Sunday, March 13, 2011

Chihuly

I shared this project with children at the OKCMOA for Drop-in Art this weekend and our creations turned out wonderful! We focused on Chihuly: The Collection. The Collection is part of the permanent collection at the OKCMOA. It includes 18 glass installations, several paintings and of course the ever beautiful 55 foot glass tower. With all that inspiration we got started!

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I had a last minute change of plans and it's so nice when it works out. I had planned to use string to hang these but my demo wasn't working out so I used wood paint sticks to hold it all together instead.

Here is what we did. Each child gets 5 clear plastic cups. We used acrylic paints to decorate the INSIDE of each cup. Tempera paints do not work very well because they bead up and don't seem to give the best coverage. Craft paints work excellent. You do not need artist grade paint. Just make sure it is a thin layer of paint. Now let your cups dry.

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Next we used scissors to cut our cups. We made different cuts but the two most popular were to cut slits around the cup all the way to the bottom of the cup (giving a floral effect when fanned out) and to make spiral cuts.

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Next we attach our cups to a paint stick using hot glue. We attached them in all sorts of ways. Remember how we painted the inside of our cups? This gives us that shiny glass look on the outside we are going for and is not as easily rubbed off when handled. When gluing we made sure our shiny sides are up. Here are some of our creations!

You will need:
-5 clear plastic cups for each child (I used Solo)
-Acrylic paint
-Brushes
-Scissors
-Hot glue
-Paint sticks

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12 comments:

Centers and Circle Time said...

How beautiful! So creative! Thanks for sharing...I can't wait to try this:)

Jeanette's Daycare said...

Love Love Love this!
Thanks for sharing!

Christie - Fine Lines said...

I LOVE teaching about Chihuly. I often use his video tapes to illustrate a point. (I particularly like his Potatoes and Bamboo clip.) He has recently revamped his website and the videos are in a section called Video Screening Room here: http://www.chihuly.com/video-interviews.aspx

Were your students able to cut the cups themselves? They really turned out well -- I love the feeling of motion!!

Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree said...

These are Wonderful! What a Fabulous idea! Love it!

Unknown said...

I love these! So creative and colourful. We will have to try this at some point.

Scott said...

So cool! We saw a Chihuly exhibit here in Nashville last fall. It was wonderful - and these interpretations are wonderful, too.

Erin Laughpaintcreate said...

Thank you everyone! These were a lot of fun.

Christie, Thank you for the link to the videos. Most of the children were able to cut the cups themselves. Some needed to be shown to put the cup further back into the scissors and then were fine. The area they will need help with is hot gluing. They showed me where they wanted things placed and I followed their directions.

I hope some of you make these and share your photos!

Erin :)

Phyl said...

Marvelous! Thanks for the thorough instructions.

I've never taught Chihuly, and I'm embarrassed to say that until I started reading blogs I'd never heard of him. So I'm planning to make up for it in a big way next year, and all the lessons I've seen posted will really help!

Blooming Soul Arts said...

great and easy way of introducing chihuly...I'll have to try this one! thanks!

Amanda said...

Beautiful! The art museum my daughter takes classes at has a gorgeous Chihuly sculpture she is fascinated with, this will be a wonderful project for us to do this week! Thank you!

rachelle | tinkerlab said...

These are beautiful! I love how the paint makes each one an individual work of art.

The Outlaw Mom said...

How beautiful - my two year old will love this project. We might try this tomorrow on my day off! Thanks for sharing this fantastic, colorful idea!