7th Grade Art Wheel - Wire Pendants with Patterned Stamped Tissue

The most difficult assignment this year for my sweet 7th graders has been the wire pendant project. They were asked to bring in an interesting rock, shell or charm, and then I showed them how to use pliers and wire cutters to capture the object within the wire so that it looked aesthetically pleasing and well crafted. They were also allowed to embellish with other things like smaller beads, charms and stones. It was rough going at times, but eventually all 30 of them were able to finish a pendant that we then strung onto ribbon or a chain they had brought in from home. The pieces actually turned out quite well considering how much they struggled with this small motor skills task. The piece above belongs to Smruthie Maganti and is one of the more sophisticated ones. I'm finding out that Smruthie is an amazing designer and craftswoman and I'm hoping she will come back and take more art classes with me. Hint, Hint! :)

You are also seeing glimpses of their collaged boxes that I posted last week along with another unit we did in conjunction with this one, Stamped Patterns on Tissue Paper. I taught them some surface design with carved rubber erasers, and 7 different patterns that they could stamp out. After practicing all 7, they chose a color tissue that would work visually with their boxes and stamped out their favorite patterns. This tissue was then used to line the boxes with and to provide a beautiful tease before you see the pendant underneath. The 3 pendants above were done by Evelyn Aldana, Paul Dean Versteeg III, and Lizzy Krueger, and the box and tissue below was done by Katy Uchiyama.

Karisma Dev did the box, tissue and pendant above, and Eduardo Jacinto and Matthew Bautista did the pieces below.

And these last two were done by Ju Eun Lee and Deborah Gordillo. Fantastic job class!