which was painted in 1913... she thought it was cool that that was almost 100 years ago! We learned that his method with this painting was to see how various colors worked with each other or against each other in this abstract art piece. Holly also learned about 'abstract art' - meaning no people, objects or scenes are depicted.

We also tried a modern version of this style of art by folding a large piece of paper in half length wise and then in half twice again to create eight squares. In those eight squares we drew patterns of circles in oil pastels. After the circles were all arranged we then painted in each square with water colors. The paint did a nice job of showing through all the little details in circle where paper was evident, creating a nice resist piece. The colors are vibrant. (I created an art piece with her because she really enjoys that and it helped to show techniques as she was moving along versus simply describing them.)

Holly enjoyed this art project and study so much - we'll have to do another one very soon!