Dale Chihuly Chandelier

Who doesn't love Dale Chihuly's mesmerizing glass works!?! I think we are all amazed by his glass masterpieces. 

My kids watched a great video of Dale Chihuly creating art with his team.

Dale Chihuly Gathers and Forms Video 

 My kids barely blink because they are so memorized by his the process. 

The video really helped them to understand the glass making process and it's transformation.  

1. We collected clear water bottles from the school.

2. Clean and cut off the bottoms.

3. Paint the inside with warm and cool colors.

4. Students cut all the dried bottles

5. We used a heat gun to melt the bottles and stretch them out

6. We used wire to twist together 3 bottles (where the neck of the cap is) 

7. Then we twisted the wire onto a long metal piece (from Lowes which is used for closets-about $12)

*Make sure the wire is tight on the bottles and on the metal piece.

Slowly we put everything together. Warm colors on top and cool colors on the bottom.

My maintenance guy was wonderful and made this special metal piece for our chandelier to hang from so it would meet the fire code.

Ta-Da!!

It's lightweight and about as tall as me  5'6".

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It was great surprising the staff and students with it! My fifth graders were very proud of themselves. And I really loved that is was made with recycled plastic and was inexpensive to make.

Peruvian Llamas

It's almost the end of the school year...and we could use some humor in the halls!

 I found this hilarious project on Pinterest and you can check it out on this Blog. 

We started by checking out Peru on Google Earth.  We learned about their flag, Machu Picchu, the Andes, and llamas!

We started by creating the background using oil pastels and watercolors. We looked at different patterns and colors that they use in the traditional textiles.

Next we watched a few clips about Llamas and looked at the different features (colors, teeth, hair, necks, etc.)

On a separate sheet of paper we drew our fun llamas in pencil and then added color with chalk and erasers.  Chalk was blended to add shades and shadows. We added texture lines and used the erasers to add our highlights.

Overall, I think this project was a huge hit at school! The kids and staff have been getting a kick out of these in the hallway when they walk past our goofy llamas. It was perfect for this time of year.

Georgia O'Keeffe Skulls

I was looking for projects on Georgia O'Keeffe that my older kiddos would be interested in creating.  I saw this idea on the blog "What's Happening in the Art Room??" I absolutely loved the colorful backgrounds contrasting with the monochromatic skulls.  

We started our project by learning about our fabulous FEMALE (yay!) artist.  We used Google Earth to check out the places she lived. My kids gave me a brief goofy look when I told them they were creating a painting of a cow skull.  They all became fans of the cow skulls and were very proud of the results! 

I like the uniqueness of each skull.

We used tempera paint for the skull and background. We added details and patterns using oil pastels.