Calder Sculptures

Fourth grade artists had a blast making these colorful Calder sculptures!  They used problem solving skills to fold and create a standing “stabile” sculpture in the style of Calder’s “La Grande Vitesse” that can be seen on the Calder Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids.

Calder La Grande Vitesse

IMG_8208 First everyone made a practice sculpture from plain paper.  Bonus if you could get your paper sculpture to stand on its own!

IMG_8243 Students traced their practice sculpture on to heavy weight tagboard, then cut and folded their mini Calder “just right” so it would stand.  Their next challenge was to add sticker dots so their stabile would be interesting from all angles.

IMG_8238 IMG_8239 IMG_8240 IMG_8241 IMG_8242 Love these beautiful sculptures!

I Can:

*Tell a friend the difference between a mobile and a stabile sculpture

*Create a stabile sculpture that stands on its own

Special thanks to Pink Stripey Socks for this project inspiration!

Calder Sculptures

Fourth grade artists have been exploring the sculptures of Alexander Calder – they loved seeing photos of his studio filled with bits of wire and junk!

Calder in his studio.

I gave my students a Calder Challenge for their sculptures:

1) their sculpture must have both moving (mobile) parts and non-moving (stabile) parts

2) their sculpture must have visual interest from every angle

The challenge was met – as you can see!

 Lots of good recycled junk to choose from!

 Sculpture in the works

 

Drawing our sculptures in our sketchbooks – translating what we see from 3D to 2D!

And some completed Calder-esque masterpieces….