True or False: You need expensive art materials to make art? And the answer is: FALSE. False, False, FALSE!
Art doesn’t come from having fancy paints (though fancy paint is nice). Art is born when you put your creative mind (your imagination) to work (effort).
I bet you can create some fun arrangements using ONLY objects you have in or around your home right now. (Important note: As always, safety first! And please get permission before you collect things, and put them back just as you found them!)
Here are some examples that I made. Can you name all the objects? What can you make?
Hey, mini-Beep wants to try the skateboard, too! YES, you can also use stuffed animals, toys, Legos, blocks and so on as part of your artistic arrangements!
Can you also draw as part of your art? OF COURSE! Check out this awesome slideshow that art teacher Kimberly Mueller made of her 3-6th grade students’ found object illustrations:
Finally, what about natural objects, like rocks, shells, sticks and so on? GO FOR IT! One of my favorite artists in the world, Andy Goldsworthy, makes most of his art when he goes outside and is inspired by natural materials to arrange and build ephemeralsculptures (ephemeral means they aren’t meant to last). Here are a few of his artworks:
Pretty amazing, huh? Just remember: You can make art anywhere!
Last week, you learned how to weave on to a cardboard loom. Now, if you wove to the end, it’s time to take your weaving off the loom. Weave on, weave off, weave on, weave off, wax on, wax off (huh?). Have no fear, even Mini-Beep, who’s all tangled up, can do this if he follows the steps!
1. First, a tip: if your weaving is bending in towards the middle, it may because you’re pulling too hard at the end of each row. Pull gently to keep the guitar strings straight.
2. If you get all the way to the end, congratulations! If you look closely though, make sure you don’t see any of the guitar strings poking through. If you do, it means you didn’t smoosh enough. Do that now, and keep weaving!
3. Nowyou’re at the end! Great job!
4. To take the weaving off the loom, turn to the back and peel off the three pieces of tape.
5. Next grab and pull one of the loose ends of yarn out of the slot. Then pinch the loops and pop them over the tab (teeth as I called them before). They may be a little tight, it’s okay to pull hard and bend the cardboard.
6. Once you’ve popped the loops off, the weaving should pull free from that side. Now pop the loops off from the other end. There’s no tension, so these should be easy to remove.
7. And now it’s off!
8. But wait: a few more tips about how to neaten your weaving. The first thing I like to do is to push (smoosh) the yarn up to the top of the loops so it covers them.
9. You can also tie the little ends from your last piece into a knot if you want, and you can trim the loose ends. However, be very, very careful to NEVER, EVER, EVER cut the loops or the guitar strings inside. Those are holding your weaving together.
10. Good news: the cardboard loom can be reused. If you make another weaving, you can tie the loops from one end to the loops on another to make your weaving longer. Keep going and you’ll make a scarf!
Even with only one, you can wrap it around your wrist and tie it to make a wrist band. Or even a little blanket for your little friends! Super bonus if you keep weaving and make a blanket for you!
Quick, if you could dig straight down underground, name ten things you might find.
I’ll start: soil, clay, water, worms, pipes, rocks, moles, my lost socks (sorry, Beep, I thought you had eaten them), caverns and the Earth’s core (that one starts about 1,800 miles beneath all of us!) But there’s lots more than that! There may even be secret hangouts. Under my school, for instance, they built a bunch of special rooms for teachers to relax (No Students Allowed!). But kids thought that wasn’t fair, so they dug down and started their own side, too! (Is this true?)
Do you want a cool underground hangout? What would it look like? What features would you have?
Start by drawing a horizontal line (across) for the ground:
Next decide what to dig under: your house, apartment building, backyard, school, Egyptian pyramid, Moon base, anything. That goes above the line:
Under the line = under the ground. Start a little realistically, maybe a basement, some pipes. But then hide a secret elevator, or stairs or hatch so you can go deeper.
Have it lead to your own game room, play space, art studio or Olympic size heated pool!
Then start tunneling away! You can add a food court, a movie theater, buried treasure, a disco cave or ANYTHING!
Should you add traps and high security? Probably. Dungeon for your younger siblings? Maybe. Bathrooms? You better! You can also color with crayons, colored pencils, whatever you like.
Want to make it even deeper? I’ve seen students create underground drawings taller than themselves! You can do this too by simply taping more paper at the bottom as you go (hint: put tape on the back). Check out this book, The Street Beneath My Feet. It folds out longer than a table!
This type of drawing is called a cross-section. Cross-sections are very helpful in showing what is inside things, especially big things like buildings, planes, even Star Wars vehicles.
Like your underground design? Excellent! Next up, how to construct it. First you’ll need a shovel…
When Beep is stressed or bored, he can spend hours weaving! (He can also spend hours eating, but that’s another story.) By weaving you can make cloth (or little blankets for Mini-Beep!)
If you want to weave, you’re going to need a few things: Yarn (don’t pull apart your mother’s sweater without permission), cardboard, tape and scissors. If you don’t have yarn, you can order a skein (oblong ball) of yarn for only about three dollars at many craft stores. It may seem complicated at first, and you may need some help (I recommend this for 3rd graders and up, though younger can try), but you’ll totally get the hang of it, I promise!
Step 1: Cut a piece of cardboard to become your simple loom. The one Beep is using is 4 and a half inches by 7 and a half inches, but you can vary the size (if you don’t have a ruler, make it about as long as a pencil). Measure and mark 8 short marks at a half inch (or about the width of your finger tip) on the top and 8 on the bottom using a marker or pencil, like this:
Step 2: Cut on the lines, making 8 notches on each end.
Step 3: Cut a long piece of yarn (any color, it will disappear as you go), about six feet long (as tall as your parents plus probably some more). Note: For longer cardboard, you’ll need longer yarn.
Step 4: Tape one end of the yarn to any corner on back of the cardboard. You can use clear tape too, or any kind.
Step 5: Now stick the yarn into the notch on any corner (like flossing a tooth) and string all the way down to the opposite notch on the front.
Step 6: On the back, pull the yarn into the notch next door (again, like going around a tooth).
Step 7: Pull down again on the front, into the opposite notch.
Step 8: Keep repeating until you have eight tight “guitar” strings on the front and stiches around the notches on the back.
Step 9: Cut the extra yarn and tape the end on back, like so:
Step 10: Your loom is done and you’re ready to weave! (Note: Playing air guitar at this point is optional, but fun.) Now cut another piece of yarn, anywhere from 3 to 5 feet long. This will be the first color of your cloth!
Step 11: Tape the yarn end on back (any corner). Note: This is the last time you’ll have to use tape.
Step 12: Now to begin the actual weaving. Weaving is an under/over/under/over pattern. Think of the end of the yarn as an inchworm or snake, and make it crawl under the first guitar string (technically called a warp, but you get my point.) Then have it crawl over the next string. Then under the next. That’s weaving! You’ll be slow at first, but believe me, you’re going to get fast!
Step 13: When you get to the end, pull the piece of yarn all the way through until it tightens (that’s why there’s tape on the back, to hold in place) then go back the other way, in the same under/over/under pattern.
Step 14: Keep going until you only have a few inches of yarn left.
Step 15: It may look like you’ve weaved a lot, but that’s because you haven’t yet combed or, as I call it, smooshed the yarn down so the warp isn’t showing. Do this with your fingers:
Step 16: To add the next piece, tie in a square knot and trim near the knot. You may need help if you don’t know how to tie knots. Or you can just start weaving the next color without tying, and just trim the ends later. Note: it’s perfectly okay to make your cloth one single color.
Step 17: Even though it’s a new piece of yarn, it’s the same under/over/under pattern. Weave until it runs out, smoosh it down, and add your next piece.
Getting the hang of it? You will! These were a lot of steps, so I’m going to wait until the next post to share some tips and tell you how to remove the cloth from the loom once you’re at the end. Weave on!
I told Beep our next art lesson is designing the coolest shoes ever, and he said, “Yay! What are shoes?” I gave him a pair to try out, but he and Mini-Beep are still getting the hang of it.
Youknow what shoes are though. And you probably have your favorite styles and brands. When I was a kid, one of the most popular styles was Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars. Though they only came in white canvas at first, kids liked them because they could decorate them. Unlike most styles from back then, they’re still popular with kids today!
Did you ever wonder what goes into making a shoe? Like all objects, shoes start with an artistic process: design. A design is a plan that answers questions: what type of shoe? What features? What colors? And most importantly: what will kids think is cool?
To design a shoe of your own, first draw the outline of what type of shoe you want: low top, high top, flip flop, high heel, or any style you want. Here are some templates to copy or trace if you need:
Now it’s time to add details! Personally, I would like treads that walk on water; also a headlight; and a cool logo:
Oh, also magnets; self-tightening laces; G.P.S.; a secret money holder; rocket blasters; and even a nifty self-destruct button on the back! (Wait, self-destruct button? What was I thinking?!)
Then, of course, you can add color:
If your design is really cool, maybe you can start a company and make lots of money! Just remember the most important part: to send me a cut of all your profits!!
