Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Mini Macchias

Fun! Fun! Fun! That is my take away from the Dale Chihuly sculpture lesson I just finished with my 3rd graders. They loved studying his work and using it as the inspiration for their own sculptures. We looked at Chihuly's work and after our initial discussion on the differences between form and shape we watched a video of Dale Chihuly making a piece of art from his Macchia series. It was great for the students to see first hand how a piece of blown glass art is made.



Students then planned their piece of sculpture using colors and spontaneous drawing the way Chihuly does.


When students were done planning they transferred their designs to white coffee filters using washable markers. Macchia means spotted or stained in Italian and that was the basis of the inspiration for Chihuly and my students. When their coffee filter designs were complete they used paint bottles to form their free form sculptures.

When they had their sculptures in the form they wanted we sprayed them with spray starch and left them to dry!


They were then mounted on some matt board scraps in order to be displayed.


I think they are stunning and my little artists are so proud of their work! Want a fun sponge activity using technology for your students? Go here!

29 comments:

  1. I have seen this Chihuly project many times and wanted to try it. Yours is the first blog to explain it in a way that I get it! Using the paint bottles to wrap them around-GENIUS! Thanks!

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  2. Thanks for the step-by-step photos. I, too, like the idea of paint bottles because they are heavy and tall enough to support the filters. Good idea!!

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  3. Amazing! What a fun, colorful, do-able lesson plan. Thanks for a great post.

    Rina at k6art.com

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  4. Did you wet the coffee filter when you were forming the shape?

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    1. No. The coffee filters we used were pretty stiff and help their shape nicely. They were sprayed instantly so there was no chance for them to change much. Hope that helps!

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  5. How did you mount them on the board?

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    Replies
    1. Sorry I missed this comment Katedb09! I used a hot glue gun....easy peasy.

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  6. How long do they take to dry? Looking to make these at the kids tent this summer at our fundraiser.

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    Replies
    1. I think they would dry rather quickly outside in the heat. They didn't take more than an hour to dry inside so I am sure it will be MUCH faster!

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  7. Appreciate this is way after post but I HAD to leave a comment!! Came here via Pinterest as needed to know more about these stunning creations! You explain it so well, thank you. What an amazing result! Think starch spray may be going on shopping list. Can other paper be used instead of filters? Understand if too late to ask questions....
    Off to see more of your blog. Thank you for great, different inspiration. Caroline :))

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  8. Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful post. Thanks for supplying this info.

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  9. I have a kid that is allergic to starch. What else can I use?

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