wood burning workshop

On the last day of the Holiday Workshops, I presented a wood burning project. The age range was 7-9 years old. I am always a little nervous when I bring the woodburners out because they are so hot and it only takes a split second for a burn to happen. It is probably the only time I am absolutely stern and serious with the students when I give instructions. However to date, I have only had one minor accident and even that child has begged to do more wood burning.

To say kids love this medium is an understatement.

The workshop was three hours and each student created two works of art. It was interesting to see how their work changed by the end of the class as they learned more and more about how to manipulate the burners and their confidence grew in using the tool.

Again, my pictures are not the greatest as I am rushing at the very end to grab them as parents are picking up at the end of the day. Workshops are a whirlwind of activity and I find I never quite have enough time to capture the artworks properly.

We did look at the work of Horace Pippin prior to starting the project. He is an American Folk Artist who did some beautiful artwork using wood burning. The kids discussed what they noticed in how he handled the wood burning and then they sketched their own ideas on paper before lightly drawing them on the wood to burn.

When they finished, I had watercolors out for them to add to their pieces. The finished results are stunning and there was such a wide variety of compositions.

This artist was quite proud of the texture he created with the burner on the trees.

I was quite taken with the color choices made by this artist and the graphic nature of his handling of the burner. I think it made for a very interesting artwork in the end.

This artwork too utilizes the burner with the most interesting of results. It was fun to watch the kids just experiment with their woodworks.

Two very different approaches to Inuksuks.

And I loved the different ways these three students created animals with the burner. Three very unique and different ideas on the subject.

And finally this artist. He created this lovely tree landscape for his first project and then wanted to create a bear. He did the wood burning and added an amazing amount of color to the wood. So much color that the bear was pretty lost in the composition and he was very discouraged. I handed him some white and black paint but he was pretty defeated so I asked him if I could show him how the adding white or black over the color on the wood could again pull out his bear. He agreed because I think he felt the work was a lost cause. 

I quickly threw some white color right around the two front feet of the bear and some black around his head. Immediately the artist saw what I meant and his excitement grew again. He took over and finished this beautiful piece. I was thrilled that at the end of the project, he saw that nothing is ever lost, it might take a bit of problem solving, asking a lot of "what if I try" type questions but if you don't give up, willing to take a chance, in the end you can find success.

On top of that, it is really beautiful and I would never of thought to paint a rainbow of color and then begin to neutralize it with white or black if he hadn't gone down that path to begin with.

As parents picked up their children, the studio once again smelled like we had enjoyed a rather large bonfire. But on the upside, I was not sweeping up glitter!

holiday creations

The kids were out of school for an entire week before Christmas and so I decided to run some morning workshops throughout the week. A great opportunity for children to create something of their own to gift during the holiday season.

Three of the classes were focused on decorations they could display during the holidays for many years to come.

On Monday and Tuesday, I decided to bring back the holiday house and the pinecone elf workshop from the year before based on how much fun was had by the students.

I had the houses already cut out on watercolor paper prior to the workshop for the kids to design their homes. Once they were happy with their design, I did cut out their windows and the hole in the back for a battery operated votive candle for them with a x-acto knife for safety reasons.

While I was doing that the kids painted a flat wooden base white to adhere the houses on to later in the project.

After the students glued in some tissue paper on the inside of the house over the windows, they assembled the houses and began to paint.

There were some great imaginations in the room that day!

This young boy had a tree fall into his house a week or so prior to the workshop, at his bedroom window to be exact! Thankfully no one was hurt but he will always remember the dramatic events when he looks at this house with a fallen tree resting on the house!

I had a lot of things available for the kids to use for decoration and I love how this boy took some pipe cleaner and made Santa's sled sitting on the roof. 

And how sweet is this car the artist drew onto the wood base? I thought it was a great touch.

And did the kids ever have fun decorating! Thankfully more is better during the holidays.

Well at least for most, but I love the quiet and serene little house created by this young little boy too. 

When all was said and done, they painted a watered down glue mixture over the entire structure and glittered until their hearts were content so that it would sparkle at night when lit.

The next day, I ran a workshop to create pinecone elves. This is a project I created almost ten years ago and I still love creating them myself each year.

The students create a sculpted head on a wooden bead out of oven bake clay. Once it had cooled down, we hot glued it onto the pinecone they had chosen and they painted the face.

While the face was baking, they painted the circle wooden base and the pine cone white (so it looked snowy) then glued the pinecone onto the base. The children also had the opportunity to add some glitter to the wooden base and pinecone if they wanted.  

Yep, more glitter!

Then using pipe cleaner, they pulled it through the pinecone to create the arms. Usually it fits in the pinecone tight enough that no glue is needed, but for a couple we added a quick dab of glue on the back side prior to pulling it through the pinecone so it would stay in place.

Finally, the artist added a beard they cut from white pipe cleaner, a felt hat from the pile I had quickly stitched up before the workshop (I created 24 of them in less than an hour, it is quick and easy) and any little decorations they wanted the elf to hold.

They were so cute we couldn't resist having them take an "elfie"!

And don't they look great displayed with one of the holiday houses created the day before? I was lucky enough to have one artist take both classes and leave the house overnight to dry so I could take a picture to show you what it all looked like together. Won't it make a great display at her house?

Finally I ran a snow globe ornament workshop. I found these great clear plastic baubles that were in two parts, so one could create something inside and then attach them together to create an ornament bauble. 

reindeer

I wish I had bought more because the project was so much fun and I had so many children want to participate but not enough material to accept them all in the class.  I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for these next year and will buy double the amount!

snowman

Each child created a sculpture using oven bake clay to put in their ornament. I brought out some wire for the kids to experiment with the clay. I love how the artist used the wire to create antlers for a reindeer above and how the artist below enhanced her Christmas tree using the wire. 

I even had an artist use the toothpicks I put out for mark making in the clay for arms on their snowman.

abstract christmas tree

While the clay was baking, the students all took white acrylic paint and began to paint the inside of the ornaments. It was interesting to see how each child decided to tackle this part of the project.

Some painted just the bottom and added some snowflakes falling down. The artist above with the abstracted Christmas tree painted the snow dripping down from above, almost like icicles.

snowman

And this artist painted out the entire bauble except for a window on either side for the viewer to peek through. While the paint was still wet there was, you guessed it, glitter they could add to the inside too.

penguin

As the white paint was drying, they were able to begin painting the clay figures we then glued down on the inside edge of one side of the bauble before putting it together.

christmas tree

Unfortunately my pictures aren't the best because I was taking them in a hurry as the ornaments were walking out the door at the end of class.

presents

I was so impressed with all the holiday decor projects the kids created in these three workshops. As a parent, I would have been thrilled to see any of these walk through the door at my house when the kids were little. But best of all was watching how thrilled these young children were to be taking their works of art home to display.

It was crazy trying to get my own family's Christmas organized and run a week's worth of workshops right before the big day, but so well worth it in the end.

But not going to lie I felt much like this particular snowman that week, as if at any moment I would lose my head! I think most adults feel that way as the big day draws near.

I'm sure all these great works of art were enjoyed during what I hope was a wonderful holiday for everyone.

watercolor flower study

I wanted to introduce watercolor to the preteen class.

For some reason, I find watercolor the most challenging of mediums for the preteens and teens. It is so hard for them to "let go" and allow the watercolor to do it's thing in creating their work.

My hope was to have the students spend the evening experimenting with the watercolors while observing a sunflower and then create another watercolor on their own with what they learned.

Each girl created a quick light pencil sketch of the sunflower on the paper.

They each had a palette with red, blue, yellow and brown sienna.

I first showed them a wet on wet technique, where they added red and blue to the background.

The first challenge was keeping the colors light so they could build upon them. I also wanted them to develop an understanding that with watercolor, leaving some of the paper white is important.

After creating the background they added some yellow and red to their petals. Again keeping things light, I felt like I repeated that particular statement many, many times.

"keep things light. keep things light. keep things light" I sounded like a broken record.

Finally the artist quickly washed a brown in the center of their flowers and using the back of the brush created a stippling effect to indicate the seeds of the sunflower. Banging the top of the paintbrush on the paper was a big hit. Obviously we all had some frustrations we needed to let out that night.

Then we dried the artworks with a blowdryer.

Now I wanted them to have the opportunity to explore painting the negative space and also explore how watercolor works when applied over color that is already dry, so the girls then mixed their own blue and began painting the background in order to bring out the flower petals. At this time, I also had them start to define a stem by painting the negative space also.

When happy, they all created a deep purple by adding some brown to a red and blue mixture and went back over the brown of the flower center, added more stippling, and then took out some of the color by pulling it back out with the brush and drying it on a towel until they were happy.

They dried their artworks once again and then added a stem and went back into the petals with a orange yellow for shading.

Although there was a lot of moaning throughout the process as they fought giving up control, they all succeeded in the end. My hope was to show them by example that loosening up will allow the process of creating art to play a bigger role in their future creations, creating some beautiful and pleasing results.

For one child, I think she found her medium! She took to watercolor naturally and quickly created this beautiful poppy painting when finished with her sunflower study.

For the others, they added some new techniques and hopefully let go of a bit of control moving forward in their works of art- allowing process more of a role while creating.

I have already seen the results of that in a needle felt sculpture they are currently working on, not getting so wrapped up in what they want to happen and being open to creating based on what is happening.

So at the end of the day (or class), I'll call that a successful project.