Saturday, September 3, 2011

Picasso Inspired Wire and Pantyhose Sculptures

This was one of the last projects I did with one of my 5th grade classes last school year. It was a big hit and surprisingly not as difficult as it might have looked.

Students were introduced to the art of Pablo Picasso and then sketched out a Picasso-like portrait.

Before next class I had my #1 helper (my wonderful husband) cut a 2x4 scrap, we had left over from one of our many home improvement projects, into enough pieces for this class. I cut the hook off of wire clothes hangers and drilled a hole big enough for the hanger to go in.





The next class was spent bending the wire hanger into a shape the student wanted, placing it into the hole in the wood and covering it with a knee high nylon stocking.








A coat of gesso was applied to the nylon and then students spent 2 more classes painting their Picasso inspired portrait sculptures using acrylic paints.










16 comments:

  1. love this..going to try it with my kiddos!!! -Mr. E

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  2. These are really awesome.

    I am wondering if one can use cardboard paper for the younger students.

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  3. Art at Chesterbrook - do you mean in place of the wire? I'm not sure if that would hold up. But it's worth a shot.
    I did this with 5th graders and they had no problem bending the wire to change it. If I were going to do it with a younger group I might use a thinner wire instead of recycling wire hangers. I would also put the wire in the wood base for them so that they would just have to bend and slip the nylon on.

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  4. Looks great I am planning on doing this lesson with my 5th graders. Do you think styrofoam blocks will work instead of wood?

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  5. Mrs. Reynolds - I think that the styrofoam blocks would need to be a little larger than the wood ones to be stable. The only thing I wonder about is the hole created when the wire pushed is into the styrofoam would continue to get better and come loose - but perhaps some hot glue would stop this. Give it a test! Let me know how it works for you!

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  6. Can't wait to do this with my 5th graders!! Where did you find cheap pantyhose?

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    1. Walmart! They have these little plastic balls with a pair of knee highs for $.33 each. Please share your results if you do it!

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    2. Thanks can't wait to try it..collecting wire hangers from the staff! I will let you know how it goes!

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  7. I am a longterm sub in an art classroom, and I can't wait to do this with my 6th graders this week!!

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    1. Great! They will love it. Be sure to share some pics of the finished works.

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  8. Is there a price value on the stocking sculpture? If so would you let me know.
    Thanks

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  9. Hi how many coats of gesso did you use?

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  10. I'm wondering I can make this work for my two hour art program at the Library...I wok with teens, every other month, and we haven't done many sculpture projects...hmmm! :)

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  11. For many yearsI have bought most of my pantyhose from http://www.00701.com . This is a mail order service that sends supplies on a regular basis.

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