COME ON OVER TO NEW BLOG

I have been wanting to do this for a couple weeks and am finally getting around to it...I haven't posted to THIS blog for three years and yet I have gotten a few thousand lookers in the past 3 years.  I have started a new blog that I post each day I teach, the same as I did with this blog in 2010/2011   It has to do with the daily goings on of my jewelry classes.  We are doing some real exciting things and I'd like you to check it out, if you have come here looking for new ideas in art.

The blog address is Skyline High School Jewelry Students 2014

Go there, become a follower and let me know what you think.  There are 19 posts thus far.  Thanks.

Making Papier Mache Masks 2011

Its been a couple of months since I last posted to this blog, and so here I am again.  I haven't paid too much attention as to who has been looking to see what's happening here.

Since the classes in Jewelry had been working with paper and paper mache to create pieces of jewelry, I decided to capitalize on their learning and experience and have them create masks.  I showed them a series of different forms of masks.  We looked at examples of ceremonial, day of the dead, masquerade, horror, and funny masks as well as from a variety of ethnicities and cultures.

I demonstrated two forms of creation.  The first being to form a mask based on one's face structure.  I had them use aluminum foil to form over their face/head, use crushed paper or a balloon to help the structure, and then the paper mache strips to construct the mask.  The second was to form a base with crushed paper, roll the edges, and then to form the paper mache strips over that base.

I shot some random video of the students working, along with some still pictures of the pieces in progress.
I also included some shots of the students posing with their creations and a classroom shot of them hanging on the wall in the front of the room.  The music track is from an album by Jamal Mohammed, who was my percussion teacher many years ago when I was creating clay drums.

I hope you enjoy the video and make comments.  Thank you.

Paper Mache...a Fun way to create jewelry

Well, here I am again 3 weeks later.  Something tells me I'll have to "step it up" with posts on this blog if I expect anyone to care enough to follow or even to view any of my posts.  With this new assignment of teaching jewelry, I have had some "learning curve" to go through and will continue to go through for quite awhile.  I determined early on that my students really love to be busy when they are in my classroom.  Not that I didn't provide enough for my Art I students to be involved with last year, but that these students came to this class with the EXPECTATION of being creatively active.  It is so much FUN for me to see an entire classroom full of engaged learners seeming to take delight in what they are involved with.  I am posting this little 3 minute video from yesterday to show some students in my LAST PERIOD OF CLASS ON A FRIDAY toward the very end of a 90 minute class.  Next Wednesday we will be assembling the results of their productive activity into bracelets and necklaces and I'll post those pictures and video at that time.

Creating Paper Beads

Yesterday, on the 5th day of class, we spent the majority of time cutting, winding, and gluing paper into beads.  I had shown the students a couple of decorating ideas on Monday.  Most of them used the colored construction paper with both the wooden skewers and the round toothpicks and Elmer's Glue.  When we come back to class on Wednesday next week we'll start out by coating the beads with Acrylic Gloss Medium.  This will give them a protective coat and make them shiny.

I put together a short video using some short clips of students at varying stages of construction along with 38 pictures of the beads they produced.  Looking forward to a few days off.  Enjoy the video.

Just because it's Monday post...

Today was such a full day of learning I just didn't get around to photographing or videoing any activities at all.  I can see ample opportunity coming up on Wednesday for just that, however.

I introduced them to the textbook we'll be referencing this year, THE JEWELER'S ART.  I had them read a few pages in Chapter 3, PAPER JEWELRY, which discusses, among other things, paper beads.  I had looked at a few Youtube videos of artists demonstrating the making of paper beads and wanted them to find out about it.  So I first had them read a little, then I demonstrated a couple of techniques I picked up on the demos.  I cut 6" X 18" strips of colored construction paper, showed them how to measure half and full inch width strips/triangles, showed them the cutting procedure, and then rolled a few beads on a wooden skewer and a round toothpick.  During my advanced class I even took the time to demo the painting on of the acrylic gloss medium.

The students took to the concept and the procedure with a gusto.  They wanted to show me their first efforts and EVERYONE did a super job.  As I told them before they started and when I looked at their beads, "yours are going to look SO much better than mine"...and they did.

One of my goals in teaching these classes is to get the students to REALLY ENJOY the act of designing
jewelry.  I want them to experience a wide variety of media and expressions in their learning and I want them to look forward to each day they spend in my class as a time when they can fully express themselves in this art form.  I want them to decide for themselves what jewelry is to THEM.  I look forward to their designs truly reflecting who they are as a person.  This may all sound pretty outlandish
and far-fetched, but I really think the day will arrive for some of them.  Come back on Wednesday for
another look at students at work and some of their products.

"Getting to KNOW you" on a FUN FRIDAY

I have two beginning Jewelry classes with about 25 students in each class.  My advanced class only has 10 students, so I didn't go through this exercise with them.  I grouped 4 or 5 students together at the tables.
I had a student think of a number between 1 and 5.  I gave each student a number, asked the student what number she had chosen, and had THAT number be the leader of the group.  Then I had them introduce themselves and each other to the small group and go around three times.  This was so each person in that small group knows by name all the other members of the group.  My reasoning that I explained is that many times they will need help putting something together, cleaning up, or just for a little help.  Now they know a few students they can call on.

We continued with the paper designing pieces of jewelry project.  In this case I told them they could trade pieces of paper cut outs with each other in their group.  At the end of the first period I had each group choose the design they liked best, I took an picture of the grouping, and then projected the photo on the screen for them to comment on.  In the last period I had each student create 9 designs (3 geometric shape based, 3 organic shape, and 3 free form) and then glue them down to a piece of copy paper, label them and turn them in.  I took pictures of some of them and have posted them here.

The students got along quite well together and seemed to easily spend time taking through the discussions.  I plan to continue this collaborative endeavor throughout the year in these classes.  Below find some of the designs created today.  Thanks for viewing.

Jewelry design...out of paper? REALLY?

Yesterday was our second day of classes.  It's always such a relief to get through the first day, with all of the registration and enrollment forms to fill out, etc.  But on this day, after the collection of forms and roll taken, our class could begin in earnest.  We have been asked as a faculty to help our students become better writers by giving them a "bell ringer" the first 10 minutes of class.  Actually, we could choose from a couple different forms of participation, but I have chosen a writing exercise as that which would be most fitting.  I had the projector on and the new ipad2 plugged in with a Pages post.  I had the students write on what they thought was meant be the term "to care" and give 3 examples of things, places, or people they cared about and why.  They got right into it and seemed to have a lot to say.  I will take a look at the writings in a couple of weeks when I post grades.

Many of my students have not had Art 1 as a class.  They fulfilled their requirement by a dance, theater arts, or music credit.  No matter.  I'll teach them what they need to learn.  I spent about 20 minutes in each class reviewing the ELEMENTS OF ART...LINE, SHAPE, VALUE, COLOR, TEXTURE, AND SPACE.  As I told them, these concepts are present in every genre of art and particularly in jewelry.

I thought up an exercise that I figured would introduce them to the idea of creating designs easily, using construction  paper to cut out the shapes and lines and then combine them using glue into a variety of jewelry designs. I videoed my first period students beginning that process.  Then I took pictures of some of the designs after my 3rd period  was finished.  Following first is the video, then a photo of the work: