VINEGAR & AMMONIA

METAL & WOOD SCULPTURE

SPECIAL STUDIES 3-D ART

copper, wood, propane torch, wood burning tool & acrylic paint

This is senior Shreya Sheth's last project in her 4th year Independent Study class

where she gets to design her own curriculum.

She chose to work with wood and metal.

Shreya used a propane torch to patina several of the copper pieces,

sawdust mixed with vinegar for the two pieces that look multi-colored,

and an ammonia float for the more solid looking turquoise piece.

She learned these techniques in her 2nd level 3-D Art class.

It was really great to see her go back and use that knowledge again.

She used a wood burning tool to mark up the wood blocks,

then applied several colors of acrylic paint that mimicked the various patinas she achieved.

She used a staining technique with the paint,

sponging it on then wiping it off. 

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.

BUSY BEAVERS - PART II

WOOD ANGELS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

I'm hoping you enjoyed yesterday's post

and are ready for more creative goodness.

We start today with senior Jenna Llamas.

She has chosen to work to a beach theme

 in a fun & pleasing complimentary color scheme of orange and blues.

I took a side view shot so you could see her wood burned edging.

Were they required to wood burn somewhere in their piece?

Yes.

Senior Hapshiba Kwon,

and outstanding student in so many arenas,

brought in some of her poetry and love of rain in Eau de Rain. 

Notice the empty spool that she used for the torso and how she paper colleged it?

And then to go back to the bird's nest unit and used what she learned there to build the umbrella skirt.

Brilliant!

I asked Hapshiba to say a little something about her piece and what inspired her.

So in her own words:

Hello, I’m Hapshiba Kwon, a high school senior, and I will be guest blogging about my piece!

My piece is titled “eau de rain,” a slight play on the “eau de toilette” phrase that I see so often on perfume bottles and colognes. The title has been wood-burned onto the base and stained over with lavender acrylics.

I started off with a small wooden block for my base. It had been pre-stained on the bottom with pink and aqua colors and studded with metallic “stars.” I built my figure on top of this block, fitting a wooden dowel (later collaged with blue tissue paper and music sheets) into a small hole to serve as legs...or rather, one leg :)

Next, I built a wire nest so that I could weave a variety of yarns through it. We learned to use this technique during our bird’s nest project, and I wanted to turn the nest upside down to use as an umbrella. I utilized baby blue, pastel purple, gray, white, and silver yarns to create my umbrella, and then used this color scheme throughout the rest of my piece.

I definitely had the most fun stringing all sorts of beads on wax linen threads to hang around the edges of my umbrella, so as to encapsulate the movement of falling rain.

As for the bodice, I used a tan spool and collaged on top of it with tissue papers and yellowed hymn book pages. I also marbleized white and black clay to create the polymer head, and then stained it with teal metallic compounds for a subtly glittery effect.

To finish off the piece, we all needed to add a special accessory to personalize our figurines. I chose to add a miniature book with one of my poems titled “Little Moments.”

I think my piece strayed quite a bit from what I’d originally had in mind (as per usual), but I enjoyed the assignment because it allowed me to pay attention to small details and also gave me a chance to work with a variety of materials--wood, yarn, wire, clay, beads, and even aluminum foil for the arms. I imagine it on a bedside table in a little girl’s bedroom because of the soft, fairy godmother/rain princess feeling it gives off, but I suppose that’s wishful thinking because my room is a big mess, hahaha.

Thank you for reading ^_^

This next one is English teacher Deliana Park's second piece.

(we saw her first one in yesterday's post)

This piece is so deep that I asked her to write an explanation.

So in her own words:

This bird man is in his office cage,

 locked and  restricted by his own drive to succeed and work long hours

His facial expression is semi shock 

and his color pallid from being indoors.

A dragonfly ironically rests outside his cage, 

beckoning him to come out.

The quotes on his work desk are from Dante's Inferno

 and the epitaph from Fahrenheit 451

 - a contrast of warning (to all who enter)

 and advising (to escape restrictions).

Wow Mrs. Park, 

that was a fascinating read,

a glimpse into your mind.

Thank you for sharing your message with us,

and for putting so much of yourself,

and your time and energy into this class.

We love having you here with us.

This next beauty was made by junior Insha Khan.

She took great pains in constructing this exquisite dress

with all the lovely details.

Incredibly gifted 8th grader Sydney Eng constructed this amazing chest board 

to go with her figure.

Her's was one of the class favorites for it's creative design

 and the amount of effort she put in it to pull it off.

All her little chest pieces were made with Polymer,

her board wood burned, 

and board edge paper collaged.

And finally we get to junior Helen Park's piece.

She was the gal in Part I who was carrying in the chair and sawing.

Was she able to incorporate any part of that chair?

I don't think she did,

but I'm sure one of these years someone with do something special with it  :)

So thanks Helen for your donation!

Helen's design is very clever in that it is two sided.

Warm & Cool.

And her wood burned saying leads us to think about what she is trying to convey.

Perhaps I will remember to ask her one day and slide it in here.

We finish with junior Cheryl-Mae Mallabo.

Super complex and thought provoking,

it takes some time to see all that she has put together.

Cheryl,

like Hapshiba,

used rebar to build out the front shoulder of her form (above),

then she came into it and wove yarn thru.

I just love when these kids use their critical thinking skills and apply earlier learning.

Cheryl spends hours looking thru all my bead and hardware containers,

selecting just the right pieces to incorporate into her creations.

And as you can see the amount of effort as well as attention to detail in her work

 is truly remarkable.

Thank you all for working so very hard for me.

It's always a pleasure to show off what you do here.

BUSY BEAVERS - PART I

WOOD ANGELS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wood scrap, wood burning, saws, drills and paper, c-clamps, miter boxes, paint staining, 

paper collage, & embellishment

My little crafty  woodworkers have been busy recycling,

tearing apart and putting back together again

to create these fanciful little creatures you will see.

Here junior Helen Park is bringing in an old chair 

to be used for the assignment.

And here she,

 is in complete safety gear,

 using the jigsaw to cut out the main body of her creature.

Tah Dah..,.

some of the finished ones that sit or stand 

and the others that hang.

So let's take a closer look at several.

This first one was crafted by senior Eileen Wang.

I added a new requirement to the assignment.

Eileen has done so many clever things to make her piece special.

Wood burning on the cork body,

hand spun yarn for the hair,

and recycled eyelet fabric for dress.

The next one by senior Clarissa Gutierrez conveys such peace and happiness thru facial expression.

This year they had to make their faces from Polymer clay and paint or stain them,

and I'm thrilled with their results.

The kids had a choice to attach wings or not.

I love that Clarissa did.

Adorable! 

And let's check out what Mrs. Park created.

She actually made two,

and we'll see the other tomorrow in Part II.

One of the things she thought to do with both touched my heart so much.

She found two old wooden play toys of her kids,

sanded them down, 

sawed them up and used them as bodies for both her works.

I also really like that she surrounded her piece in wire,

incorporating other lessons learned prior to this.

and the crochet dollie was rescued from a garage sale.

Deliana made it her own by embroidering on it with little blue flowers.

Next we have 8th graders Carl Estrada and Iris Lin,

both super stars from last years Art Wheel.

Carl thought to marbleize his Polymer before making his face (clever boy),

and both their faces are so very expressive!!

Iris has reused lots of hardware and flip top cans in her piece,

and Carl has done some cool wood burning and staining on his arms.

Great job you two!

And this little cutie was done by senior Iris Xu.

Check out below the awesome wood burning she did on the side of the body,

and the amazing feet she created out of Polymer.

Well this is it for Part I.

I hope you'll stop by again tomorrow for Part II of Busy Beavers. 

GET OUT YOUR SAWS LADIES

PRELIMINARY WOOD EXERCISES

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wood scraps, saws, drills, jigsaw, sand paper, paper collage, 

wood burning tool, dremel set, staining w/ acrylics & watercolor

Drilling and sawing for the very first time is really scary.

But after several safety demos.,

 the kids took a deep breathe and went for it under my watchful eye.

Each one of them had to take a turn showing me that they could successfully use all the power tools before they could even begin working on their preliminary pieces.

It took two full class periods to accommodate all of them.

Here we see 8th grader Malia Pulido trimming down her wood piece.

And below her finished prelim.

The kids had quite a few hoops to jump thru on these little practice pieces.

Drilling a hole to fit their dowel  

sanding it all, 

wood burning designs,

staining the wood with both watercolor and acrylic to see which paint they liked best,

paper collaging,

and then a little bit of re-staining over the paper to see how that would affect the look.

Malia made one of the class favorites.

We were all so impressed with the amount of time and effort she put into wood burning 

all the cool designs below.

And then her paper collaging was lovely a well.

And all with such precise craftsmanship.

She is such a super star!

Now here is junior Cheryl-Mae Mallabo using our Dremel tool to drill with,

and below her finished piece.

She had the other class favorite.

These kids are incredible,

the amount of attention they give to just practicing.

Senior Hapshiba Kwon thought to paper collage dimensionally with those sweet butterflies,

and senior Elias Rodriquez uses his incredible zentangling skills with the wood burning tool,

 and then senior Eileen Wang is also creating amazing design with the wood burning tool

along with her sensitive use of paint staining.

And lastly,

our dear Mrs. Parks,

happily making a pencil/paper clip holder for her teacher desk.

Pretty darn clever Deliana!!!

We love you

xoxoxox

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!