Lesson Idea: The Deconstructed Book | 3D Design

This lesson idea is actually from my personal archives and is a project that I did my very first year of teaching at my current school but then I did it only one or two more semesters (out of a total of nearly eight that I have worked so far) after I did it the first time. I stumbled upon the original idea on Etsy probably at least five years ago but probably more and (like I always do) I mentally bookmarked it for the purposes of knowing that I would need it again in the future.

When the Lord was finally so gracious to put me in the classroom as an art teacher? Well... I got right to work with it and every student artist of 3D Design I had (of three sections total) did this project and we filled the student gallery hallway with these and it was, in a word? INCREDIBLE. It was like exploding books were simply raining from the sky and without me even realizing it I had essentially facilitated the first installation art exhibit I of my life. In the history of the school where I teach nobody had ever endeavored to hang student work from the ceiling so it was quite a bit of something to behold and (thankfully) I didn't get in trouble for drilling holes in the ceiling. (Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?) I wish I had some pictures to share of what it looked like but I don't and to show you what it really looks like we all are just going to have to wait for this coming semester's 3D Design installation exhibit endeavor because I plan to do the idea with them but put a bit of a spin on it. (You'll have to wait for the details of that!)

Still, I wanted to share this with you now because a parent of a student at my school is an art teacher at a local amazing public high school and she sent me an email asking me how I did this project. I started to respond to her email but then I realize that what I was about to respond with to her is something that others might enjoy knowing about as well and why don't I just put it on the blog? So... here I am! And here it goes... this is how I went about teaching my student artists how to do this deconstructed book project.



(My husband was so nice to keep the yelling at bay during the filming of this video. He knew I was going to be doing it and I hardly paid attention to him and the fact that he turned the TV down and kept a lid on the yelling specifically because I was filming the video! He is such a good guy that husband of mine.)

(Also and again, please pardon the ridiculous book that I was forced to use because I didn't have any other book in the house that I otherwise would have wanted to deconstruct. I still cannot figure out where the book came from in the first place and I am completely embarrassed to have it in my house for the language that was used in it alone! I mean, I don't consider myself a type who lacks a sense of humor and there was a stage in my life when I definitely did use some rather colorful language (like that found in the book) but still! Anyway...)

 So that's the deconstructed book art education project and lesson idea! Hope this was helpful to you and if you end up giving this a try, please let me know how it goes because I really love seeing how other people do things differently than I do.

Just for fun: Sculpting with Biodegradable Packing Peanuts

What is your experience with biodegradable packing peanuts? (They are also called cornstarch pellets.) They are an alternative to styrofoam packing material that appear to be the same thing but really are not. They are made out of cornstarch and they dissolve completely in water. Here is a video I found on youtube of some in a glass of water...

Silly (personal) backstory about these packing peanuts: 

I was first introduced to cornstarch pellets over 15 years ago when I was in high school doing yearbook. Some of our materials were shipped to us with them and going "green" was just starting to be a thing to do. I heard about them originally in science class and I was fascinated with the idea of them (I love things that are inventive and of out-of-the-box problem solving) so I was excited to finally see them in person. My science teacher had told me that you could eat them so I told my yearbook staffers (I was the editor-in-chief) that and I actually convinced everyone to eat one. After we had our fun laughing at one another and also being surprised by the fact that they were indeed edible, one of the staffers actually kept eating them! 

(o_o)

Yeah. *shrug* To each their own. 

Anyway, because I strongly dislike shopping in real time and at real places I do more online shopping than anything. Recently an early Christmas gift was delivered to me with the amazing-ness that IS cornstarch packing peanuts! I recalled my weird high school memories about them along with randomness I have read(and mentally bookmarked - as I do with everything) about using them for kiddie crafting and art.

The way it works is this: Put out a clean wet sponge, paper towel, or rag and then simply wet the end of one of the packing peanuts and then stick it to another one.

That's it! SERIOUSLY!!!

Here is my 4 yo daughter in action making a crown for herself...

You definitely have to be careful to not accidentally give your kid a glass/cup of water and just use a wet sponge or paper towel because if you don't you can bet they will just sit there and drop the pellets into the water and watch them all dissolve completely. So long as you don't do that though and your kids pay attention long enough to make something, you can even let them color what they made with markers!

I mean, I suppose you could try painting them but I wouldn't if I were use. I mean, you DO remember the video of how they interact with liquid, right?

The other night, my daughter pulled out the packing pieces and asked me to join her with sculpting and crafting. I had just put her flannel bedding on for her so I had elephants on the brain and so I ended up mindlessly making a baby elephant for my daughter. She was thrilled with the finished product:

If you interested in doing this sort of thing at home and want to order packing pieces you can either from a shipping company like Uline. You, of course, have to buy in bulk but if you are doing this for a project for preschool or other early childhood activity setting, that could work out. Also, here are some other blogs who have also adventured into the arena of sculpting with the packing pieces:

• Kids Activities Blog by the Quirky Mommas
• Special Education Services of Plano Independent School District
• Straight Dope Dad blog
• DuPage Childrens Museum blog

Just for Fun: Make your own (mobile) Refrigerator (door) ART gallery!!!

So, yesterday I teased you all with a long drawn out story about my quest to obtain a refrigerator door for a uniquely creative personal project I have been working on for a year and a half for my school. I absolutely want to pick up the story where I left it off but I also don't want to be a meanie and delay you from knowing where I am going any longer than I have to. I mean, forcing you all to sit through ANOTHER diatribe of unnecessary verbosity is just cruel - agreed?

SO! Without further adieu, here is a video explaining the saga of the refrigerator door a whole lot better...



And if you aren't keen on videos? Here is a picture from my instagram feed that might clue you in a little better until I tell the whole rest of the story next week (or something).

This will be a gallery within the student gallery that requires people to put their own artwork on it freely!!! Top picture shows the back of the door (on wheels) with a place to archive work that has been displayed for a while and a storage bin for cool magnets. The bottom left shows a full-length view of the whole front of the door. The bottom right picture shows the full-length view of the back of the door.

While I have named this gallery after a specific scripture, I see no reason that this idea couldn't be adapted to have a more secular vibe by using a quote like, "Every child is an artist..." by Picasso or the like. As far as I am concerned I think EVERY SCHOOL (or art museum or street corner for that matter) could use something like this. Don't you?

For that matter if you do agree with me and you decide to join me in this endeavor? Please PLEASE contact me and let me know how it goes for you!!!! I'd love to see pictures of your journey making it happen as well as pictures of the final product.

And I didn't even get arrested!

A week or so ago I briefly mentioned something about a (sort of secret) personal project that I have been diligently working on and I shared the below picture from my instagram feed.

When I took that picture, I was sitting in my car in the middle of a local (county-run) refuse/recycling yard while I was actually contemplating the possibility of lifting at least one set of refrigerator doors (pictured above) despite the fact that I had already been threatened with the possibility of being arrested.  Why? Well... because for the past year and a half, I have been on a quest to acquire a refrigerator door. No... no... not the whole refrigerator! I just wanted the front part - the DOOR(s) off the hinges.

(o_O)

Is this you right now?

That's right. You heard me. I just wanted the door(s)! I JUST WANTED THE DOORS. What of it?

[Warning: this is a long drawn out story that has an end but doesn't seem like it]

Lesson idea: Packing Tape People (Sculptures)

This project idea is not original and I snagged it after seeing it on my blogroll when Mark Jenkins and his art endeavors were highlighted.

This year there has been a general theme in the 3D Design classes that has carried/pushed art outside of the classroom and also promoted group/peer learning. While all of this has definitely been fueled by the massive amounts of graduate work I've been doing in order to earn my Masters of Arts in Teaching, it's served the students and school well. I have gotten great feedback about all of the attempts at installation art and I pray that I will be able to continue with this beyond this year.

Anyway, the packing tape sculptures. (Sorry. I am so easily sidetracked!)

The goal was to create multiple sculptures and place them in various places all around campus. All told, I believe we successfully designed, fabricated, and installed a little more than 10 sculptures.

Before the designing and sculpting occurred, I (with the help of two students) identified 18 "random" locations on the school's campus that would both permit as well as benefit from having a sculpture within it. Students grouped themselves in fours and fives and then picked locations from a pile. The last group from each class was permitted to open all of the "leftover" locations and select from that in order to show them they weren't "stuck" with anything that nobody else wanted.

The design process for conceptualizing each of the sculptures required them to visit their location and then fill out short answer worksheets and draw pictures (front, side, and back view) explaining their thought processes and intentions. We had class discussions about communication via body language and how the sculptures needed to draw upon that in order to correctly communicate whatever message the students were trying to make of their sculpture and its location. While the students fussed plenty (because we rarely to never do writing of any kind in 3D Design class ever) they completed their work in very impressive fashion and became that much more invested when they were creating the pieces.

The fabrication process went a number of different ways. In all ways, we employed the use of pre-wrapping in order to protect the individual's being cast from the stickiness (and pain) that can result from being wrapped in packing tape. We used all of the following as pre-wrap and I have indicated the overall end result below in ranked order:

1. Packing tape => This was the best overall!! It yielded the most solidly structured pieces and lent itself to creating things that had a real transculent quality that DIDN'T require any stuffing though we did end up stuffing all of them. The way we used this is we turned the tape sticky side out and wrapped with it very carefully and then we turned the tape around sticky side in and taped it upon itself.
2. Saran/Plastic wrap => Definitely very effective as much as it could be but we went through A LOT of this and since that made it that much more costly (just buying the tape alone was a huge investment) I didn't prefer it as my #1 choice.
3. Table paper => This is basically large "throw away" paper that we use for table coverings for quick clean-up. We used this because we ran out of the previous two and it was very difficulty to work with. If I do this project again I will do everything I can to NOT have to go this way.

 Below you will see pictures of the students doing the wrapping/sculpting of a selected group member in order to cast their sculpture...

When it came time to do the head/face, I made a rule that they were NOT allowed to cover anyone's face in pre-wrap or tape!!! I had them make a "cap" of sorts and then take it off of the person and use that as the beginning of the head that they had to sculpt more to make the face. Many of them stuffed the cap and then just kept adding tape and forming it until they were able to achieve shaping that more closely resembled a face. I instructed them to really concentrate on features like the chin and the nose in order to really make the face look that much more human.

Here are a few of the sculptures done and placed in their respective locations...

Windows lining the Student Art Gallery hallway.

Top floor looking down to the dining hall atrium. Tilt-shift effect via instagram.

Lifting weights in the student workout center.

Working in the Digital Art studio lab off the library.

Browsing in the school store for spirit wear. Tilt-shift effect via instagram.

In wait in the front office reception area. Tilt-shift effect via instagram.

Practicing a vocal solo in the choir room.

Enjoying a refreshment in the seated outdoor area off the dining hall and facing the quad.

Using the eyewash station in the Chem lab.

All in all, I would say this project was successful.  Some of the challenges faced by the students were many of which I predicted: creating structures that could stand alone, difficulty manipulating non-traditional art materials, and showing correct body proportions.

One thing that was completely unexpected was how "creepy" many of the sculptures would end up looking once they were placed in their designated locations. Speaking from experience, I forgot about them and would come upon one and be kind of startled. The idea behind each of them was to "represent and embody the spirit of any student at this school." While I believe that sort of occurred successfully, it definitely evoked an emotional response successfully that, while they each appeared creepy, definitely compelled the viewer to investigate the piece a little more closely and think about it a little bit longer. With that occurring, I feel the overall idea of the project and the execution of it was successful.

I plan on doing a version of this project again but probably not next year. I find it is smart for big attempts at outside-the-classroom art that it's best to do them every other year if they are repeated at all.

Moving right along...

A word of note: The previous posting was presented to you both in jest but all the same with an actually justifiable (as it pertains to the arts and communications) purpose and learning objective. If I offended you in any way by it, I apologize. It certainly wasn't intended to be offensive and for the record? None of the students are taking me all that seriously about it. As a matter of fact, more than half a dozen asked if they could get a "season pass" and just pay "a few bucks" in advance in order to be able to ensure that they can speak however they like.

---

Tomorrow SHOULD be the last day for the packing tape sculpture projects but as it's happening? Well... it's not going to happen. *womp womp* The absolute FINAL date will be Monday. And once that happens? Things like the below (examples of two of the most successful sculptures so far)...

Will be ALL. OVER. THE. SCHOOL!!!!!!

We are all about getting the art out of the art room and into the places with the people who might need a little more art in their lives.

The next thing on the agenda will be the long-awaited clay project that will require each of the students to look very critically at their own physical likeness and then sculpt themselves in "claymation"-form and style.

Pack it up, pack it in, let [it] begin...

Though it might seem a little off topic to entitle this posting with some House of Pain lyrics, it's actually not too off base since our first day of sculpting with packing tape in the 3D class has actually yielded some slight discomfort (that could be considered painful to some).

While it has been both fun, amusing, and challenging for all of the folks NOT being wrapped in saran wrap and then packing take the young folks who served as the models for the sculptures themselves? Some of them might have mentioned feeling like their circulation was being slightly cut off. *shrug* We are tortured artists as much as the best of them, right?

Here are just two snaps I put on instagram (username dreampraycreate if you want to "follow"). I am surprised I could get these pictures because honestly? I was laughing pretty hard during the whole process.

Most of the groups have not started because they have not filled out their worksheet/packets properly yet but starting some of the groups today really helped to motivate everyone else to do what they needed to do in order to get started tomorrow on the pre-wrapping and then wrapping/sculpting with the tape.

I suspect this project will go maybe a week of class time so I should have some good solid pictures of student work within the next two weeks! Yay!!!

Prom is in the air...

One of my favorite times of the school year is prom. It's always so exciting to see my students get really excited about this anxiously anticipated event and hear the hushed conversations about "will she/he or won't she/he?" regarding prom pairings.

Per tradition at my school, the young men always work hard to devise exciting, unique, creative, and unexpected ways to ask the young ladies to be their dates. This applies even for those intending to ask on the grounds of going as "just friends." Every year there are always a few standouts that really the rest of the "proposals" off the map but it's still fun to watch the guys really do their best to be as chivalrous as possible with their efforts.

This year one of my student aides (an advanced art student who I have had in almost every semester in some capacity of teaching) had a bit of a dilemma with deciding who and how he wanted to go about with the whole business of prom. I have had an ongoing inside joke with him that he needs to start using the expression "bomb dot com" more often. I mention the phrase itself within conversation at least three times a week. At this point he just laughs at me and says it back but I still have wanted him to really make it one of his signature phrases because, come on! It is AWESOME!!!!

With prom fast approaching and (as of yesterday) him still without solid plans for who he would take, he finally came in this morning at first period and said, "I got it!!! I KNOW WHO I WANT TO ASK!!!!!" As it turned out, that individual was another advanced art student who is really sharp, funny - just an all around great girl. And me being me? I pushed an idea that would draw upon the bomb dot com joke that we have been throwing back and forth.

In a little more than an hour of working together fervently to get things together, I'm delighted to present to all of you the work of art that my student and I made for his prom proposal...

Can you tell what it is? It's a triplet of faux dynamite sticks (fashioned from a random cardboard roll that was laying about the art studio classroom and would have just been thrown away) bound together with some painters tape and then a giant note with the big question.

I have yet to hear whether or not the answer to the question is yay or nay but I just happened to be walking through the hallway when the girl opened her locker, saw it, and pulled it out and from what I observed? She was both amused and delighted with the "gift."

I love my job. Seriously. Perhaps I should change my job title to Art Teacher and Matchmaker extraordinaire.

Partial reinvention of the ol' wheel

The 3D Design class is almost completely done with the/our first installation art exhibit the school might ever see and some are even in the process of moving toward our next project: Inspired paintings on a (very) textured surface!!!!

With Easter close enough on the timeline, it's about time for us to kick off our egg-centric (get it? eccentric!! HarHarHar!!!) project for this year. In the past, I've done egg art in the way of them being giant (-ish) egg shaped paper-mache sculptures.  With my attention span being about as long as my three-year old daughter's I'm easily bored doing the same thing twice and definitely thrice. So? This year the 3D class is going to experience egg art in a different fashion! We are going to try our hand at something called "Egg Cubism" that I stumbled upon in my blogroll at least a year ago.  I'm so excited to get started because the project itself couldn't be timed better for a myriad of reasons...

• I love doing a non-objective piece for the second project (for any of my classes) because it really helps me to break the student artists out of the shells/boxes that they think exist when it comes to their own understanding and abilities of their artwork. I would do this right off the bat with their first project but their 1st project are so much better at being things that are straight-forward type assessments so that I can see where everyone stands to start out with. 
• This spins the idea of the egg art we have done in the past in a way that is very interesting and definitely offers new perspectives!
• Since this is an inspired project, it allows the students to spend a lot of time looking at and considering all of the resource library of the visual art collectives we devoted so much of the art budget too last summer when we did our annual BIG order. (See the picture above for just HALF of the library we have at our disposal)
• It utilizes UPCYCLING!!!!  That's something I adore doing whether we have the art budget to support our endeavors or not. Why? Because it introduces the possibility of really good visual creativity/creation in a "green" way.

Later today I will be stopping by a local boutique cupcakery (I am buddies with the owner and the head baker!!) and picking up over 70 egg cartoons from them for this project that will kick itself off next week. Egg-citing? (I know. You are already tired of my egg-cellent efforts to make this as punny of an experience as possible. *wink*)

Lesson idea: Cassette Tape Portraits

[I'm in the process of cleaning out my hard drive in preparation to finally make the jump to Mac world *wooohoooo!* and I found a file of student work from my first year of teaching art at my current school I haven't posted yet! There are a little less than a dozen project ideas and here is the first one.]

This is a project I did with my 3D students way back in the Fall of 2009 when I was a newbie here at my present school. I came upon the idea in my blogroll long before there was the wondrous world of pinterest. The original works/artist can be found on flickr HERE where you will see a decade long collective of their body of work that aims to create portraits of all manner of artists and other noteworthy folks using cassette tape cartridges and the tapes they have within.  The total collective is known as "Ghost in the machine."

I loved the idea because I am a fan of just about any type of portraiture but nontraditional portraiture is one of my favorites of all.  I also loved being able to upcycle items that have seemingly "gone the way of the dinosaur" like cassette tapes. Funny anecdote that occurred during this project: One of my students picked up one of the cassette tape, shook it around and then put his ear up to it while curiously demanding, "How do you even listen to something like this?!!" *sigh*... I have such fond memories of cassette tape listening.

Anyway, this project was the next to last one on the project list for Fall 2009 and it was VERY challenging for the students to complete. I think I put aside a total of three weeks for the whole thing (and they also had the winter holiday break to take it home) and that still was barely enough. The project demanded that they have incredible attention to detail, ridiculous dexterity with an Xacto, and extreme patience to adhere all of the pieces of the teeny-tiny-hard-to-lay-down-in-just-the-right-way pieces of slippery cassette tape. Despite the challenges it presented (and for foundational students no less!) they were incredibly committed to completing exceptionally done final results. I was SO proud of them and when we hung them in the student gallery there was no shortage of raves about them.

In order to ensure the students started the project fully invested in the idea, I allowed them a lot of liberties in what individual they chose to illuminate in this way. This seems like a given of something to do but the more I teach art, the more surprised I am at how often it's not done like this. My goal in all of this was not to wield control but to inspire open-mindedness that despite this was challenging and questionnably above their skill-level - all of my students COULD do it so long as they committed themselves to the possibility that it was all within their reach.

We used pebbled matboard from another project for the canvas and then we collected cassette tapes (obviously) from whomever would give them to us as well as cups of diluted white glue for the adhesive. I allowed the students to use printed off pictures (from Google) as visual guides and while some of them attempted to free-hand sketches onto their supports/matboard, a number of them put their pictures on the matboard and then used the point of a compass to perforate through the picture onto the matboard leaving a tiny dotted outline where their major lines of cassette tape would go. It was a shortcut of a way to do it this way but I wasn't concerned with that detail and more with the overall scope of the project.

Fall 2009 was the first and last time I did this project because it was just way too time consuming and I also like to change things up from year to year so the same things aren't shown in the student gallery over and over again. Another reason why I never did this project again was because, toward the end, it became REALLY hard to locate more cassette tapes when we started to get strapped for them. If I do this again I will likely do it in 2D instead of 3D because thought the medium was 3D, the picture came out to be more 2D so it only makes sense that it should be done there instead.

Anyway, if you want to see another round of student work, you can check out Art of Apex High School!  They just did a version of this project just this past Fall and the way they approached it was decidedly less time consuming (but still plenty of fun!) than what I showed you here.