Here in Nashville, we have been very lucky to have multiple Dale Chihuly installations to inspire our students with. My friends Ted, Tina, Daryl and I were in charge of the elementary art teachers inservice (at the beginning of the school year) and we planned the whole thing around the exhibits at the Frist Center and Cheekwood. One of the things that we did was to challenge the teachers to have their students create a Chihuly inspired instillation at their own school. My students have been very busy creating these installations. So far, my third and fourth graders have finished their chandelier/tower (well, at least one of them). Here is is hanging outside of the school from a tree. We created an armature out of chicken wire, and the students brought in hundreds of water bottles. The bottom and labels were cut off, and the students painted the inside of the bottles in the school colors. When dry, the students cut them into spirals and then the bottles were glued into the chicken wire, starting at the bottom. Finally, the top layer of bottles were cut and curled like flowers and added on. A wonderful parent came out and hung it in the tree for me.
8 comments:
WOW! This is AMAZING! I bet the kids are SO proud of it! :)
Janet-it kinda looks like party city ran a sale on curly ribbon. HAHA. Seriously, nice take on the Chandeliers, and the size makes a great impact!
Janet...I love it! And curly ribbon can't hold a candle to what your students have created!!! :)
Wow Janet! I love it! I so want to steal this idea! Do you mind sharing the details of how you put it together...a little more descriptive than what you put in your post? We have a brand new school and I would love for my students to create this for the HIGH ceilings in our library. And our librarian visited the Chihuly exhibit in FLA this summer. She is excited as well!
We used chicken wire and created a cylinder with it. The cylinder is about 12 inches around and 3 foot tall. The students cut off the bottoms of the bottles (I showed them how to squish the bottle at the end and use scissors to cut the bottom off), and then painted the inside with acrylic paint. When the bottles were dry, the students cut them into spirals, ending at the neck of the bottle. I placed some hot glue on the neck and mouth of the bottle and slid them into the holes in the chicken wire. The glue holds it in place. When finished, I attached wire to the top of the chicken wire, and a parent that is taller than me hung it in the tree for me.
Was it best to suspend the chicken wire as you put it together? You said a parent helped you by hanging it in a tree when it was completed. So what did you do as you worked on it?
I just sat the chicken wire cylinder on an empty table in a corner of the room. It was able to stand up on its own and that way it was a an easy working level for me (I am short) When the whole thing was put together, that is when the parent came and hung it in the tree.
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