TRYING SOMETHING NEW

CLOCK MAKING

3-D SPECIAL STUDIES - 4TH YEAR

wood, clock kit, sandpaper, stain & wood burning tool kit

Senior Shreya Sheth wanted to try her hand at clock making and putting it on wood.

I believe she was inspired by one she had seen on the Internet.

And because she had an Independent Study Art course with me,

she could go wherever she wanted as long as she created art everyday.

I bought her a couple disks of wood and off she went.

I really liked the touch of woodburning that she chose to bring into the two pieces she made.

Both clocks sold instantly at Open House.

IT'S ALL ABOUT RECYCLING...

WOOD ANGELS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wood scraps, recycled materials, paper collage & wood staining

And these recycled wood figures are a great assignment to put at the end of the year.

This way we get to use up a lot of bits and pieces that are left behind from other projects.

I let the kids pick their subjects:

people, animals, insects;

as long as they are abstracted yet still recognizable.

Senior Sunny Kim made one of my personal favorites above.

Note all the adorable details:

the woodburned kitty faces on the feet,

the wire wings,

the Polymer clay face that has been stained with acrylic paint to bring out the facial details,

two different screws for arms,

the coiled wire spring for the pelvic area,

the list is long.

Another favorite was made by senior Anna Lee.

Two of the requirements were to include text and a bit of woodburning.  

Anna combined them on the inside of this clever and whimsical piece.

And junior Chirag Bisht knocked it out of the park with his cool skateboarding figure.

Clever young man used a wrench for the board which gave his piece so much personality.

And love that plant thingy on the top of the head that curls over.

Fun, fun, fun!!!

Sophomore Shreya Sheth went all out on her piece,

in this interactive caterpillar.

Sadly she ran out of time to get the features on,

but it was still remarkable 

and one of the most popular pieces at our Open House display.

And this cutie belongs to junior Liana Chie.

Notice the recycled paintbrush,

wire, nails, etc.?

Fun piece Liana!

The kids found the most interesting items to recycle like junior Hazel Cruz here.

Her father's broken watch face that she wired into the holes she drilled.

Yeap,

the kids were required to learn how to drill,

saw and sand their wood foundations.

They did this on a preliminary piece first to practice.

Here is Shreya using the drill as she starts the base of her caterpiller piece,

and below is junior A.K. Manivannan having fun with the jigsaw 

as he cuts a curve into his foundation.

Another requirement was to bring in an expressive quality to the piece 

through facial expressions or body language.

Both these pieces here,

top one by senior Adhora Islam,

and bottom by junior William Kim,

were done with the woodburning tool.

Some type of fibery goodness was also a requirement,

along with paper collage and paint staining.

I made these children jump thru a lot of hoops for this assignment,

and they never let me down.

Thank you all for working so hard,

it pays off big time!!!

Too Drill or Not to Drill?

PRELIMINARY WOOD UNIT

BEGINNING 3-D ART

scrap wood pieces, wood burning tools, saws, drills, sandpaper, miter boxes, c-clamps,

various scrap papers, acrylic and watercolor paints, Mod Podge, small sponges

Actually, 

they had to drill,

 that was part of the unit  :)

They also learned to saw, sand, & wood burn.

They loved it!!!! 

So these are the sweet little pieces they made from scraps 

before I allowed them to go on to the real assignment.

I felt the coolest one was created by junior Hazel Cruz.

I love how she distressed the bottom of the wood piece, 

and wood burned the roots into that area.

These sweet little houses were made by sophomore Amy Wang above,

and senior Anna Lee below.

Sophomore Shreya Shreth really went all out,

 as she always does,

 with the imaginative piece above.

I forgot to mention we also used these pieces to learn paper collage and wood staining.

How clever of junior Liana Chie to turn hers into a pinwheel  :)

Another of my favorites was this one by junior Joshua Bok.

So expressive!

Happy Heart

Nothing makes me happier then when my students continue to create after their class with me is over.

Three of my senior students, Bianca Tolentino, Kaili Hamada and Karisma Dev, all checked out spinning wheels from me for over the summer so that they could continue to spin their own yarns.

Above and below you can see what Bianca did with her handspuns.  

She made a cardboard loom and wove an elongated piece of fabric which she then turned into a journal (a project we did in her 3-D class)

Senior Reis Misaka, who learned to work with wood in the 3-D class, hand crafted a Niddy Noddy from wood doweling for Bianca to skein her handspuns (above)

Wow!

I'm so thrilled to be able to pass on the fiber arts to this next generation so that they can continue to pass it along and keep these arts alive.

Arbor Inspirations

Jim and I are in the process of building and installing several arbors up at the cabin.

Yesterday I was at a trendy new shopping center in Costa Mesa called SO CAL and saw this woven twig arbor.

It was love at first sight.

This arbor is is a neighborhood next to ours up on the mountain.

I love the simplicity and the curved and flowy lines.

I showed it to Jim so he has begun to build one for me.

Almost done.

As soon as it's in the ground I'll post a pix.

Recycling At It's Best

WOOD ANGELS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

When I first started this assignment about 5 or 6 years ago, I required the kids to include angle wings on their abstract human figures, thus "Wood Angels".  But as the assignment has evolved, we've dropped the wing requirement, and brought in more whimsical characters.  So not just abstract human figures, but animals, insects, you name it, it's been done.  

The kids love working with the wood, especially learning to use the power tools.  I do a big safety demo., then monitor and check the students as they are learning to use them for the first time.  They learn to saw, sand, drill, chisel, dremel, wood burn, stain and use the jigsaw, and circular miter saw.  

Scary, yes, a little, but so worth it, as you will see in the results. 

Youngster Kaili Hamada (junior) here accidentally chiseled into her finger.  

So occasionally accidents do happen but all is well, it's all healed up now, and she's a happy camper as you can see. 

Here we go!

One of my favorite wood pieces this year, because it had so much personality, was created by senior Megan Yeu.  

I was thrilled that she was able to do a lot of up-cycling with hardware store findings that I pick up at garage sales.

Senior Jinnie Choi made this adorable, interactive bunny.  The head bobs back and forth, and I really like how she has shredded up fiber and glued it down for fur.  Very tactile!

Another favorite was made by junior Jonathon Madamba who took advantage of the wood burning tools as well as paper collage.

Junior Clarissa Bloemhof also brought in a lot of wood burning along with her wonderful paper collage.  Love that she has built an umbrella as an accessory which brings even more appeal to her work.

Senior Vinisha Kothari went all out on hers.  You can't tell the scale from the pix , but it was ginormous, and very impressive; full of color, wood burned designs and fun!  Below you can get a better idea of the size of this piece.

Here is senior Rebecca Tjahja cutting away with the jig saw to shape her wings.  And above is her finished piece.  Notice how she has built her boy and girl figures completely with hardware findings on top of the paper collaged heart?  Very cool solution!

Next we have the work of the very handsome and debonair young junior Justin Jang.  Love his take on Spiderman!

8th grader Annie Lin has cleverly used twigs for her arms, legs and neck.  She has also done a beautiful job with her staining and wood burning.

Senior Esther Woo has made this adorable young girl by incorporating recycled laces, and hardware pins for arms and legs.  But it's the idea for the dolls hair that is brilliant; gluing down the sawdust shavings that we were going to throw away.  Fantastic critical thinking woman!

8th grader Cassidy Chansirik brings so much personality to her doll by the tip of the head, the miss matched buttons, crooked smile and wire wrapped hair.  So sweet Cassidy!

This next one by junior Bianca Tolentino has so much content built in thru attention to detail.  Wow, heck out the side view below as well!

Senior Ema Shah made an adorable Santa complete with toy bag.

And junior Daphne Chiang gives us a sweet young woman dressed for the prom.  

  At least that's where I think she's going.  :)

I hope all of you have enjoyed seeing so many of the finished wood pieces.  

These kids worked so very hard to make them as wonderful as possible.

Karisma Dev and Her Drop Spindle

Drop Spindles are used by most Third World countries to spin their flocks sheep and goat wool into yarn.   And I do teach the 3-D kids here how to spin their own yarns but we mostly use coat hanger wires cut into four pieces to do it with (drop spindles are too expensive to provide for a whole class).  Well about 2 years ago I saw an article in  Spin Off magazine showing how it's done, and I thought what a great 3-D project in wood for my students.

This is only the second time I've done this assignment with my Advanced 3-D class, but it won't be the last.  It's a great project in that it involves tons of critical thinking, physics, craftsmanship and design skills.  

Karisma was required to use two different types of wood for the spindle base; to saw, sand and drill to build her design with so that it would be perfectly balanced.  I love that she went to Home Depot and found the metal piece to put around the woods edge as an accent.

You can also see how she has stained her woods different colors, and added beads tand charms to the spindle base.  Her craftsmanship is impeccable, her design gorgeous. 

And you can see that she is already spinning yarn on the spindle.  

I just love working with Karisma, she is a very special young woman who is headed for greatness.

Wood Sculpture - Student work

These are the wood originals that I was posting about yesterday, done by my Beginning 3-D students.  For this assignment they had to turn the wood into an abstract human, animal or recognizable thing thru sawing, sanding, drilling, gluing, woodburning, carving, paper collage and staining.  I feel the kids did a remarkable job and probably worked harder on these then any of their other assignments.  They really got into this!

Senior Prianka Shah started with a block of wood and used a Dremel sander to shape her lion's body, and another thin piece of wood for the head, and glued the two together.  Then she woodburned in it's features.

For her finished piece she stained the wood and glued on fibers for it's mane and tail.  Fantastic piece Priyanka!  And so much effort with that Dremel tool!!!

Next we have senior Fernie  Jacinto with his playful interactive man.  He used a special drill bit to rout out the hole from the body, then instead of gluing the head on, he thought it would be cooler to be able to display it 2 different ways.  Great idea Dude!  :)  Also love the springs he used to attach the arms and legs, and that they aren't the same lengths.  Way more interesting for the eye that way.

This adorable Frankenstein was done by senior Kasie Le-Nguyen.

And senior Michelle Yoshimoto created this too die for choo-choo train.  Notice the woodburned smile  :)  Love it Michelle!!

This next rosy cheeked one with the really nice paper collage was done by 8th grader Jacqueline Yu.  Really like how she wire wrapped her nail legs too.

One of everyone's favorites this year was done by senior Briana Johnson.  Of course she based it on Disney's Pinocchio.

This little cutie here was created by junior Kaya Quarles.  She had to spend a lot of time rounding off the top of her wood plank, and then tons of hours putting down those tiny paper collage pieces.  But so worth all the effort.   

And what a sweet piece this one is by senior May Luong.  Notice the metal hardware she used for the legs?  and the clever wire wrapped nail s into arms.  I also like that she mounted it for greater stability.  The kids had a choice to either put a hanging device on it or to make it free standing.

And this darling piece is by one of my other 8th graders, Lauren Kennedy.  She has also come up with very clever arms, and done some pleasing paper collage.

Another favorite of the class and one of my personal favorites was this highly expressive and pleasing piece by our last 8th grader, Jenna De La Paz.  Jenna put so much extra time into this piece, coming in everyday at lunch to use the power tools.  And it shows Jenna, all your hard work was so worth it.  Fantastic piece!

Another favorite of mine was this sweetheart by senior Eugenia Jacobs.  Clever tutu creation with tissue paper, love how she attached arms and legs, and I adore those spring pigtails  LOL