Forgive a little horn-tooting here! Just wanted to share that a short article I submitted to Arts And Activities Magazine has been published in their May 2013 issue – what fun!
This article was part of the magazine’s 80th Anniversary issue. My contribution to their “It Works” section showed how I used a project submitted by Elaine Caulfield, changing it up for my fifth grade end of the year project.
You can find my original blog post for the project here: Blob Flowers.
Fifth Grade artists learned about metal repousse, the ancient art of embossing or pressing shapes into metal.
Embossing the metal foil
After embossing their designs, they wiped India Ink on the surface to bring out the textures and patterns.
applying India Ink
applying India Ink
They finished their piece by extending their patterns from the foil onto black paper.
Some students preferred the shiny surface instead of their india ink side…they chose which side to display.
Thanks to the March 1999 Arts And Activities magazine for this project idea.
Have I mentioned before that I adore my first grade artists? Check out their stunning self portraits and beautiful clay pendants!
The project began with the creation of our clay pendants – my first grader’s very first clay project! After some time rolling and smooshing the clay, we smashed it into a nice clay cookie and added texture with bottle caps and sticks. After oohing and aahing at their finished glazed pendants, they spent lots of time lining up their beads in different patterns before stringing them.
Next came the portraits – we viewed self-portraits by famous artists, and there was lots of giggling as we looked in our mirrors and drew our faces. First graders smiled into their mirrors and noticed how lines showed up around their mouths, noticed that their eyebrows were made up of little hairs, and that their ears were in line with their eyes.
Their finished portraits are so cute – and many of them captured a good likeness of themselves!
This project was inspired by a Summer 2010 article from Arts And Activities Magazine – “Jewelry Portraits” by Aimee Fresia.