Tutorial: Origami Sphere

 

I have been making these origami balls ever since my elementary art teacher taught me in 4th grade. That's right, 4th grade! I have no clue how I have remembered this for all these years but I'm certainly glad I did. I recently taught my 5th graders how to make these and many made some at home!  Since then, I have gotten quite a few requests on how to make them. So here is my attempt at showing you how through pictures. If you have any questions just shoot me an email or comment on this post and I will try and help you out! 

Tips: 

 -I suggest using 6in by 6in paper (traditional origami size) for the first time round because the smaller it is the harder. 

 -Try making them all different sizes and hanging them! It would make for a gorgeous arrangement for a party or event! 

-Make the edges nice a crisp by using the back of your thumbnail, and bone folder or even a popsicle stick to create a crisp fold.

Click for full post.

Mexican Animalitos

5th grade "traveled" to Mexico earlier this year and learned about Oaxacan wood carvers and their beautiful and whimsical animal carvings.   These remarkable wood carvings are also known as alebrijes for their similarity with the fantastic paper creatures made in Mexico City.  

We made ours out of air-dry clay. And painted them with acrylics.  I absolutely love how they turned out!  I wanted to keep many of them for my own.  If you want to see some of the real things, click here.  One day, I plan on owning one of these beauties! 

Mask Making: Venetian Style

I adore Carnival in Venice, Italy.  I few years back, my grandparents gave me a beautiful Venetian mask from their travels there.   I knew that eventually I wanted to teach a lesson inspired by these gorgeous wearable works of art.  I started this lesson during Mardi Gras which is our equivalent to Carnival.  I  showed some videos from past years festivities and many of the gorgeous masks and costumes.  I had my 7th graders look for themes in the costumes and masks.  There were ones inspired by music and love and much more.  We then started with brainstorming some themes of our own.  Their mask had to represent a specific theme.  Many of them were very literal in their first sketches.  After sharing we discussed literal versus interpretive.  I wanted them to take bits and pieces from their inspiration. 
After sketches were locked in, we moved onto constructing our masks.  This masks were constructed by applying plaster strips directly onto the face, making each mask a custom fit to the wearer.  This is my second year teaching this lesson and boy, did it go differently.  Last years group at first giggled when applying the petroleum jelly and plaster strips to each others faces (they worked with a partner) but then there was complete silence in the art room.  I believe it was the quietest it had been the entire year.  This years group, however, has a few perfectionists and could not stand the thought of someone else applying the strips to their face, luckily I have plenty of mirrors.  And the complaining....these kids didn't want their hands dirty for more than a minute.  Regardless, I always get a hoot at how they react to this very messy art.

Can you guess what their themes are?  

Soul-Sole Pendants

Kindergarten made some lovely gifts for Christmas. We talked about words that sound the same but are spelled and mean something different. They knew that their soul is something inside of them and a sole is part of your shoe. We used both of our souls/soles to create these pendants. We but out souls into painting them. And used the soles of our shoes to create the designs. After carefully stepping on a ball of clay we added some pretty beads and waited for them to dry. We even made handmade wrapping paper to wrap them up for Christmas!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! It's 2013 already!?! I still can't believe it....this year sure is flying by! Regardless if I still can't remember to write 2013 instead of 2012 on my papers, This year is bringing a great deal of new projects for St. Leo's students! Paper mache, screen printing and lots more is planned and I just can't wait! Here's just a few pictures of the wonderful recycled ornaments 2nd grade made before break! The decorated the school's Christmas tree so beautifully! They are a great way to use those Christmas cards collected year to year! Make some of your own using the tutorial from Conundrum (this uses 8 pieces) or Maker Mama (uses a lot more pieces).

Classroom Peak

There are lots of 3D projects started in the art room!  And more are to come!  I just need to find the room for them all! 

Egyptian Cartouche Jewelry: 6th Grade

Sixth Grade learned about Ancient Egypt in both Social Studies and Art! In art class, we looked at Egyptian jewelry and hieroglyphics. In this ancient writing characters surrounded by a oval ending in a bar on the bottom is called a cartouche. This denotes a name. We carved out our names and turned these cartouches into Egyptian jewelry.

Origami: 5th Grade

Fifth Grade tried their hand at the Japanese art of paper folding, origami. And I must say with much success! Students had to focus on control and precision in order to complete this puzzle of an orb. Each ball is made up of twelve separate pieces all interlocked without any adhesive!

Watch out for a tutorial on how to make one yourself soon!  It will be on my other site but I will post a link here, once finished.