Art inspired by different cultures

This is another round-up of art projects from when I used to teach!  The theme for this set was "Art from Around the World."  Most of these are self-explanatory, so I'll be brief.  Here we go!

Salt dough animal totems

Build them on cardboard for easiest take-home-ability!

Mosaics made from cut up paper and contact paper

more mosaics

Aboriginal mud paintings made with tempera paint on crumpled brown paper

For paint brushes we collected our own sticks

I love the way these turned out!

Mexican paper flags

Chinese paper dragons made of paper cone cups, strips of tissue paper, and dowels.  These are so fun to "fly" and watch the streamers blow!  I have action shots but they all have faces.  You'll just have to trust me.

These are Adinkra prints are inspired by designs from Ghana.  My mom carved the stamps and graciously lent them to us!  Each of us printed one design and then shared them with everyone else, so we all made colorful, diverse banners.

More projects with more in-depth instruction coming soon!

Under the sea art projects

This is a round-up of some of the projects we did in our Underwater Adventures week!

3-D Atlantis Maps

Another, with creative use of sticker salvage pieces

I find that little bits of materials like cool yarn, straws, and salt dough can really bring excitement and inspiration to a project.  My kids did really cool things with them!

What will these paper mache'd balloons become?

                         

Jellyfish hats!!!

Jellyfish hats for everyone!

In case it's not obvious, we cut the paper mache balls in half, cut eye holes, painted then, and then strung strips of fun things (crepe paper, bubble wrap, wacky yarn) around the edges as tentacles.  They were really fun to wear outside- the wind made the tentacles flutter!

Decoupage with tissue paper and watered-down glue

                         

A note about doing a lot of these projects in the summer- the moisture in clay, paper mache, and decoupage can get stuck in muggy weather and can sometimes even mold (especially if you make your own paper mache glue out of flour.)  Box fans overnight can prevent this, and make everything dry and take-home ready in a day or two!

Makeshift Frosted Windows

Let's say you have windows that look out to other people.  You want to block out their view, but not the sunlight.  Also, you have no time or money and your sewing machine is in a box at the back of the storage area.  What's a girl to do?

I made these window sheers out of 2 sheets of tissue paper.  First I measured them to fit the size of the window and cut them.  You're only going to be making the design on one of the sheets, as the other is just an overlay for privacy and sturdiness.

I folded one sheet of tissue paper into eighths as if I were going to make a scientifically incorrect snowflake.  I didn't cut the outside into a circle shape, just left it big and rectangular.

I tried to fold it loosely so I wouldn't have big creases around the edges of it.

I did two different designs on the two windows, and stuck them on with scotch tape rolls in the corners.  They held up pretty well, till I got my act together and hung some real curtains!