Mixed Media & Digital Postage Stamp Artwork

Here's another lesson that is planned for half hands-on in my classroom and half computer-based when the students were in another room. This would work for a hybrid situation!

The students all got the same basic information to start with- the history of postage stamps and videos about the art and design of stamps. 

Next, the students in my classroom chose one or more vintage postage stamps and came up with an idea for how to incorporate them into a work of art! Any two-dimensional media was allowed and a lot of students tried new processes. Some also incorporated vintage photos that I saved from a dumpster.

Here are some photos of the hands-on artwork!

Here is some of the digital artwork:

Non-Traditional Mosaic 2 Ways

In the spring semester, I had too many 7th graders to fit in my room and follow Covid protocols. The solution was to divide them into two groups and they would switch every other day between my room and another teacher with a free period's classroom. I had the choice of synchronous or asynchronous and decided that I would rather do asynchronous than try to teach on zoom and in my classroom at the same time. I tried to design a digital project for the group in the other classroom that would coordinate with what was happening in the art room. We weren't able to get as much choice as a normal semester but I think it was the best solution given the circumstances.

This is one example from 7th grade art! The digital project was a Google Drawing mosaic and the project in my room was a paint chip mosaic collage. Below are some of the digital mosaic artworks:

This also reminds me I need to send pictures to the local farm and home that donated all the paint chips! I saw an old display and asked if they were getting rid of it. They gave me a whole bag full of outdated chips!

The mosaic collages proved to be a challenge for some students mainly with time management. Some didn't quite pay attention to the size suggestion and cut their paint chips too small or chose an image that was too detailed. The students who put in the effort to finish did an awesome job.

Students could choose any color background that would show through as the "grout". I tried to use rail board or something sturdy when we could.

Bottle Cap Resin Art

Our Art Club didn't have many activities last school year with a change in schedule due to covid. We finally did something really fun at the end of the year- bottle cap resin art! 

I started saving caps from my Starbucks drinks because they are a nice size and don't have serrated edges. Students could do basically anything that would fit inside! We just tried a bunch of different things to experiment and know how it would work in the future. The only thing that didn't work well was a fresh dandelion. In the words of one of my students, "I'm sorry but that's not cute!" 

I think the most successful pieces had layers- either an image on the background with something sprinkled on top or tiny mixed media works. When the resin set up most students added magnetic buttons to the back. A couple decided ahead of time they wanted them to be keychains so we added a loop of wire before pouring the resin and a keychain loop when it was set.

We will definitely do this again!

 

Post It Mural- 3 Stooges

 This year our League Art exhibition and competitions were held virtually. One of the options for the competition was a post-it note mural. I have a couple students who are pretty interested in pixel art so I put them in charge of coming up with a plan. It was supposed to be something "iconic" so they chose the 3 Stooges, then had to translate it to colors that we had available. I ended up having to borrow some post-its and cut some similar colored paper into squares when we started to run out but I think it turned out great! The biggest challenge was staying lined up with multiple people working at the same time. It did not work out to start at opposite sides even though we thought we measured carefully, so there was lots of revision. All in all, they were proud of their artwork and that's what counts!

Here's a time lapse video of the construction!

Group photo of some of the artists!