Summery Tube Sculptures

This week I taught a series of art lessons to a small group of Lower Elementary students. Our focus was on cardboard tube sculptures, and we also made colorful sun catchers and collages to welcome summer. The directions for making cardboard tube sculptures are below, and you can see how to make sun catchers in my May 15, 2011 post.

CARDBOARD TUBE SCULPTURES

Materials:

Recycled cardboard tubes from paper towels or toilet tissue

Recycled corrugated cardboard for base

Scissors

White glue

Masking tape

Acrylic gesso & an old paintbrush

Acrylic paints

Paint brushes

Water container

Assorted decorative craft items (felt, buttons, googly eyes, etc.)

Procedure:

1. Think of an invented creature, an animal, a person or a thing you'd like to make using tubes. Decide what is the biggest or main part of what you're making, and begin construction with that part. Decide if your sculpture will need a cardboard base in order to stand on its own. If your sculpture has 4 legs, it will probably stand by itself, and won't need a base.

2. Cut 1/2" long slits about 1/2" apart all around the bottom circumference of a cardboard tube. Bend the slits out to make tabs for gluing. Slits may also be cut in the ends of tubes to fit one inside the other.

3. Apply a dot of glue to each tab and press into place either on the outside of another tube or onto the base. Apply strips of masking tape over all glued tabs; long strips of tape should extend from tubes onto other tubes or onto the base. (All tape needs to stay in place and will not be removed.)

4. The next day, when the glue has set, paint a thin, even coat of white gesso over your entire sculpture, including the base, and allow to dry overnight.

5. On the following day, paint your sculpture with realistic or fantasy colors, and allow to dry again.

6. Glue on any decorative collage or craft items, such as fabric, buttons, feathers or googly eyes to make your sculpture special.

Adam made a fiery, smiley sun.

Abbey made a fantasy flower with a hovering butterfly.

Elli made a sculpture of herself playing soccer.

SUN CATCHERS

by Adam

by Abbey

by Elli

Recycled Beverage Caps: Real Wheels

Here's a fun way to recycle the small plastic lids (washed and dried) from milk or juice containers.

REAL WHEELS

Materials:

Assorted scrap mat board pieces

Black Sharpie pen

Watercolor paints

Watercolor paintbrush

Water container

Small clean plastic lids from milk or juice containers

Awl or sharp punch tool (to be used only by adults)

Brass fasteners, 1'' long

Procedure:

1. Using a Black Sharpie (permanent) pen, do a line drawing of a scene showing a vehicle that has wheels (car, truck, bus, bicycle, etc.). Don't draw the wheels, but do add other details to make your drawing interesting.

2. Paint your scene with watercolors, using realistic or fantasy colors. Try letting the wet colors run into each other and mix on their own. Your black lines will show through the watercolor paints. Allow to dry.

3. To make each wheel in your picture, use the awl to punch a hole in the middle of a plastic lid. Punch a hole through the mat board where the wheel will be attached. Push a brass fastener through the lid and through the hole in the board. On the back of the board, open the prongs of the fastener and flatten them against the board. Each wheel will be able to turn!

You can use other lids for anything round in your painting, such as the sun, or a clock. You can also use your Sharpie to draw details on the lids themselves. Another possibility is to make an abstract painting of any colors and designs you choose, and add turning wheels anywhere you'd like.

Here Comes the Sun Catcher

Here's a simple and inexpensive way to make a beautiful sun catcher. Hang it in your window in celebration of Spring and Summer, and the colors will come to life when the sunlight streams in.

SUN CATCHER

Materials:

Thick black permanent marker pen (Sharpie "Fine Point")

Thick permanent marker pens (Sharpies "Fine Point"), assorted colors

Recycled clear hard plastic cover from a food container (yogurt)

Sharp tool (awl or sharp scissors)

Unbent paper clip, pipe cleaner or scrap of yarn or wire

Procedure:

1. Wash and dry a clear hard plastic food container cover.

2. On the outside surface of the cover, use the black pen to draw a design using many lines.

3. On the opposite side (the inside surface) of the cover, fill in the areas between the lines with a variety of colors. Use as many colors and designs as you wish.

4. Using an awl or the blade of scissors (kids should get adult help to do this safely), punch a small hole at the top of the cover.

5. Thread the paper clip, pipe cleaner or yarn through the hole & tie it off. Hang your sun catcher in a sunny window.

You can see more colorful sun catchers in my June 24, 2011 post.

A five year old made this lively sun catcher!

Recycled Tube Sculpture: Say hi to Perry!

This tube man's name is Perry. I love using recycled objects to make art with kids. Recently, we used various cardboard tubes from paper towel bathroom tissue rolls and oatmeal boxes to make tube sculptures.

We cut slits at about 3/4" intervals around the tops and bottoms of the tubes to fit them onto each other. We constructed the sculpture by gluing and taping the tubes together, applied gesso to the whole sculpture and painted it after it was dry. Adding on decorative papers, buttons and googly eyes made them really special. We glued and taped the sculptures to cardboard bases for sturdy support and stability.

Are you thinking about other things you could recycle to make art? Old CD's, plastic container lids, old jewel cases for CD's, old credit cards, paper grocery bags?

Rocket Science

BOX SCULPTURE

I love it when kids tell me that after making box sculptures, they look at boxes differently.

Instead of seeing a cereal box at breakfast, they see the possibility of a car, an airplane or a rocket ship. Box sculpture is all about possibility and imagination. This might slow down the breakfast rush a bit, but let's appreciate the creative thought process happening here - the transformation of raw material into something completely new!

Graham's rocket is made of an egg carton, a sugar box, an oatmeal box, a cracker box and a Jello box. There's no "formula" for how to invent a rocket. Each artist will find his or her own way, & that's what makes art so exciting. Someone else could have used the same boxes to make an animal or a car, or even a different rocket.

First, Graham glued and taped the boxes together to make the rocket shape he wanted. Then he applied acrylic gesso to all the surfaces of sculpture and allowed it to dry. Next, he painted his rocket with acrylic paints. Once that was dry, he drew lines with a silver paint pen to add details. He even kept the cover of the egg carton open so he could use it as a secret compartment.

Nice job, Graham!

Outside the Box

Some of my students are working on box sculptures, one of my (& their) favorite open-ended art projects. First, kids decide what they're going to make and then they join boxes sturdily with masking tape and glue, making sure to tape over any gaps or holes. Choice of subject matter is vast. Consider animals, people, vehicles, fantasy creatures or inanimate objects. One of my students made a garden gnome with a birdbath, and another made an awesome sky diver with a parachute! Some of my students have kept their box sculptures for years, and have even used them as coffee tables!

The next step is to brush artist's gesso onto all surfaces of the sculpture & allow to dry. Then paint the sculpture with tempera or acrylics, using realistic or fantasy colors. When the paint is dry, any collage materials, such as buttons, feathers, fabric or pipe cleaners can be glued on for decoration and detail. The more color and detail, the merrier, so even paint markers can be used to add lines or dots.

Try to save clean, dry boxes and cardboard tubes at home to have available for this project. It's a great way to recycle boxes, and box sculpture is a wonderful creative project for kids to make independently.

Thinking Outside the Box

My students in school are currently making imaginative sculptures out of recycled boxes. Although I rarely repeat art projects from year to year, box sculpture is one I assign every year. In fact, the children in my art program usually make a point of asking to do it, because they enjoy it so much.

The materials needed for this project are simple: recycled cardboard boxes, paper towel or toilet paper cardboard rolls, and cardboard egg cartons. We use masking tape, white glue, scissors and lots of imagination for the first stage of our sculptures. My students have made such diverse constructions as horses, lions, butterflies, trucks, robots and caterpillars... Almost anything is possible, & therein lies the value in this project - amazingly open-ended possibility.

I love the fact that this is a sculpture children beginning at age six can manage mostly by themselves. Older kids can make more complicated pieces. For example, I teach a ten year old who is building a sky diver, and an eight year old who's making a clown spinning a plate on a stick! I'll be posting some of the projects in process soon.