Students hard at work decorating their clay sculptures...

I thought that I would include some photos of the students hard at work on their clay tribal masks to help show the process that they went through to make them.  In these photos the students have received their clay sculptures out of the kiln and the clay has been bisque fired.  They are at the painting and decorating stage and are using a wide variety of materials.  I encouraged the students to think about what unusual things they could add for hair, jewellery, etc and in my example I used a spray painted mop head for the hair, which rather looks like dredlocks!

grrreat

I often feel that the best part of a project is when you are in the thick of it, and not necessarily finishing something off.  I think that these photos show lots of creativity and happy students, which is always really good to see when you are a teacher!

The finished masks are featured here.

Tribal Inspired Sculptures (Clay & Mixed Media)

I recently just finished a big clay project with some year 9 and 10 students.  It was a project that I did at my previous school (which I posted an earlier blog post about here).  The students had been studying portraiture during the semester and for their final art work they had to model their face in clay and decorate it using tribal influences. 

The clay was moulded around newspaper bases and they are mostly hollow.  They were bisque fired then painted with acrylic and water colour paints.  Student were encouraged to find 'extras' to add to their clay pieces and some students really went full out!  I love that some of the studnets thought to use wigs and fake eyelashes for extra life-likeness!  To finish, the heads were mounted onto wooden backings, ready for hanging!

Hope you like them...

Charcoal Eyes

Oh dear!  The last time I put anything up on my blog was in December last year....7 months ago!  I've been a bit busy with settling into life in Australia and starting a new job you see, so please forgive me if you are a follower.

In February this year I started teaching Art and Textiles at a lovely all girls school. The students are very lovely and I've really enjoyed settling into the school and getting to know my classes over the last few months.  All in all, it has been extremely busy semester. 

These eye drawings were done by some students in my year 9 &10 class this semester.  They used charcoal and white chalk and looked at M.C.Escher's 'Eye of Death' (which they loved).  I think that they look fantastic on display together, as visually, a big wall of eyes is very impressive.

With two weeks off for school holidays, one of my goals is to share some more wonderful student work here, so here goes.................

Year 9 Cubist Work

The year 9 students completed their final cubist art works this week – with fantastic results.  Students studied Cubism in depth over a 2 month period, looking at the work of an artist, making research drawings and experimented with different materials.  It’s great to see such diversity in the final work – well done year 9s!
Shady's hot & cold musical instruments...

Chanel's piece has lots of different materials collaged-including some metal rings from her dad's work...

Clara's sculpture was a very ambitious piece, and absolutely fantastic in my opinion!...

This is Sondos's who is in Mrs Walsh's class...

Zahrah's shoes....

Harrison's cool sculpture...

Iman's piece...can you see the hidden faces?  She made hers using oil paints - and it still smells lovely!

Duncan's...

Faris's piece.  He really got into the Cubist spirit with this project and spent a lot of time at home coming up with all sorts of ideas - including sculpture and installation ideas.... 

Aseel's beautiful piece, which she spent hours on.... 

here is a detail from Aseel's.  She collaged magazine pages onto the surface, along with other materials.  She has such a lot of patience! 

 Kailey's final work...I love the monocrhome with a splash of bling...

Abrar's piece is busy and colourful... 



Year 9 Jewellery Designs