TaDa! Chessboard complete!

Whew.

13 hours of work, that is what this 9 year old child has invested in her work, but what a beautiful thing it is to behold.  We did the "happy dance" when it was finally complete and celebrated with a big bowl of popcorn.  Then the student and my oldest child played a game of chess while we waited for her mom to come pick her up.

Who may or may not of shed a small tear when she looked at the completed work.

Because it's that special!

Here is what I loved about this project, as it was chocked full of skills to be learned, skills I believe will serve a person well in their everyday life, not just in regards to art.

First, brainstorming.  It is a skill I think far too many people do not know how to do.  A skill I finessed during my days as an Art Director in an advertising agency and like to share with my students.  I helped her write down all the things that might be associated with her cat, Violet, the inspiration for this Chessboard.  As she started trying to edit her ideas, I told her to write down everything and not worry if it was a good or bad idea.

Everything was free game at this point and there was no telling what idea would lead to an even better or great idea.

And the student learned that an idea she originally edited out ended up being a strong element of her game board in the end....the bird.

mice "pawns", gold fish bowl "rook", and bird "knight"

And if she hadn't allowed herself to brainstorm without editing her ideas, it would of been something she would not of had on paper to choose from.  The dog would of been all wrong on this board as everything else a cat usually has power over and the dog is basically known for chasing cats...thereby implied a more powerful position than the cat.  The student didn't make this edit until the third day when going back over her original brainstorming paper.


Second great skill this project highlights, problem solving.

32 pieces to be sculpted and painted and one week to complete the project.

That means when you are working out your design, you have to keep in mind how things need to be simplified in order to meet the time constraints.  It was interesting to watch this child naturally make these edits as she worked.  

Another problem that she had to solve was making sure there were no clay pieces sticking off her work since this is a functional piece of art that is meant to be handled.  She had to constantly keep in mind keeping things contained on the main game piece so nothing breaks when it is being handled over time.

Which how great is it to give a child the opportunity to create a functional piece of work?!  One she can enjoy playing with family and friends?

Then there was the color scheme.  She had to work within a certain color choice so that game pieces were readily identifiable.  So again, great opportunity to work out problem solving skills.  Which as you can see, she passed with flying colors.

rook gold fish bowl

Here is a quick look at the goldfish bowl completed.  Here was a leap of faith on her part in trust.  She needed to add some blue here so you knew it was a goldfish bowl, but she also needed to make sure there was no confusion in what rooks went where and that it blended in with the other game pieces.  First she made large goldfish on the outside of the bowl.  A large white one and a large orange one.  Then she added the muted blue paint and then I discussed foreground with her and she placed some greenery in the bowl in front of the fish.

Since the works are 3 dimensional, we discussed the bird's eye view of the work and so with fimo she added the top of the fish and plant, along with some blue for the water that we then covered with an antique eyeglass lens.

And then she had a stroke of genius!  She made the rim of the bowl either orange or white.  

How smart is that?

oh yea, the trust part.   After she had done all this work, I had her put a fluid acrylic in iridescent blue over EVERYTHING so it looked like it was in a bowl.  After all that work, she was understandably hesitant to paint over all of it in what looked like an opaque paint but she trusted me and it turned out great.

Finally the board.

chessboard

A lesson in patience as that's a lot of squares and not necessarily the most exciting thing in the world to paint and yet, you have to concentrate as you have to definitely stay inside the lines.  Then how to make in interesting?

She wanted cat paws walking across the board and she chose to put them in random places and not every square because we were almost at the end of the last class.

More problem solving!!!

The dancing circle or the face off, however you decide to read it, happened by accident!  She wanted the white prints to go across one way and the orange ones to go the other and then when it was finished we realized  where they crossed it looked like they were squaring off with each other.

I love this happenstance.

Which again, great life lesson in not planning out every last detail and enjoying the unexpected.

And finally the inspiration for all of this awesome work, Violet the cat as the king of the white team.  This might of been where her mom may or may not of gotten choked up because it actually does look like her cat.  The tiny white mark in the grey face marking is deliberately thought out because it is a unique quality of her cat she wanted highlighted.

Now what I learned this week.  You don't want to try this with a huge class unless you have A LOT of help.  I would not do this with more than 5-8 children.

You need AT LEAST 15 hours to complete this project if you are trying to do it in a camp.  In the future, I would probably do this in my weekly school year classes so students would have as many classes as necessary to complete it.

If you don't have a kiln, the fimo works great because you can harden it in less than 15 minutes and it is quite easy to paint.  

I think it is necessary to varnish EVERYTHING.  This is going to be played with so you need to think of wear and tear.  I am in love with the new glaze varnish I tried, it truly looks and feels like a finished glazed clay piece.  

I used a matte varnish on the board to protect it.

One last picture before I end what has become a post the size of "War and Peace".  Can you imagine if I hadn't done the sneak peak post how long this would be?

I am so proud of this project as if you couldn't tell by the numerous pictures.  Even the student had to ask me when enough was enough but as I said to her, this is the last time I will see the work and I want to make sure I have lots of memories of it to last me for years to come.

Congrats Miss A!  You did an amazing job and I hope you beat your dad tonight when you challenge him to a game.  Your chessboard is purrrrfect!