Filibert the Frog Prince

Since the beginnings of Eudora's adorable cheeks, I began thinking about creating a frog. Then I decided to turn him into the Frog Prince, but of course he needed a fun name too and behind the name did not disappoint!

Meet Filibert the Frog Prince:

He'll be a lovely green color when he's finished. Too bad he's not real!

Juicing

After seeing a ceramic juicer on etsy the other day, I decided that I would try to make one myself! I don't have a juicer in order to compare size and depth of the grooves, so I hope my version works. Also, after it was pretty much complete (throwing phase), I'm a bit worried about how to trim the bottom since I don't have a griffin grip yet, oops! Hopefully I'll be able to borrow one, or perhaps the bottom will look OK after a little smoothing with the sponge.

Here's how it looks untrimmed/non-cleaned up:

Here it is after some cleaning up. I wonder how well it'll work...

 

Another type of juicer keeps entering my mind, so I may try that next since trimming it would be a bit easier. I wonder if this will work...

Meet Fergus' Sister:

Isn't she adorable???

I just need to trim the bottom, which hopefully will go well and she will survive the process!

Update:

She survived the trimming procedure and now awaits firing and glazing, yay! I wonder what color she will become? Pink? Red? Yellow? Those are the three that I've been considering, hmmm...decisions, decisions :)

Bisque Fired and Meet Fergus!

Monday afternoon, I picked up my cupcake stand and my mom's bowl from A! She's so nice to let me fire with her :) Here are the pics after being bisque fired:

Also, I finished making my egg separator, who I have lovingly named Fergus. Don't you just love that name? It fits him so perfectly!

Meet Fergus:

Isn't he cute???

Early Morning Projects

Since my body decided it was time to be up for the day at 1 AM, I decided to play with my porcelain clay for a while before perhaps talking my body into taking a nap so I can stay up until a reasonable time to go to bed tonight!

Here are the wheel thrown projects from this morning (they are untrimmed, so please excuse the rough edge around the bottom):

First I made a little container (the original idea was to make an egg separator, but then I started playing with my edging tool and figured out how to put a lip edge for a lid to sit on, which of course, led to making a lid!) Both pieces are about 2.5" tall (the salt shaker is there for size reference).

After playing around with a juicer idea, I decided to scrap it for now and make a cake stand. I used the edging tool on this as well and like how much more professional it looks than when I used use the sponge, a piece of plastic, or my fingers to create a smooth edge. It's pretty short though (2"-3" high X 10.5" wide (4-5 lbs)), so I will use more clay next time (6-7 lbs?) in order to make a taller one (at least 4" high). Perhaps this one will become a base for a stackable cake stand, hmmm... (I also forgot to put the bat on the wheel, oops! so I'm leaving this to dry on the wheel for a little while before detaching it.)

 

I was afraid that this cake stand would be too thin and it definitely was, oops! It met its demise after sitting upright for a while prior to going back to trim it. At least it happened before a cake was sitting on it! It cracked and was slowly falling toward the bat all the way around where the base was attached.

Pottery

While my mom was in town last month, I gave her a pottery lesson. Her bowl came out superbly! After drying (for a little too long), I trimmed it and dropped it off to get fired. Today, I got notice that it's ready to be picked up, along with my first cupcake stand! (The other cupcake stands didn't made it to the trimming/pick up stage. Also, somehow, after this cupcake stand was pretty dry and I had trimmed it, it cracked - but! instead of tossing it, I'm going to create and attach a glass top to it, yay for being creative!).

Here's my mom with her bowl:

End of Year Reflection

In no particular order, here are some reflections from my first year of teaching:

1. Even when everything seems planned, it's not (It takes more than 3-4 days to get ready for the year and the lesson schedule was changed at least 3-4 times before there was a good balance between instruction and projects).

2. Don't squish students into small spaces - they get VERY loud! (no more than 4-5 at a table).

3. Even when students don't like their projects, they typically love having the same projects hung on the wall or in the hall.

4. I am an AMAZING art teacher! (so says the principal - "deep" art and no more color-by-numbers, yay!)

5. When the teacher knows they are in charge, the children will behave better than when the teacher isn't sure whether they are in charge.

6. It is very difficult to learn 440 students names. By the end of the year, I still didn't know all of them, but did now a lot of them!

7. Teaching helped me gain a lot of self-confidence and I am a lot more outgoing than I used to be.

8. Thirty minutes is too short for art classes, forty-five minutes would be great!

9. Even though I thought that second graders were the craziest grade to teach, they turned into my favorites! (Do you recall the comment, "Miss S is a work of art."? How could that not melt your heart? So cute!)

10. Kindergarten art activities were the most difficult to plan. (Their skill level was so much lower than the first graders that they need completely separate lessons. We had some great projects though! They especially liked having a story to go along with their art.)

11. I loved watching the students become more creative and their willingness to take chances with their art work over the year. (The story Ish by Peter H. Reynolds and consistent reminders that we are simply practicing and that even professionals still make mistakes eventually settled in and the students were willing to try difficult projects without tears or complaints.)

12. Ice cures practically anything! (Even though this drives the secretaries crazy, oops!)

13. Mystery scrap is the best invention ever for getting the room cleaned up! (pick a piece or two of garbage or something out of place - whoever picks it up gets a little treat/sticker/school cash).

14. Prayer solves all problems. (Once I began praying for extra help in teaching and seeing the students and all those around me as He sees them, things got so much easier to manage and guide.*)

I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity; it was the perfect first year experience! All my prayers were answered in regards to obtaining this position (Title 1, close by, max of 25 students/class, part-time, art specialist, etc.). Hopefully I can now get a full-time contract for next year and perhaps even memorize ALL of my students' names - Imagine that!


*Bonus: I've been peeling my fingernails since I was three. (I have grown them out for a few months several times over the years, but have never gotten over the source of the trigger to pick at them.) At the beginning of the year, my fingernails were shredded with the stress of being a first year teacher (I was so nervous every day!). By the end of the year, I had learned to pray more effectively and rely on Him to help me through, which ended up helping me to have normal looking nails by the end of the year! In addition, I have also learned to eat healthier and with no anxiety that there isn't enough food. I have been incredibly blessed this year!

Mexican Celebration Week!

Last week, in art class, I presented Mexican Celebration Week! 99.5% of the students enjoyed the idea. The only complaints I received were from two Hispanic students that said that it was dumb that we were celebrating cinco de Mayo since it's not a big deal in Mexico. I know that it's not a big deal for the majority of Mexican's but we can still celebrate. After all, it's a good reason to add in some Mexican culture to our art class!

The older students (4th, 5th, and 6th) have been begging to make masks ever since they saw the first grader's Korean masks. Therefore, I showed them Juan Horta Castillo masks and discussed his fame throughout Mexico and the US.

The first through third graders made images of Market Day using colored papers and simple shapes to make complex shapes. I got the idea from HERE. Then I added in my own flair by showing the students the Visit Mexico poster and an image of a Mexican market (pg. 40).

Finally, in honor of Mexican Celebration week AND Mother's Day, the Kindergartners made flower bouquets using Dahlias, the official flower of Mexico.  I drew the flowers and stems and had them copied for the Kindergartners. They then cut everything out and colored the flowers (the stems were copied onto green paper).

Student Art Show

The student art show was tonight! It went amazingly well, even with the hiccups around our play - one of the students was late, then didn't know the lines at all. It was really quite funny! I just chalked it up to an "ish" play of Ish, lol! Also, we ended up performing twice since our "camera-man" didn't realize that we had started until the middle, when he finally pushed record, oops! We also had some last minute help from two students in different classes to be Marisol's br walls. I'm hoping to burn it to CD tomorrow and will plan to show it to the students next Thursday during class. :)

Originally, the play/show was to be held in the gym, but was then moved to the media center. It looked awesome in the media center (pictures to come soon)! So many people helped put this art show together and I'm ever so grateful for their willingness to help. The whole thing would not have been possible without the students, so I will put them at the top of my list! Then the PE teacher helped immensely! as well as lots of help, especially today, from several of the aides, yeah!

The parents and students wandered in and out throughout the evening and were all quite positive. The students had fun finding their art and were telling their parents all about their projects. They were so proud of their work! About half-way through, I had a thought that I could write down all of the positive comments, but instead, I decided to simply enjoy them (that's very Ish). At the end, the principal told me that all the parents have loved the art projects that they've seen this year (The principal came in at least four times, always with a big smile :) He loved it!) Go me (and especially all the inspiration from up above and all the extra help from friends, family, and all my awesome co-workers)!

Most students made a tag stating their name and the title of their artwork. Near the class's/grades artwork, a little bit about the art was included in English and Spanish (I only saw one parent look at the info sign, but at least it was there), although having everything by class was perfect! The parents and students were all able to find the projects easily. Each grade had a different color of the rainbow for the teachers' names starting with Kindergarten (I wonder if anyone noticed?).

(overview)

 (Clockwise from top: Korean masks, Jamaican paintings, 6th grade quilt tops, paper circles)

 (Clockwise from top: Jataka Tales printing, adinkra stamps, The Dot, Dale Chihily sculptures)

(Clockwise from top: Claes Oldenburg (pencils, etc), Alexander Calder mobiles, the aftermath in the classroom1 & 2 - what a mess! Two of my third graders came in Friday morning and asked if they could help clean up - they are so sweet! Several other students saw that they were in there and asked if they could help too. By the time my Kindergartners came in, everything was pretty well picked up. Plus they didn't even ask for payment (prize bucket or school cash). I was amazed! What a great answer to prayer :)   )

Kindergarten - The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds (These were adorable! Definitely a favorite project-I should do more "book arts" projects! They're fabulous!)

First Grade - Cultural Masks (after my friend M taught class 2 about Korean masks, I decided to have all the first graders work on Korean masks! They turned out really well and I was highly impressed with what they remembered from her presentation! They are sooo smart!)

Class 1 - Mexico
Class 2 - Korea
Class 3 - Native America

Second Grade - Cultures

Class 1 - Jataka Tales (India) - printing (great project! Special thanks to all the donated supplies on this one!)
Class 2 - Southeast Asia - shadow puppets (I realized this was way too difficult after researching a bit more and changed it to Jamaican painting, which turned out fabulously (bright colors, lots of water, fish, tropical fruits, etc)! This was definitely one of my favorite projects too :)  )
Class 3 - Africa - weaving (Kente cloth/Master Weaver of Ghana - way to difficult after trying it out and was switched to adinkra stamping techniques instead, which they loved!)

Third Grade - Sculptures

Class 1 - Claes Oldenburg (sculptures of oversized everyday items) - these students were so diligent in working on their projects and most turned out really well!
Class 2 - Dale Chihuly (using balloons) - this one got a lot of jealous comments from other student's wondering why THEY didn't get to do this! This one also got the most pictures by parents :)
Class 3 - Alexander Calder (wire and paper/cardboard mobiles)


Fourth Grade - Papermaking/basketry (tried the basketry, but it was way too difficult! However, they loved the papermaking!)

How paper is made (Egyptians, toilet paper, copy paper) and the artist Jessica Stockholder.
They will also help set up the art show

Fifth Grade - Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

A play complete with backdrops of student art work - turned out sooo hilariously!

Sixth Grade - Fabric Arts (ended up with six quilts that were done enough to display - if i ever do this project again, I will limit the picture options and explain a LOT more!)

Art Quilts

(Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh was the first art/picture quilt I made)

For awhile now, I've been wanting to have my art students to participate in some sort of service project. After looking around, I found one art project for children to exchange their artwork with children in Iraq. I loved this idea, but was apparently too late in getting involved. Then, while looking through the school district paper, I found the perfect project!

One of the schools in the district had teamed up with Operation After Action in SLC, UT. They collected quilts/blankets and stuffed animals and sent them to hospitalized children in Iraq!

I want my students to realize that children are children no matter where they live. When I was in school (somewhere between 4-12 grade), I realized the truth of that. In one of my classes, a girl had recently moved to the US from Russia. There were several times prior to this when we had bomb drills during school. I was terrified that the Russians were going to bomb our school/community at any time! The new student stated that she had felt the same way about the US and how she had had nightmares that a US ship would bomb her apartment as it drifted down the river next to her apartment. I was shocked! She set me straight by saying of course I was scared too!

It was after this that I realized that there are two sides to everything and just because some people choose to do terrible things, it doesn't mean that the whole place they're from does terrible things! I'd like my students to understand this on some level by serving fellow children in Iraq. The great news is that the principal loves this idea! So, it's on!

My sixth graders are going to make nine child-size quilts (35"x45") based on famous art work of their choice. I'm so excited!!!  

Anyone want to help us out by donating some fabric scraps???

Movement in Art

My K-3 graders made legs in order to understand movement in art, inspired by this artist: http://theartroomplant.blogspot.com/2011/01/clare-h-johnson.html We also looked at a Jackson Pollack painting, which the students loved! Especially one who has the same name :) Too bad I didn't get any pictures during class! The students were so creative with their designs. Two of my second graders measured the legs I gave them; they are 12" long :)

To start with, I asked the students how their bodies move (joints). Then we talked briefly about how we can see movement in art (Jackson Pollock painting - Ocean Greyness) through the brush strokes, how the artist had to move to create the art, etc. I drew an outline of two legs on a regular piece of paper and the copy aide copied it to a large piece of construction paper. 

The students cut out the two legs and created their movement art using fabric, pictures, markers, cotton balls, beans, yarn, colored pencils, crayons, etc. I attached the two legs with a brad at the top. Some students drew the leg/foot bones in, some made socks, some drew fancy shoes on them, some of the boys put "wounds" squirting with blood, some made "hairy" legs by cutting the edge in slivers, some had patterns on them, some used the "fancy" (scrapbook) scissors for a border pattern, etc. I also referenced the book I ain't gonna Paint no More by Karen Beaumont, which has great illustrations! They loved it!

Student Art Overview

The top right image is a nice mixture of our complementary art unit.

The bottom left are part of what's left of the students' ceramics (there are two shelving units). By the end of next week, they should all be on their way home with the students or on display in the library's Art Gallery!

The students have begun making me more art to keep lately (top left and bottom right) and I've finally had time to display their work on the classroom walls. So cute! I actually "paid the student who made me the top picture on the bottom right (yellow, blue, and green lines titled: "Trees"). He asked if I would buy it from him, so I told him what my specifications are (title, signature, and meaning behind the image). This is his second attempt and the one he felt was good enough to "sell." I gave him a "Stallion buck" to use at the school store.

Above are some of our painting tools. What a messy process painting is! The students do love it though!



Below are some images of the Library Art Gallery. It turned out beautifully! Thanks to everyone who helped out!

There are six autumn still-lifes from the fifth and sixth grade on the top left (boxes, fabric, pie pumpkins, gourds). On the bottom left are five of our "Circle" paintings (2nd & 6th grades), which involves major lessons in color (primary, secondary, tertiary, tints, and shades - where the students must mix their own colors. They both love and hate mixing their own colors, lol!). We are being inspired by Robert Delaunay's Circular Formes (detail)*

The yellow tags on the top of the shelf in the picture directly above and directly below are labels for a few ceramic pieces that the students were willing to let me display. Some of their ceramics came out especially well!


In the picture below, the two images to the left of the "complementary colors" sign on the bottom and the rest of the smaller 2D images in this picture are all based on complementary colors by the first through sixth grades. First through second grade made "cityscapes", second through fourth grade made "wacky weaving" designs, and the fifth and sixth graders created an oil pastel and chalk pastel design using a straight line border and three types of line throughout. These came out especially well!**

Lastly, the second and third grade made landscape drawings/watercolor paintings. The second grade added weather elements to their landscapes. I was pleasantly surprised at the imagination depicting these elements (rain, wind, snow, sun, clouds, etc). The third grade learned about landscapes from nature and made their initial drawings outside! They were taught to observe that the trees in front of them were blocking out a lot of the mountain behind them, and were to be drawn larger than the mountain on their papers (even though we know that the trees are actually smaller than the mountains). Some of them were surprised when this was pointed out! A couple of these images are amazingly well done for the age group. I wonder where these students will end up and what they will do with their artistic abilities.

*by Robert Delaunay's Circular Formes (detail):

 

**This is the project the students worked on during my teaching evaluation. The principal LOVED this project and so did the students!

Too Cute!

Some of my students have begun referring to art class as Artist Class. I overheard a couple of them talking about how they just love Artist Class where they get to do whatever they want (not exactly true, but I do give them creative license, lol)! Isn't that just adorable???

The students are loving our newest project, which involves major lessons in color (primary, secondary, tertiary, tints, and shades - where the students must mix their own colors. They both love and hate mixing their own colors, lol!). We are being inspired by Robert Delaunay's Circular Formes (detail):