Building Sculptures

These sculptures were made in our Toddler Class  but this is a great project for ages 2-6.  

I usually get my wood scraps from a furniture maker. She has so much extra wood and is happy to donate it to the studio for the kids to explore. I did invest in a chop saw and cut all the wood into even smaller pieces for the kids, but you can also get scraps from lumber stores.
I also offered the children puzzle pieces, buttons, beads and colored rice (which I dye myself. If you would like the recipe please email me at info@purpletwig.com and I will send it to you)

I gave each child 4 or 5 pieces of wood and some glue. I used the regular school glue instead of the washable kind for this project so everything really stuck. The children stacked the wood how they liked, sometimes a child might put a large piece on top of a thin piece and witnessed it become unstable and fall. We talked about how to create a strong structure by putting the thicker pieces on the bottom and smaller on the top. 

Then came the puzzle pieces to add. Then the buttons were next sometimes organizing them by color or shape and sometimes the larger buttons would drip down the sculpture along with the glue.

Then I gave them beads and lastly I offered them the colored rice to sprinkle.

The result are these individual colorful sculptures full of texture.  This would be a wonderful project for a birthday celebration or for a nice afternoon one on one with your child. 

Spider Houses

This project was made in our Bug's Life Class for ages 3-4. Making a spider house was perfect for both the theme of the class and for a spooky Halloween project.  When creating projects for kids, I like to offer many different materials and techniques to layer together. 

We started with wood scrap blocks. You can find scraps at lumber yards and probably online somewhere. I have a chop saw so I cut up scraps in shapes I like or need for the kids. I gave each child a rectangle and a triangle, but you don't need to be this literal. A house can be shaped in many ways. I also gave each child some glue and a brush to spread it on.

While the glue is drying on the wood we start to browse through magazines. For this project I tried to find animal or nature magazines to cut out. This girl wanted a bat house so she cut out a few images of bats to use.

We waited for the glue to dry before starting the next step, but if your child is up for it, you could start the next part. If working in a classroom with many kids, I would wait until the sculptures are dry. I bought short flat-head nails to make it easier for the kids to hit with a hammer. I gave them as many nails as they wanted. Some nailed in just 3 and where finished and some really took advantage of the opportunity to use a tool and hammered in up to 15. 

 Then came the web part. I offered many different colors of yarn both bright and dark for them to wrap around the nails to make a spider web. We did talk about who spider webs are all kinds of shapes, big, round and intricate or small and huddled into a corner.

Each child had their own idea of what kind of house, bat or dog or forest or garden type and took delight in the choices they were allowed to make as to hammering and which color of yarn.

Arts Collective After School

Once a month the school yard at Mt Washington Elementary turns into an arts collective. Timmy Ringsmuth has created an incredible after school program in this tucked away neighborhood where children get to a chance to experience screen printing and working with circuit blocks, making books and more. This month I was honored to be asked to create a project for 100 children for this innovative after school program. 

I love the challenge of coming up with a new project for this many children of a variety of ages. I also love the chance to take a project out of the studio to see so many kids really attack the materials with such enthusiasm and concentration. I needed to bring a project that needed little direction from me to create, a project that used techniques they already knew and had command of. That way they were sure to be successful in illustrating their ideas with the materials given. I offered the kids wooden pieces and magazine images to build a conceptual city. Most of the images I brought were of cities, medieval and modern, natural images from lily ponds to forests to animals. Oh and some underwater images as well. 

Since this age already knows how to cut and glue and just needed a little guidance with the sanding of the wood to make it smooth, they could be left to their own devices and discuss amongst themselves what they were building. This kind of independence to create is so importance for problem solving and creative thinking. 

Both the variety of shapes of wood, as well as the variety of the images, created an environment where  kids could explore their own ideas of building and layering concepts onto an otherwise inert material. They built tall cities, short small cities, urban cities, doughnut cities, seaside cities, desert cities, forest cities, castle cities and so much more.  

Celebrating the Sun

For Mother's Day we made these lovely sun prints mounted on wood. These early photographs are a wonderful way for kids to explore the nature growing in their neighborhood, even if that nature is planted and controlled. We gathered leaves fallen from trees and clipped leaves and flowers from abundant bushes. 

Once we got back to the studio we furthered our investigation of our botanical bounty. We squished, smelled, we looked closely and compared sizes, shapes and colors before they made their thoughtful choices of which plants to use on their photographic prints. 

We used rocks to weigh done the plant materials so they wouldn't blow away in the wind. So just the count to 20 in the sun and then into the water bath to wash away the light sensitive chemicals. 

While we waited for the prints to dry the kids prepared their wooden bases for their prints by sanding down the edges to a smooth finished edge. Using drills they drilled holes in the top of the wood to pass a wire for hanging. 

A layer of Modge Podge under and over the sun print and they were finished. Moms will be happy about these. I know I would. 

Happy Mother's Day

Paper Maché Animals

I saw these adorable paper mache animals on the Poppet Creative instagram feed and I fell in love with the little creations. When I showed the image to our kids in our Winter Camp they were all very excited to try and make one, so we came up with what we might need to make them.

I am not sure if it's close to the Poppet Creative process but here is what we came up with.

First the kids decided what animal they would like to make.  We had two wolves, two reindeer, two rabbits, a cat, an arctic fox

We started with tp rolls, newspaper, chopsticks, for legs and cardboard for ears and antlers. We taped on the legs with tape and left newspaper sticking out of the top for the head. We were then ready for the paper mache. 

 Oh paper mache. People have such mixed feelings about this sensory activity. I have actually had children cry as the goo begins to stick and dry to skin, itching and crying to get it off. I guess paper mache is not for every kid. This week though all of the children were very confident with their sensory capabilities. They loved it, sometimes adding on a lot more than needed. We had to actually wait 2 days before we could paint because some of the creatures were so wet.  We use a mixture of flour and water with white glue mixed in. to make our paste. We find that the white glue adds a hardness of the project.

We did one layer of paper mache before adding the cardboard antlers and ears. The great thing about having a cardboard or paper structure underneath is that you only have to do one layer unlike a balloon that needs a few layers to give it strength.

Then came the painting, bringing the animals to lie, giving them personalities. After painting they added, scarfs, earmuffs, painted striped leggings. 

This child decided to add sticks for the antlers of her reindeer. 

The personalities in these little faces are just so delightful. 

In order to make the animals stand, I drilled holes in the rounds of wood to place the animals legs. Sometimes I had to hot glue the legs into the holes in the wood. 

We also decided to make little winter train cars for the animals from milk cartons. But that can be a post for another day.