Art at Home: Cardboard Sculpture

You can build a 3D sculpture using just the cardboard you might find around your house and some scissors! Look around for thin cardboard like cereal/cracker boxes, or paper towel/tp rolls. If you have paint or markers, you can add color to the cardboard, but we are mostly focusing on the form, space, and balance when we build a sculpture. So no worries if you don’t have color!

 Once you have gathered your cardboard, cut it into shapes. To cut a tube, gently flatten it, cut across, then pop it back into the round shape.


I added color here.

Cut some slots around the sides of your shapes with scissors.


Now for the fun part - take two pieces and slide the slots together. Keep arranging and rearranging until you have a sculpture that can stand on its own.


If it falls over, rearrange the pieces or cut new slots. Keep at it until you have a sculpture you are happy with. There are lots of ways you can make this sculpture more exciting - adding buttons or paper scraps, glitter, pipe cleaners... what can you find around your house? I can’t wait to see what you build! Send to me using Artsonia, Seesaw, email, Instagram, or Twitter. Have fun making!

5th grade mask sculptures

Fifth graders took a dive into some ancient cultures by studying masks, which have been used in cultures around the world. People of Ancient Greece, Egypt, Asia, and the Americas created masks from natural materials for reasons like celebrations, storytelling, and memorials. Some masks were made to be worn, while others were symbolic.

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After looking at a variety of examples, students sketched ideas for human and animal masks using realistic and abstract styles. They selected a design and began work with 3D materials which we saved, like cardboard, marker caps, small boxes, and other doodads. We used liquid glue, string, and tape for most of our attaching, and I manned the hot glue gun for stubborn pieces. The kids were very creative in their designs and had a lot of fun using the wide variety of materials.

My example:

 Our supplies:

Magazine page sculptures, 4th grade

This is a fun way for kids to experiment with 3-D form without spending a lot of dough - use old magazines or newspaper! You will need a reasonable amount of tape, but that's it. Roll tubes from the pages and assemble! Start with a three or four sided base and go upward from there. Some classes raided the yarn scraps and paper strip scraps for additional details. Students could work in teams or independently.

Murals and shacks

Can you tell I'm trying to catch up on my sadly neglected blog? Doubling up on the content for each post :).

Fourth graders learned about community murals and their purposes - beautification, advertising, sharing a message. We drew plans on printed images and  used a planning sheet for working out/explaining what the intention of our mural was.

First graders looked at the art of Beverly Buchanan and created 3-D shacks from recycled materials we saved in the art room. Folk artists often use what they have or find rather than buying specific art materials.

Hanging Sculpture, 3rd grade

We began these interesting mobile-style hanging sculptures by coloring the sides of our craft sticks with one set of colors on one side, and a different set on the other, so that as the sculpture turns, it changes its look. We carefully assembled the sticks, using at least two connection spots per stick for strength. On the final day, we added a hanger and used wires and beads for points of interest along the surface of our sculpture.

Front and back views of two sculptures in this next shot...

Frontback

This student created a manger - so creative and clever! 

Calder inspired paper sculpture, 1st grade

This lesson is easy to complete in one 45 minute session, since storing 3-D work can be problematic in many art rooms - it's a make and take! I found the instructions, complete with helpful video, here at Pink Stripey Socks :http://www.pinkstripeysocks.com/2015/05/calder-inspired-sculptures-kids-art-project.html .

We looked at a few examples of Alexander Calder's abstract stabile sculptures and discussed their environments, then students drew an environment of the base after securing the sculpture with folded tabs and glue stick. Some classes added patterns to their papers before folding and cutting.