Bird Houses and 150 readers!

Wow I hit and passed 150 followers at some point in the last few days! I can't really wrap my mind around it so all I can say is thanks for reading:) I wish I had a stockpile of cool books to share in a celebration drawing like Phyl did . However, I don't. Instead maybe I need to put one of the onesie I make into a drawing...seems like lots of people have little ones.....let me know if anyone would be interested.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I showed photo's from my clay class (the clay heads) and I have another fun project to share today. Clay birdhouses. But first a memorial....
Alas poor kiln, I knew him well. The "district" has decide my kiln is beyond repair and even if I came up with the money to buy a new one they will not install it because the ventilation in the room that held the old kiln is no longer up to code.

Since I can't afford enough air dry clay to do this lesson I really hope someone else can use it because it is so simple, fun and cute cute cute!

My sample is about a foot and half tall and made around a section of tube that I think came from a carpet store. The teacher suggested making smaller scale bird houses using coffee cans or Pringles cans. I think using Pringles cans, and the basic technique in this project, that you could make amazing individual totem poles.

So we started with slabs of clay that were about 2ft by 2ft (remember you could make these smaller)



Our teacher had rubber texture mats that we pushed into the clay with hand rollers. The most popular textures were wood and stone. I choose wood. The mat was about 10 inches tall and 14 or 16 inches wide. This is the size slab we cut to make the birdhouse.


I cut out the textured part of the slab and made the photo really dark so you can see the texture if you click to enlarge the photo
you can also see the cardboard tube we will use to make the birdhouse, a hand roller and a tool for scoring.

**** I forgot to photograph an important step here. You need to wrap the tube in a sheet of newspaper and tuck the ends into the tube. You MUST do this step. You can see the end result in the next photo*****

Here I am wrapping the slab of clay around the newspaper wrapped tube.


And now I've scratched the edges that I want to join and have brushed some water on. I'm sealing the edges of the clay with a hand roller.


Ok now I have placed the tube upright and cut a circle of clay by cutting around a yogurt container lid that is a little wider than the base of the tube. Then I put the tube on top of the circle and do a little slip and score and seal the circle edges up onto the clay tube.


Remember when I said you need to wrap the cardboard tube with newspaper. Now you will see why. Un-stuff the top edge of the newspaper from the cardboard tube and lift the cardboard tube out. If you need to do this project over two classes stop now. Put the tube in a large ziplock bag. Even if you keep the clay nice and moist it is going to start to shrink so you need that cardboard tube out so it doesn't crack. If we are going to keep working on the lesson go ahead and take the newspaper out of the clay also.
the house of our birdhouse

Now for the roof. Cut a 8" circle and lightly draw on it to divided into fourths. Cut out one fourth of the circle. This is going to make the lid for the birdhouse. Slip, score and join to make a cone.


I smoothed the joint and pressed texture into the roof to make it look nice. Then I cut a hole in the house part for the bird (not on the joint) and popped the lid on to see how it looked.


and I decorated it with a tree branch and apple or cherry blossoms. If I wanted to hang my birdhouse from a tree I would need to make two holes in the bottom and two holes in the lid and add wire to hang after it had been fired and glazed.
Yippie yet sigh. I really like mine and wish I could fire and glaze it.

Only a few ladies showed up to class this month so I have less examples but here is three more

the complementary color of brown

Sometimes my students are so smart. Today my 6-8th grade class completely stumped me and I need help finding the answer to their question. We are working with complementary colors and I told them if they mix a complementary color set it should make some version of brown. So the kids then asked....what is the complementary color to brown?

Well hum...... Brown is not on the color wheel so is it a neutral? In that case it would not have a complimentary color right? I started pondering the visible light spectrum to answer the question and realized brown must be in the spectrum somewhere, somehow, or we would not be able to see it.

Ok so my smart readers what, or is there, a complementary color to brown?

money makes the world go round

maybe i can print my own money....
Dear reader,
Some of you will find this post tacky or whinny but it's my blog and I want to lament about my lack of budget. In my district art teachers are so far and few between that the district does not have an art budget. It is up to each school to pull from their general funds to create an art budget. This means some schools allocate several dollars per student while other schools allocate pennies per student for materials. Without a doubt the SES of each school's community impacts the art budget.

My school is on the low end of the SES scale and over the years our student body has grown and our PTA has disbanded. This year I was allocated .88 cents per student to buy supplies. By the request of the school principal I used half of my money at the start of the school year. I was told I would receive the other half of my budget to use on February 1st. I prepared my 2nd supply order and turned it into the office on the 1st. On the 5th I was given my supply form back with a note that said that there was no money left to buy supplies.

That's impossible, I thought. My budget is in a special account and only I can access it. Obviously there was confusion about how much money I had used that year. Turns out my budget money was never put into my account and was left in the general fund and used by the whole school. Unfair or not their is no money left to order supplies for the rest of the year. The school will continue to provided photocopy paper till the end of the year and nothing else.

There are two major problems here. First, I'm missing half of the supplies I need to get though the year. Second, and even worse, I have not been frugal using our current supplies because I fully expected to replenish everything this month. At this moment I have two bottles of red tempera paint to my name.

I have spent the last week trying to find ways to get money or supplies.
I wanted to have a art room fundraiser but the leadership team has said no. It was decided at the start of the year that we would refrain from fundrasing this year. Since 94% of our students are free/reduced lunch they do not want to burden families by asking for money in these tough times. There goes that idea.

So I will have to get money elsewhere. I have a donors choice project in the works that hopefully will get me some supplies and I'm searching for other small grants. I'm hoping to tade my 200lbs of unused clay with other district art teachers for some tempera paint, glue and construction paper. I hope I get some more amazing ideas because .44 cents per student is not going to cut it as a acceptable budget for this year.

color and composition

5th-8th grade spent several classes working on color theory and exploring composition using organic and geometric shapes. We also learned what a triptych is and practiced our watercolor painting skills.

I like aspects of this lesson and other parts I feel could be stronger. Maybe you all can help me improve it for next year.

First I gave the kids some cardstock and asked them to draw five organic and/or geometric shapes. They were to make the shapes at least as big as a silver dollar. I forced a lot of kids to re-draw their shapes larger.

Next I cut a letter size piece of watercolor paper into thirds for each student and started teaching the word triptych. We spent a good amount of time discussing what makes an interesting composition and the ideas of variety, unity and balance. On each of the three pieces of paper they were to use all 5 of their shapes to make three distinct compositions. I encouraged overlap, allowed the shapes to run off the page and be allowed the shapes to be repeated as often as wanted.

After the compositions were created we reviewed basic color theory for warm and cool colors. I asked students to paint one part of the triptych in the warm colors, one in the cool colors and the third was student's choice. Finally the three parts were mounted on black paper to create the final work of art.
(the strongest of the bunch I think)
Next time I think I will make the students either draw the shapes even larger or make 7 shapes. I also will require them to use at least two of the shapes more than one time in each composition. The examples with just the five shapes done once are a bit boring. We also need to work on the idea of balance in a composition more. I feel they are still a bit lacking. Any ideas?
(she kind of does her own thing, but I'm ok with that. How many 7th graders do you know that have a clear "artistic vision" as she calls it.)

Chalk pastel stuffed animals

A while back I asked for tips on using chalk pastel with my students for a drawing project involving stuffed animals and beanie babies. Thanks to your tips this ended up being a really successful project. Using watercolor paper and layers of hairspray helped with the smudging.

The chalk pastel was perfect for making the soft fur of the stuffed animals. The students liked how easy it was to blend and add shadows with the pastels and how quickly they could lay down color. Believe it or not, our less expensive pastels ended up working best for this project.

Some students brought in stuffed animals from home and others used my collection of stuffed animals and beanie babies that were donated by staff members.

As always these represent 6th through 8th grade students that vary from one month of art with me to three years non stop everyday. I like seeing how the kids I have spent a lot of time with the last three years have progressed. I would recommended this project as a high interest project for 5th grade up!

I put these up in the main office and the secretaries say they have been receiving a lot of positive reaction from both student's and parents that come into the office.

I don't think my photos do these project justice!
An 8th grade student I've had a on an off over the last 3 years. I can see that she has learned a lot over the years. She had no art instruction before I received her as a 6th graders but was interested in art and had natural talent. I feel she is using color and value particularly well. I feel very comfortable sending her to high school with her current skill set. I think she will be as prepared as the kids from the higher income schools in our area.


6th grader who is working very hard to develop her skills. You can see she was trying to mimic the work being done by the 8th graders above. She is well on her way. She is obsessed with fantasy artwork (dragons and such) so she pushed herself to work from a realistic still life.
not the most advanced artwork ever but I think the animal is cute and she created a lot of personality with it and the planet in the background.
Very interesting perspective/composition from one of my autistic students.


As an aside at all three schools I have taught at I have noticed my students from Russia and the Ukraine are particularly talented artists. A disproportionate number of them have parents who have art backgrounds. Not only are they hard workers with their art, they seem to have impressive natural talent, especially in drawing. Is this just a coincidence? I don't know much about Russian culture but is art highly valued? My students from Cuba also seem to be particularly talented/interested in art. Has anyone else noticed similar trends in their student populations?