Tuesday, November 13, 2012

masks made of metal

Here is my latest adventure in mask making with 7th graders. I found these
on Pinterest and had to try them!  We used 36 gauge aluminum and colored
sharpies. Students double matted them with black and marbled
construction paper by School Smart.


Students drew out their mask onto the metal with a skinny stick,
then used a Popsicle stick to push some parts back and
bring some forward to create some dimension.



I used cardboard to create small easels,
which are perfect for the finished 9 by 9 inch pieces!

Friday, November 2, 2012

los dias de los muertos


November 1st and 2nd are the Days of the Dead.
This is the first year I have had the opportunity to celebrate this in my artroom.  I bought a short video from Teacher's Discovery which shows the celebration from two teenagers' points of view.  It includes all of the preparation for the alters, and the celebrations for All Saint's Day and The Day of the Dead.

I found Mr. Bones AKA Senior Huesos on an after-Halloween clearance and decided he would be perfect for the Day of the Dead alter.  I used Day of the Dead fabric as a scarf.  I bought him a hat for his journey, and added more fabric, fruits, flowers, artwork, grasshoppers, candles and sugar skulls to complete the alter.

My friend Ruth made these sugar skulls with her students and gifted them to me.  I used the same molds and tried to make them out of paper clay and decorate with marker... they turned out all right, I like the real sugar skulls better!


Students could color a skull color sheet and add to the designs.  They colored them with highlighters and matted them to a bright paper for a festive effect!

I cut some skull stamps from easy-cut.  We stamped them using markers or a black ink pad and then adding decorations with marker to make little cards.


These are a couple of cute skull masks made of paper plates!

I love the effect of this cut out skull matted onto modeled construction paper!
Overall, it was a pretty festive day in the artroom.
Students of all ethnic backgrounds had fun and learned a lot!