Koi Fish Sculptures: Watch the Video Tutorial!

So it's a year of firsts, and I've tried my hand at making a video tutorial. Can I just say it is sooo much more difficult than it looks, but I hope to find it easier to accomplish as I continue. I also jumped into learning iMovie to edit things and make them fancy. I came up with this lesson for using Model Magic to create Koi Fish Sculptures last summer during my stint as a summer workshop teacher for my school district. 

The summer workshops for me are a great place to develop a lesson, to see which age groups it works best for, figure out what tools work best or what materials will be needed, how long the lesson may take etc. Not to mention, will the kids enjoy it? Will they all attain a level of satisfaction and success? Can early finishers assist those who need help, or who may have missed a class? These things are more important to me than the writing of the lesson plan. I know it's important, but it's a heck of a lot easier to explain in theory, when you have also accomplished the putting it into practice.  

This was also a lesson which helped me round out a ceramics and 3D workshop. The classes ran for 5 weeks, and towards the end, you just can't begin a ceramics project with no time left for drying, cycles in the kiln etc. Model Magic was a great option for the kids, and I am proud to say this lesson is all mine. I love this blogging community, and I love being inspired by all of your hard work! I am thankful to have the technology to research your successes and failures, and so happy to share this one with you.
 
I hope you get a chance to take a look. Enjoy!

EXTRA TIPS AND TRICKS: 

I’m not fond of using Model Magic in the hotter months, unless the art room is air conditioned. When it is hot, the material becomes soft too quickly.

A clean table top work surface is best, and reminders to students to pick up their projects now and then while working will prevent their projects from sticking. 

If you're creating this project in the classroom, I would plan for one class to introduce the lesson, a class to form the body (closing up projects in ziploc bags will keep them fresh for next time), and one to add colors and final details.

For drying time, I place projects on a layer of plastic wrap, let dry for a day or so, and then turn upside down or on it’s side for the last area to also dry out. A hard, stale marshmallow is kind of what you are looking for when it is completely dry.

If a piece was not properly attached, and falls off, I just hit it with a little bit of craft glue and it repairs nicely.

I attempted to give a finished piece a layer of Mod Podge to glaze it, and it was successful for me. Unfortunately, the little bit of extra time the kids took to paint a layer of Mod Podge over their projects caused the Model Magic to release it's color and bleed into the Mod Podge. Now Crayola does sell a glaze specifically for this purpose, but not in amounts for the classroom, so I haven't given it a try.

This subject matter lends itself to cross-curricular learning! Think anatomy, life cycle, or environment of fish, Asian art and culture, and so on. Not to mention, I used these sculptures for a collaborative lesson and display, which I will share soon! Make sure to check in and see it. Cheers!

Giraffe Wire Sculptures

Inspired by a lesson in My Art Book: Animals, and artist Andy Scott, students created these giraffe sculptures using Twisteez colored wire (one of my favorite products at the NAEA Convention this past March.) First they chose a color for their cardboard bases and painted them with acrylic paint. They then learned to make a basic armature, plotting out the anatomy of their giraffes. Starting with the legs, additional wires were added to flesh out and strengthen their sculptures. Photographs of giraffes were available for reference. 

I really enjoyed watching these sculptures come to life!  I also loved seeing how each student made their creation unique from others by choices in color, placement, and all of their hard work wrapping, attaching and bending the wires. It was also a great lesson for balance. The legs of the sculptures had to be strong enough to support the rest of the body. If someone started building the head, they would soon realize that they had to stop to focus on building up the lower areas. Then they could return to the top of the sculpture. Enjoy!

Navajo Storyteller Figures

The children and I learned about the importance of storytelling as tradition in the Navajo culture. Storyteller figures in terracotta clay depict that tradition. Each student created a storyteller of their own in terracotta air-dry clay, and decorated it with acrylic paint. Some distinctive features of the figures are the round open mouth, closed eyes, and traditional Navajo dress. 

Standing figure forms were shaped like a bell, and then head, hair, and arms were added using score and slip method. For seated figures, children formed a thick coil, bent it into an 'L' shape, and then separated the bottom half into two legs. Again head, hair, and arms were added using score and slip method. Figures were painted using a limited palette and some areas of the clay were left unpainted. Details were added with fine brushes and/or black sharpie marker. Enjoy!

William the Hippo Sculptures

I recently taught a lesson about William the Hippo, who is the unofficial mascot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is a small sculpture found in the Egyptian galleries, and is quite a popular artifact with museum visitors. William was found in an ancient tomb from about 4,000 years ago. Among many other objects, the hippo helps one on his journey to the afterlife. His blue color and lotus flower decoration represent the Nile River. It can also represent the celebration of the hunt. I thought, what a great idea for a sculpture project!

We worked in air dry clay, and started by forming a large fist sized ball of clay for the body, one about half that size for the headand neck, and then rolled a coil and cut it into four sections for the legs. The children then scored and wet the pieces to fuse them together and worked on forming a realistic hippo shape. After the clay was dry, we painted our "Williams" with Cerulean Blue acrylic paint. The last step was to draw on the lotus decorations with Sharpie marker. Here are images at work and of our final projects. I love them all!

Turkey Pinch Pots

I saw this lesson at  Deep Space Sparkle and was thrilled to give a new pinch pot idea a try. Plus I had parents talking about not having too many pieces of art that made good Thanksgiving decorations. This project seemed to fit all the criteria!

I have finally moved on from Crayola Air Dry clay, and I will never go back! Not having a kiln has made me hesitant to push on with clay projects, but it is so important to have that tactile experience, and to work three dimensionally. For this project we used Amaco air dry clay and it outperformed the Crayola by leaps and bounds.

We each worked with a baseball sized ball of clay, gently kneading it to use the warmth of our hands to soften the clay. Then each child pushed one finger into the center of their ball to create the center of the pot. We didn't thin out the walls of the pot too much, to allow for pulling the head and neck from one end and the tail feathers from the other. The beak, waddle, and wings were added with extra pieces of clay, and the children were instructed on how to score and moisten the point of contact to get it to adhere well. The turkeys were finished off with acrylic paint after they had completely dried.

The Completed Giacometti Sculptures

Here are some of the completed Giacometti sculptures. The children really took to this project and were so productive. If the stages are messy, tactile and fun, I think we can accomplish anything!

Our sculptures grouped together and compared with the master.

Heavy Walker

Tall Female

 Arms Wide Open

Low and Lazy

Giacometti Sculptures

My students and I worked as sculptors and created figures inspired by Alberto Giacometti. We talked about how the figures made us feel. They are tall, lonely, and held to their bases with heavy feet. They are textural and monochromatic. I showed them photographs of the artist with his works and they could see how he looked like his artwork. We then talked about the process of casting a metal sculpture and one of my students wanted to know why we weren't going to do our sculptures that way. Since my studio doesn't have the capacity for a foundry, I made things up to them by letting the paint their sculptures with metallic acrylic paint.

We each started with an 8" square base of corrugated cardboard and four 12" lengths of light garden wire to create an armature. I've seen this lesson done with pipe cleaners as well, but I just couldn't cover them up! We began by placing the legs onto the base where we thought our figure should stand, and then poked the wires through the base, bent about a 1/2 " of wire flat long the bottom, and taped it there. These two lengths of wire became the bottom of the torso and legs. The third length became the arms, and the fourth was shaped into the head, neck, and upper torso. Next we took large pieces of aluminum foil and molded them around the wire armature to flesh out the figure's shape. The final stages were to wrap the foil with strips of plaster gauze to harden and solidify the sculpture and then to add a coat of acrylic paint. The children got to choose from copper and bronze. The final projects are coming up on my next post!

Mexican Suns and Air Dry Clay

The final projects from this class were so great, but it was a long, hard road of a learning experience to get there! I practiced this class with the girls and found it very troublesome. What surface to work on was a challenge. We tried on wax paper (too flimsy), newsprint (the same and the ink would come off onto everything) and then I pulled out a couple of ceramic floor tiles we had for samples to use in our house. The clay stuck! Nothing was successful! I did a little research and found that a vinyl kitchen table cloth or canvas works best. The kids said that they each get a canvas mat to work on at school. I can't find any real art supply product for this activity, so I'm still wondering what to get.

Working with air dry clay was another challenge. I tried the lesson with Crayola air dry clay, and wasn't too impressed. It broke very easily and some repair work was done to a couple of the projects. Now, I'm working from my home studio, and firing clay and a kiln will never happen, so I need to find a better alternative. And over and over I find that Crayola makes great crayons and markers, but not much else as far as art supplies go.

I found an entry on an online resource by a clay artist who was asked to try out different products and give his opinion. He said that Amaco air-dry was the best product or to use Della Robbia oven bake clay. Any suggestions art teachers?

All in all, the suns were beautiful, and I definitely want to keep clay sculpture in my repertoire. Here are some images. One student loved his so much, he drew it over and over, and made drawings for me to keep as well. That is success!