clay all day.

This week I entered my clay phase;)

The 2nd and 5th graders are both working with clay for the next two weeks and then the 3rd graders will be for the two weeks after that. Time to break out the lotion:)

The 2nd graders are making clay tiles inspired by the work of Invader. I have been stoked about trying this with them for some time and I think the kids are enjoying it too. We take a look at his website and he's got a map of the world that shows where all his "invasions" have taken place. You click on any of the cities and it takes you to photo/s of the works at that place. Pretty darn slick! Look out for the moving one too- he's got a piece on the outside of the International Space Station too.

Five years ago, he invaded San Diego, so we look at those. Some of them are still around the city. While we are looking, I point out how he only uses squares and rectangles to create his images. We talk about pixels, old school videogames, and of course, minecraft.

The role the kids play in this project is that of an invader creator. Their job is to design their own invader using only squares and rectangles. Also, they use the texture of legos to alter the texture of their clay tile. The kids have been pretty engaged with this one;)

The kids sketch out 3 different designs, decide which one they will do, share their reasoning with a neighbor, and then get stamping. When we get to the stamping part, I emphasize that they only need to press softly. If they go to hard, they will punch a hole through the clay. Some kids inevitably do this, but I tell them it does add a little character to their overall design- which, when controlled, it does. They should use the legos as stamps and not as cookie cutters.

Next week, we'll paint 'em.

The 5th graders are making modified coil vessels for their clay project. I have been using work by high school students up in LA county as the inspiration for this one. Debra Price-Agrums teaches at Whitney high school and her students can rock the clay work:)

I demonstrate various ways they can coil and modify coils to create their form. The shape and style is up to them. Next week, they will glaze them.

I love how this guy used his leftovers to make something else, too:)

Check out that interior!

hip to be square.

The 5th graders are going retro this week. Some with a sculpture project and others with a collage project. 3 classes are creating space invader wood block sculptures that are inspired by the video game and the sculptures of Jason Torchinsky. The other 3 classes are creating abstract collages inspired by the geometric forms from minecraft and other 8-bit video games.

Both projects have been big hits.

A few things to think about...

1. Make sure, when starting a grade level sculpture project, that you have enough supplies. (I realized halfway through that I wouldn't have enough wood blocks, so hello minecraft;)

2. Expect a noisy class when the kids are working in teams on sculpture projects. I'm totally cool with it, but the classroom can get energized.

3. Have plenty of paper squares cut for a collage project that requires many 1" squares for 34 students per class.

4. On the same note, make sure your paper cutter is well oiled, so it won't be so darn irritating on your ears throughout the lesson.

 I love the planning to make the arms work:)

 Nice job keeping their classmates clean:)

invaded by weavings!

This week I wanted to get the 3rd graders some practice with weaving as a process in art. We talk about warp and weft, over and under, and the alternating pattern found in most clothes.

We practice doing an AB pattern with cut paper a couple times, so they get a basic understanding of weaving and then I tell them to pull them apart because we are going to do something a little different...

I share the work of Invader, a street artist from Paris who puts up ceramic tile space invaders in cities all over the world. He visited San Diego a few years ago and posted over 20 of these creatures. We looked at some from his website and a surprising amount of kids had seen a few of them in different parts of downtown. I talk about how parts of Invader's tile work look as if they could have been done with the weaving technique we just practiced.

I then share how Kate Lilley has taken the same space invaders from the 80s and created some cool paper weaving versions of them.

From here, I let the kids create their own woven paper invaders. I leave Kate's examples up on the screen and I do a demonstration next to them, so students can see how to make small and large parts of color. I point out how some parts of the invaders are close to the AB pattern we practiced, but other parts do a lot of skipping over or under the warp to create solid bands of color or white.

Once students have their invaders woven, they glue the ends for stability and then cut off any extra lengths of their warps.