Dynamic Cardboard Relief Sculptures

 
Last October I presented a two day workshop at the Kansas Art Education Association convention titled "Dynamic Cardboard Relief Sculptures".
I went through some tips about working with cardboard and options for working with different grade levels. Then, since we were all art teachers, I pretty much did a quick demo and let everyone work! I worked on my own example and circulated, but they didn't really need any help. It was really fun to have the time to work and complete a project and see what the other art teachers came up with. Take a look!

This tiger was AWESOME!

Some people made one big project over the two days and others made multiple smaller projects.

 This compass project looked great with the two different colors of cardboard.

 I made a portrait of Chip Taylor, the founder of Monarch Watch, since I was thinking about Unsung Heroes at the time. I later spray painted it gold.

 Some participants used spray paint (the two above sprayed from different directions) and some used acrylic. Others left the cardboard as is.

6th grade Cardboard Construction

Fitting 3D work is so hard for me. When I interviewed they told me that the program was set up for mostly 2D work. We always do a clay project (with choices) and while this year there were a few more options for 3D projects during our Cultural Heritage studies (jewelry and shields), I really intended to open up a sculpture center earlier. With everything else we have to fit in and only seeing my 4th-6th grade students for 40 minutes every other week, it just kept getting pushed back until it finally seemed to fit in the schedule at the end of April. 6th was the only grade to get to do cardboard construction as the only place to store projects was on top of some tall cabinets and there was only enough room for one grade. Maybe this year I'll figure out how to rotate and start earlier so that each intermediate grade gets a turn...

When I introduced cardboard sculpture, we talked about "relief" and "in the round". I don't have enough box knives to go around, and honestly don't trust all my students to use them responsibly, so my solution was to break down larger sheets of gathered up cardboard into manageable pieces that could be cut with scissors into the shapes the students desired if they wanted something other than rectangles. I showed how slits/notches are one of the easiest ways to attach cardboard and loved that several students came up with other attachments like poking cardboard through holes. A few notches were a little loose and required a dot of hot glue to secure the pieces, but most in the round projects did not necessitate glue. Relief sculptures could be secured with school glue since they were laid flat to dry.

This student used small cardboard pieces to attach and "float" his Pac-Man pieces.

Two relief sculptures. Do you remember learning to make "S"s like that? I remember spending a lot of time doodling "SMILE" with that style of letter. The paw print relief sculpture was with school spirit for our mascot, the panther.

Some students chose to paint their projects while others liked the raw look of the plain cardboard.

A lot of these projects seem like models of monumental sculptures. My 3D professor in college said to imagine you were a tiny person walking in and around and over the piece to see if it would be interesting.

I also showed how cardboard is made of two flat layers with corrugation in the middle. Several students experimented with revealing the corrugated texture in their sculptures.

 Here are some great TAB construction/sculpture ideas that I may try to implement in the coming school year
A size tester box to make sure projects are of a suitable size for storage (and not hogging materials)
Limiting most 3D projects to one day, which would eliminate the storage issue...
Attachment challenge/test students must pass before working in 3D center (wish I had time for this!)

6th Choice- Cardboard Construction

My first post about 6th graders' choice project explained how it worked and sort of focused on collaborative projects. I had a hard time dividing all my photos up into project categories. I think about 3/4 of the construction projects were also collaborative. Some students built their own structures but helped each other when extra hands were needed to glue. Some students built their structures together from the planning to the painting. You might notice from the photos that there are lots of students working on the floor. I don't have my classroom set up in stations (yet) but have no fear, the students made their own! I had a couple tables scooted closer to outlets for glue guns but when those spaces were full, others solved the problem and found a spot.

*Note to self- invest in some extension cords or power strips to make hot glue guns easier to use!

I had a hunch that cardboard would be a popular material when my 6th graders designed their own lessons for their final elementary art project, but I had no idea just how in demand it would be! Thankfully, I had a lot of big sheets leftover from our bottle cap artwork and after our social worker saw we were using cardboard, she started saving inserts from the BackSnack program for us. I've already got quite the stash started for next school year. I have a small box of box cutters but I had never let the students use them before. That changed with this project. If students didn't have experience using a box cutter or had a complicated cut to make, I helped them. However, I found that most of the students wanting to build with cardboard had already used box cutters at home, or were at least comfortable using the cutters after I reminded them to keep their appendages out of the way. I also gave lots of reminders about putting a beat up piece of cardboard underneath to protect the tables and the floor. Another popular construction material was Art Straws. I inherited a couple of big boxes and we finally had a chance to use them.

I think there is a future engineer in this student! His bridge design was super precise, though it looks simple. Craftsmanship was also really nice.

 Here are a couple partner construction projects in the works. One group is working on table top while another works on the floor. You can also see the current organization method for cardboard scraps... I'm trying to come up with a good method for next year.

This student was the lone girl to choose construction. Right away, she had a clear idea which she described to me as wavy buildings with bright colors. She was probably the most competent with a box cutter. I like how she included negative space in her design and thought to cover the raw corrugated edges of her structure with ric-rac and yarn around the edge of the base. It reminds me a bit of Dr.Seuss architecture!

This last project was made by a student who I didn't know really had an interest in art before he started building. He had never caused any trouble, just didn't seem that into it. Once he started working on this project, I couldn't keep him out of my room! I'm only at my intermediate school two days a week but I think he spent every recess and extra block of time in the art room on those days. It started as one house, then he added the second, attached them to the base, added trees, and on the last work day he made the jeep that's a little hard to see in the center of the photo.

Construction gave the students tons of opportunities to design and solve problems and use visual-spatial skills. They had to think in three dimensions, which is something my students don't usually get much experience with due to storage problems. I think that TAB would help correct this problem. It's a lot easier to store 25 3D structures at a time than storing 130! I'll still have to think about what to do when more than one grade is allowed to explore 3D at once because that could put the project numbers back over 100. I'm hoping to get some open shelving to put above my built-in storage and may be able to use some of the metal shelves in my closet when supplies stored there get moved out into the regular work space.