Valentine Wycinanki

Grade 8 students created intricate cut paper wycinanki (pronounced Vee-chee-non-kee) incorporating a heart theme for Valentine's Day. Wycinanki is a traditional paper-cutting craft from Poland, but it is also practised all over Eastern Europe. It dates from the mid-19th century where it was first made by shepherds who used their huge shearing scissors (as it was the only tools they had available) to create intricate patterns out of leather for decoration. A somewhat similar craft, scherenschnitte, is practised in Germany and Switzerland. 

So students looked at examples of wycinaki and scherenschnitte to better understand the style and technique. Typical motifs include animals, birds, flowers, leaves, and trees. We looked primarily at the Kurpie style of wycinanki as it is only one colour. They had to draw a symmetrical paper-cut that included a heart. These were planned on a piece of this folded white paper and had to be designed so they could be easily be cut with only scissors, as I didn't want to have to use x-acto knives for this project.

Here are a couple of great videos about papercutting. 

The first is a charming clip from a 1972 Soviet documentary about Vyacheslav Dubinka (1941-2010), a famous Belarusian papercutting artist:

This second video shows the work of contemporary British artist Rob Ryan who is famous for his intricate paper-cuts. I am in awe of his work and would never have the patience it takes to create what he does!

Handmade Portraits: Rob Ryan from Etsy on Vimeo.

So below is an example of a sketch drawn on one side of a folded sheet of paper. Once the sketch is complete, it helps to shade in the areas you plan on cutting and to double check that everything is attached correctly.

Then cut the shaded parts out. I show my students how to move only the paper and not the scissors, while cutting. It seems to work easier this way. I have a bunch of small scrap-booking scissors I bought from the Dollar store- they help with smaller, more intricate areas.

an example of the huuuge shearing scissors traditionally used to cut wycinanki- wozers! Source

Unfold and voila! 

From here students could glue tissue paper to the back- these look pretty hung on a window. Or you can glue them (carefully, with a glue stick or spray glue) to black (very dramatic) or coloured paper.

Ta da!

Paul Klee Inspired Heart Painting

Valentine's Day is fast approaching- it's one of my favourite holiday times as it involves alot of pinks, reds, glitter and sweets! So I have a couple of Valentine themed projects that I will share in the next couple of weeks.

The first project is a reposting of a Paul Klee inspired Valentine project my Grade 6 class made last year.

"Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." Paul Klee

Paul Klee was a Swiss-born artist who worked in a variety of styles during his career including Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism; therefore, his work is difficult to classify into one style. 

His work has a very whimsical, musical and almost child-like style. In fact, Klee greatly admired the art of children who he felt seemed to create free of any outside influences. He tried to achieve the same untutored simplicity in his own art.

If you even get a chance to visit Switzerland, check out the Paul Klee Museum in Berne. I visited it back in 2006 and it's fantastic. I knew a little about his work before I visited, but had no idea of the wide variety of different styles he had. 

I left with a new appreciation and understanding of him afterwards.

Paull Klee, "The Rose Garden", 1921      Source

This project focuses on his Cubist period; breaking up the picture plane into angular shapes. It also introduces the wax-resist technique. 

This project took about 2- 90 minute periods to complete.



Paul Klee, "Landscape and the Yellow Church", 1920

Here's how we made these:

Fold a sheet of paper in half and cut out one or two hearts (or more).

Trace these onto a piece of cardstock (or any smooth paper).

Here, a student is practising first in her sketchbook.

Using a ruler, break up the picture plane into rectangles, squares, etc.

 

Here's a finished rough copy.

Pass over all the pencil lines with a Sharpie or black pencil crayon.

Then choose a few colours of wax crayons (4-5) and roughly colour in each sections,

alternating colours. Make sure to press hard.

Don't fill in all the paper- we'll be using paint for that.

Here's a close-up showing the white spots leftover- that is what you want.

Here's a student adding black pencil crayon after she finished colouring. Either way works.

Now for the wax-resist painting: we used tempera discs simply because I find them convenient and they work well. Watercolours, or liquid watercolours would also work brilliantly.

It is important to choose a colour that looks good with the wax crayon- you can choose a contrasting colour for a more dynamic effect, or a similar colour for a more calm effect.

Add a lot of water so it's more like an ink consistency.  

Then, you simply paint over the entire artwork (go in broad strokes in one direction with a flat brush) and then blot up any excess paint that's floating on top of the wax crayon parts. 

The paint will colour in all of the white spots and make the whole piece unified.

Dab excess paint off with a paper towel....

Ta da!

Grade 6 work:

Foods With Moods

This is a plaster sculpture project my Grade 5/6 class created which was inspired by the book: "How are You Peeling? Foods with Moods". The food illustrations are by New York based artist Saxton Freymann. He essentially uses only an x-acto blade and black-eyed peas (for the eyes) to create his expressive food characters. The illustrations in this book are so original- some are funny, some are sad and it's the perfect starting point for discussing emotions with students. Even though this book is geared towards younger students, my Grade 6's loved it and I own a copy myself! 

Image Source



Here's a short video that shows the illustrator discussing his process of creating 
these edible art characters.

So students were asked to think of any type of food and then create a character that expresses a specific emotion. I have to say that 'happy' was a very popular emotion, I think, in part, because, well, my students are very happy overall! But looking at it deeper, I think we're all kind of taught that we have to be, or should always be, or at least appear to be, happy, and not to engage with other emotions, like sadness, or jealousy, or suspiciousness, etc. So I really tried to encourage my students to think of different types of emotions that they've had and that they're all valid and important for our personal growth. 

We built the initial creatures simply out of wadded-up newspaper held together with masking tape. Some made their eyes out of separate balls and then hot glued them on at the end. We then used plaster gauze strips to cover it all and painted them with acrylics. We've also done this with simple papier mache strips and it works the same. The kids really enjoy this project, in part, because it uses their all-time favourite medium of plaster!!

Ta da!

"Happy Steak"

"Very Happy Orange"

um... the, errr, "Scared Banana" was much discussed in the staff room and has become a long running joke amongst the teachers!

A student adding a final coat of varnish to her fruits in chocolate sauce. She brought the bowl in from home.

Yes, the hallway walls are in desperate need of a paint job!

The characters below were all made from papier mache (no plaster).

The yellow guy has to be one of my all-time favourite creations: a "Suspicious Horned African Melon". 

I love how he has that old-timey suspicious look from old cartoons complete with a twirly moustache.

The "In Love Litchi" was made with toothpicks pushed into the newspaper body.