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.

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

Mixed Media - Student Work

This piece was recently created by senior Julia Meng, one of the most gifted young students I've ever worked with. She is exceptional in both the creative arts and in her academic pursuits. In fact, I'm sure she is up for one of our Valedictorian spots this year. Julia is a 4th year art student with me and I've been working with her since the 7th grade. In this piece she combined many materials. She began watercoloring and tissue collaging on a piece of plywood, she further embellished with india ink, glass shards and wood carving. I'm thrilled with the final result! It's a stunning work. I believe she calls it Three Headed Phoenix.