February 07, 2013

Peacock-A-Palooza Part 1 : Mixed Media Workshop

Here is the Prezi I created for our workshop.  It isn't much, but I thought you might like to see how we kicked the workshop off.  If you haven't created a Prezi before...they are extremely cool looking, but are a bit more time consuming to create than Power Point.


Here are my teaching examples from the workshop.  We did more examples than projects we were actually creating with the teachers....just to give them more ideas or new takes on old projects.  I also don't have personal examples for every project we created.  I'll be posting the attendees projects in several posts to follow(lots of pics..don't want to do one HUGE post)

Line drawing with mono print overlay. 
We used plexiglass with a coat of clear dishwashing soap(this allows the liquid watercolor to not bead up).


We're working on Collagraphs right now in 3rd grade.  So I was trying to show teachers that they could take something that they do already...recycling something that would normally be thrown away ..and turn it into a mixed media work.  I took the collagraph plate and once the ink was dry...painted on top of it with liquid metallic tempera.  I then added glitter glue & a googlie eye.  


You can also have your students make a few extra prints from their collagraph and turn one of those into a mixed media work.  I added feathers, buttons, glitter glue, googlie eye, and metallic colored pencil to the print on the right. 


This little guy is a pop can, milk jug lid, pipe cleaners, masking tape, craft glue, buttons, acrylic paint, beads, googlie eyes, and glitter.  Have them paint the pop can first so it has dry time...then they can be gluing together the face..threading the buttons through the button holes and such.


Transforming your pinch or coil pots into peacock/birds!  Create your pot like normal, then add head.  Be careful to not make it too large or the neck too thin.  I used a pipe cleaner to make the holes in the clay.  This will allow for the feathers to still fit even with the shrinkage.  After they are fired..paint/glaze to your liking.  The final step is adding the feathers/pipe cleaners.  I would use a dot of craft glue in each hole to secure the additions in place.



These are mixed media pieces on canvas.  You could use cardboard if money is an issue.  The one on the left I painted with acrylic first....the one the right is covered with tissue paper as its base color.  You can really go a million different directions with this project.  I feel it is the perfect Identity lesson.  Have the students create a list of adjectives describing themselves..and then incorporate the words into the work.  You could also make this a lesson on fonts if you like.  We used tissue paper, fabric, Sharpie, magazines, oil pastels, and melted crayons(using Q-tips to apply it to the surface).


Do you remember Shrinky-Dinks? (http://www.shrinkydinks.com/)  This is a product much like Shrinky-Dinks.  You draw on the surface with sharpie & color it with colored chalk dipped in water.  Then pop it in your toaster oven...and POOF..it shrinks & becomes color fast!!!  We thought it could also be fun to turn this into a math lesson.  Have the students measure it before shrinking...and make predictions on the size after it shrinks.  Then have them measure it and create a word problem based on their findings!!


Water bottle peacocks would be a great mixed media lesson for younger grades.  They can create some fun painted papers...exploring color mixing, salt/plastic wrap techniques..etc.  Then use that to create the feathers!!!  Applying the feathers was a bit tricky...but masking tape covered with tissue paper worked well.  









1 comment:

  1. Hi Ted
    What a lot of great ideas!
    I love the peacock pinch pot. Pipe cleaners would also work in the little holes.
    Your collograph plate looks fabulous as well.

    Thanks for posting! Your must have had a blast with your colleagues.

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