Frankenstein Toys

At Katoomba today, teen designers and artists created creepy hybrid sculptures out of old plush toys. I love them! What is your favourite piece?

Glowing Bugs

Inspired by the amazing bug art by Thurgood Marshall Elementary on Insta, we created glowing insect artworks on square wooden panels, with chalk pastels. 

                                  

Firstly, plain wood panels were painted in a layer of matte black acrylic paint the day before. 

After discussing the concept of symmetry and doing some test sketches on paper, students lightly drew their designs on the black paint surface. Then brightly coloured chalk pastels gave a neon light glow to the insects, making wonderful night scenes. We used our fingers to blend colours and add a gentle 'glow effect'.

Adding a little hairspray or fixative on completed pictures stops them from deteriorating too much. 

3D Papercraft!

Kids had a blast making 3D Papercraft at Springwood Library/Hub these holidays! All it took were some scissors, glue, coloured paper, and a bit of imagination. Some of the creatures assembled were a spiky hedgehog, spooky black cat, and a fish with a slinky, moveable spine. Looking at the photos below it appears that some of those fish were very hungry indeed. 

Look down below after the photos to see video instructions on how to make your own.

But first, here are a few of the creatures made in class today:

This video by Mr. Creator shows you how to make the fish:

This video by Easy Peasy and Fun shows you how to make the spooky black cat that can stand up by itself:

 And another video by Easy Peasy and Fun shows you how to make the cute little hedgehogs!

If you have a go at making these designs, or other cool papercraft, take a good photo of it and email it to me at noliver@bmcc.gov.au to have it featured on the blog.

Have fun!

Winter Watercolours

It's that time of year again! Watercolour paintings depicting an outdoor ice-skating scene (inspired by the magical artworks of Kathe Soave) were made by children aged 6 - 12yrs at Katoomba Library during these chilly holidays, and the results and wonderful!

Here's the artwork by Kathe Soave that inspired us (but check out more of her amazing work here) :

And here are the interpretations created by students!

Sun and Moon Weaving

These images show you just a glimpse into some of the wonderful Mexican Sun and Moon Weaving works that were created at Blaxland Library by children these holidays. Students learnt about the significance of the sun and moon motifs in Mexican art, craft and culture, as well as important recurring patterns and symbols displayed on materials such as Mexican textiles and clay art/handicrafts. The students used a number of mediums - such as pencils, markers and oil pastels, before adding woven accents. Beautifully done, everyone! How-to below...

What you'll need:

1. White paper plates
2. Oil pastels
3. Textas 
4. Squeezable glitter pen
5. Wools of different textures
6. Scissors
7. Lead pencils
8. Eraser
9. Sharpener

Method:

Look at and discuss examples of the Sun and Moon face motif from Mexican culture. More info here.

Look at other recurring symbols found in Mexican art and craft, and explore their cultural significance. 

Children outline their duel face on the central circle of the paper plate, and then extend the design up on the outer rim of the plate (ie adding flames for the sun side). 

Using markers/textas to outline and do a bit of fiddling colouring in. Use oil pastels to complete the colouring, to give a texture, painterly surface. 

Cut strips inwardly on the rim of the paper plate, approximately an inch apart. 

Choose your favourite wool to start, tie a double-knot around your first section of the rim (or use masking tape on the back of the plate to secure the wool). From then on, it's just the usual in and out method of weaving around the plate until you are ready for a new colour (double-knot the new wool the the end of the old) or to tie off. 

We then made a loop of wool and tied it to weaving at the top of our faces, in order to be able to hang the works up!

Paper Clay Creatives

Using lovely soft paper clay, our school holiday students created all sorts of colourful creatures at Springwood Library/Hub! They practiced skills such as sculpting, adding texture and mixing colours. Have a look at the wonderful sculptures below!

Snow Globes for Winter

Creative kids made their own winter wonderland snow globes recently at Katoomba Library, to celebrate the winter school holidays. Now these are souvenirs to treasure!

Beaded Snowflakes

It was snowing jewels in Blaxland this week with delicate beaded snowflakes made by clever kids!

What you need to make your own:

1. Pipe cleaners, preferably metallic
2. Scissors
3. Beads with holes large enough to fit on the wire of pipe cleaners (no seed beads!). Try and get some shiny beads in the mix, and clear beads (the sparkly pipe cleaner will be visible inside it)
4. Beading pliers (optional)

Method:
*Cut two pipe cleaners in half - you need 1.5 regular-sized pipe cleaners to make one snowflake.
*Take two shorter pieces, and twist them together a couple of times. Twist one more piece around the middle (great video tutorial here). You should end up with six spikes.
*Slip the beads on, leaving a couple of centimetres at each end.
*Curl the ends over to make a little pompom that stops the beads coming off.
*If you want, add a loop of some fishing line or ribbon on one end so you can hang your snowflake as a decoration! 

Paper Mosaic Collages

As an introduction to ancient mosaic tile art, today we created contemporary abstract mosaic collages with interesting papers on black cardboard. Having a coloured frame really made the colours of the collage pop.