2012: Project 6--Frank Stella-Inspired Cardboard Sculpture

This was one of the last projects we tried this past summer. I came across the artist Frank Stella on Pinterest. I had not heard of him before, but I was immediately drawn to his geometric artwork and his bright sculptures. I thought it would be fun to show the girls his artwork and create cardboard sculptures. I was first inspired to try this project after seeing this project posted on The Chocolate Muffin Tree blog

Here are some examples of Stella's work that I showed the girls before we started our project:

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I thought it was fun to show them images with people in them so the girls could get a sense for the large scale of his artwork.

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 And some of his sculptures:

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After I showed the girls Frank Stella's artwork, I showed them Chocolate Muffin Tree's cardboard project. Then I gave them a piece of cardboard and our bin of recycled materials and told them to get to it. We received how to use a hot glue gun safely and they were off! I think they really enjoyed the process of creating these sculptures. I love all the concentration you see in the photos as they are creating!

I thought it was simply amazing how they manipulated the cardboard and worked the glue fun! I didn't help them with these AT ALL!

Top image is my 9 year old's, bottom image is my (then) 6 year old's.

After they were done creating their sculptures, I spray painted them white.

And then they were going to paint them with acrylic paints. Ella picked cool colors.

Lily picked warm colors.

I admit that this project might have been a bit too ambitious for the end of the summer. Even though there was more than a week between when they created the sculptures and when they were going to paint them, the girls just were not that interested in painting the sculptures. They did a few tubes the first day. Then I tried to get them to keep going, but they just didn't feel like it. So unfortunately, we don't have a finished project. I still have them up in the closet. Maybe they will finish them someday. Maybe next summer. ;-) They absolutely LOVED the construction part of this though. I will have to remember that and see what I can come up with in the future that can feed off that.

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 3: Mini "Masters" tiles

Working with the alcohol ink sort of reminded me of impressionist paintings in a couple ways. One, the way the colors blended together and two, the "quick" nature of the artwork. The Impressionists painted their images in a quick manner trying to catch the moment. Sort of moment (or movement) frozen in time. You have to work relatively quickly with the alcohol ink before it all dries. The way some of the colors blended together made me think of Monet's Waterlilies and this image below, "Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge" (1899).

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I had come across this project for a tape resist of the bridge on The Crafty Classroom blog. Once I had experimented with tape resist on the tiles, I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to recreate a tile version of this painting.

I used Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, and Stream on the "green" portion of the tile. Using the Alcohol Blending Solution and the felt pad applicator.

I let that dry for a couple minutes and then I used a new felt pad to apply a mixture of Stream, Sailboat Blue, and one dot of Citrus. After covering the tile with that, I added one drop of Wild Plum to sort of put purple waterlilies in the water.

Let it dry for a bit, removed the tape, and Voila! Monet's Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge a la Alcohol Ink Tile.

My 8 year old wanted to know how I made the Monet tile, but didn't want to do the bridge. So here is her version. BUT, check out something else NEW we learned! Do you see those swirls in the blue??? Does that make you think of another famous artist and painting???

When she made those swirls, we both breathed in really quickly and looked at each other excitedly. She turned to me and said, "Van Gogh!!!" Yep! This inspired us to try and make a Starry, Starry Night tile.

 We put a drop or two of Sunshine Yellow ink on the tip of a Q-tip and just touched it to the tile to create the stars. She is planning to give this tile to her art teacher as an end-of-the-year gift. :-)

Though this next one she made wasn't intentional, it reminds me so much of Georgia O'Keefe's work!

Isn't it beautiful!

I began to think about what other artists' work would translate well to this process. Mondrian was easy enough. I just taped off some vertical and horizontal lines and used red, blue and yellow to fill them in. This one had a learning curve though. I had to redo the tile three times before i was happy with it. I figured out that by having a Q-tip ready when I filled in the smaller areas, I could soak up excess ink before it spread over the tape into the other shapes. I also did not use Alcohol Blending Solution for this, just straight ink on tile.

I think a Keith Haring tile might be fun. I came across this work by him:

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I thought this could be translated pretty well. I made the tile with similar colors. Then I used a Q-tip dabbed with the Memento archival ink and drew the dancing people.

 I had to repeat the ink process about 4 times to end up with this:

I might have to try this one again sometime. It was REALLY hard to remove the alcohol ink where it was thicker, where two or more colors had mixed and settled. I think if I did this again, I might apply a lighter layer of ink applied with a Q-tip or something. Then, the stamp resist with the Q-tip would work out better. But it still gives a nice representation of Haring's painting.

I've also become familiar with Romero Britto's work recently. Super fun, bright and blocky! Perfect for this sort of project. I found this image:

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I taped the bold lines off except for the wings. Applied the ink to the different areas. Then I used a Q-tip with one or two dots of the same ink on the top and created the pattern designs by running the Q-tip over the first layer of ink. No Alcohol Blending Solution was used for this tile. Once the background was done. I let it dry for a few minutes. Then I used a Q-tip dabbed with Memento Archival Ink to draw in the wings.

I rinsed the tile with water and the ink was removed (MUCH easier than the Haring tile).

 I removed the tape. Then I dipped a Q-tip in the StazOn black ink and drew with it on the tile over the tape lines. I tried to do one consistent line as much as I could. If I lifted up at all or went back over something, the ink lifted up a bit or wasn't quite as dark.

 And there you go! A Britto-inspired work on an alcohol ink tile!

What other artists do you think would be fun to try with this process???

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 2: Children's Experimenting

After experimenting with the alcohol ink myself for a bit, I felt like I could do this project with my girls. I decided it was best to do it on a one-on-one basis with them though. I thought it might be too much to try and help both of them at the same time since you are sort of under time constraints with the drying of the ink and Alcohol Blending Solution. I also wanted to monitor the squeezing of the ink since it isn't exactly cheap. :-)

I started with my 8 year old and showed her the tiles I had created and asked her which "style" she wanted to try first. She picked the "bubbles" one. So I had her spread the Alcohol Blending Solution on the tile with a toothbrush and pick out three colors of ink.

She did a really wonderful job of listening to my instructions and not getting overzealous with anything. She was really thoughtful about where she placed the ink and was very patient to watch what happened when she put the dots on. It really is sort of mesmerizing to watch.

And here is her first finished tile:

 

Isn't it fun!

She really got into the PROCESS of this project. She LOVE LOVE LOVED trying different techniques and seeing the outcome. 

She really started experimenting with one tile. She decided to try the ink without any Alcohol Blending Solution. She played around with dropping the different colors into each other. And then, most impressive to me, she figured out that if you put drops of one color of ink on a Q-tip and rub it on a different color you can draw with it! See the swirls of new color in the photo below:

 

She taught me something about how the alcohol ink works! Her tile ended up a total muddy mess by the the time she was done experimenting. But we had learned a few new techniques so it was great! We just rinsed off the ink with the Alcohol Blending Solution and started anew!

She also tried out stamping on a couple of her tiles: 

Here are the tiles she created:

That last one on the right will be making an appearance in the 

"Masters" tiles post (Alcohol Ink Part 3). ;-)

(Edited to add the photo below. She decided to add a stamp to the blue/green tile)

After trying the project out with my 8 year old, I felt even more confident that my 6 year old could handle this project also. And she had some fabulous ideas as well! She started off with just dripping drops of ink on the tile. But quickly moved to taping her tiles. This first photo, she wanted to make a "snowflake" with the tape.

 And I have to admit I thought of doing a rainbow one, but she loved the idea and ran with it:

Here are her finished tiles:

GORGEOUS!!

(Edited to add: She made a couple more tiles yesterday. :-)

She kind of went overboard with the ink on one tile. When I was in the process of wiping it off so she could start over, she really liked the blue background. So we kept it!

 Aren't the flower stamps cute?!

Now, I bet you're wondering what the heck we're going to do with all these tiles?! We're going to coat/seal them to protect them (Alcohol Ink Part 4). We will attach felt or cork pads on the bottom to make into coasters and we plan to give them to some special ladies as Mother's Day gifts. I also plan to give each of their teachers one, along with a little painted flower pot as End-of-the-Year teacher gifts (Something along the lines of "Thanks for helping me "grow" and "coast" through this school year!").

Now, for something really fun....check out our Mini Masters tiles in the next post!