Art-al-Sol 2010

I was very lucky to manage another Art-al-Sol camp this summer. Art-al-Sol is a summer art camp run by MNPS, and is a week long, all day camp open to 8-13 year olds. This summer, we focused on a theme that was inspired by the Chihuly exhibitions at the Frist and Cheekwood. We were able to go to the Cheekwood exhibit (on a very, VERY hot day!) and the children loved it! Below is some of the projects that we were able to complete during the week. We worked on microwave kiln glass, glass coasters, Classroom Chihuly, Shrinky-Dinks with pastels (hint: wet the pastels first, then draw on the shrinky dinks), friendly plastic pins, silk painting, window cling mobiles and bead pictures (using the fusible beads that are available at Wal-mart).

Now Featuring: Jewelry!

I have finally gotten around to posting some images from my jewelry class at Cheekwood. I have been very busy with camps this summer, with five half day, week long camps at Cheekwood, and two week long camps for the school district, I feel like I haven't even had time to breathe! The pictures below show the sculpey pins that are based on some of the Chihuly work that is featured at Cheekwood, specifically the Sun sculpture that is on the lawn of the mansion. The last picture is a paper bead that was created by a student.

Summer Art Camps!

Well, I am back from my vacation, and now starts the art camps. I am very busy this summer with art camps, and will be taking a ton of pics to show off our work. My first camp starts on Monday at Cheekwood. I am teaching a class called Simply Charming Jewelry for 7-9 year olds. It will be exciting, we will be creating paper, sculpey and friendly plastic beads along with a variety of other projects. I will post pics at the end of the week! (well, I will try to at least!)

Summer Camps...time to prepare!

So, even though school is out for MNPS students, I am preparing to teach a variety of summer art camps. A local museum and botanical garden, Cheekwood, is celebrating it's 50th anniversary in a big way. Working in conjunction with the Frist Center and the Nashville Symphony, a large Chihuly exhibition is being held at both Cheekwood and the Frist, while the Nashville Symphony performed Bluebeard's Castle using sets designed and created by Chihuly. I got to see the symphony, and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Chihuly is one of my favorite artists, and I, of course an so excited to use this opportunity in my summer camps. I am teaching 6 different camps at Cheekwood, which means that my students can have some hands "off" (after all, we can't touch the art) experience with Chihuly. I am also teaching at Art-al-Sol, a 2 week long summer art camp provided by MNPS. There are 2 sessions, each a week long for students 8-13 years old. Of course, I am planning Art-al-Sol around Chihuly, and found an amazing wealth of lessons online to incoporate in the camp. I found a couple of great lessons at http://www.dickblick.com/ including this one using dura-lar, hot water and Vitrea 160 paint. http://cdn.dickblick.com/lessonplans/classroom-chihuly/classroom-chihuly-chihuly.pdf


This one is so easy! I cut three organic shapes out of the dura-lar, one large and two small. Then, I bent and curled the plastic into very organic shapes, and dunked it into boiling water, which caused the plastic to retain the shape I had bent it into. After drying off the plastic, I painted it with the vitrea 160, a glass paint that can be baked onto glass ware for a permanent finish. With the dura-lar however, you cannot bake it, just let it dry. I can't wait until the kids try it!

Volunteer Villages update...3rd edition...

Well, my students have raised almost $500 so far.... and we are still going strong. I put a basket of the pins and magnets on the counter in the office, and that has really helped out. We are still going to be selling them over the summer, we need more to help out all of our families.

Volunteer Villages update 2

So far, my students have created 1669 houses, of which I have coated about 700 in resin. Thank goodness for parents who are willing to help! We have also raised about $100 so far, which was at a yard sale in my neighborhood, and I have orders coming in like mad. The magnet houses are selling much better than the pins, just in case anyone was wondering.

On a side note, I officially graduated with my Masters today! Yay!!!!!!!!!

Volunteer Villages update

So my classes have been very busy creating houses. Only three days into the project, and we have over 500 houses from just my classes. There is another art teacher at my school who is also making the houses, and I have no idea what his numbers are. Of the 500, 200 have been coated with resin, and some of them have their pin backs glued on. The houses are soooooo cute, and the kids are having so much fun with them. This project is amazing!