Wire Name Art

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Give your name art lesson a twist – literally! Our fifth grade students had a ball sculpting their names in wire.

Materials:

Blick’s 14 gauge sculpture wire, 6 ft. per child (note: compensated affiliate links)
paper
marker
scissors (blunt tip kindergarten scissors are fine)
optional embellishments: pre-cut 18″ Stem Wire (I use 20- and 26-gauge), colored wire (such as Twisteez), Pony Beads, sequins

Pre-cut floral wire (AKA stem wire) and sculpture wire

Session one:

To practice, give each child a piece of paper, marker and an 18 inch piece of wire. Kids should write their first initial on the paper. They may print or use cursive. They they trace their written letter in wire.

100% of 10- and 11-year-old students could do this by the end of the first 40 minute session.

Session two:

Give each child a piece of paper, marker and a 6 ft. length of sculpture wire. They should write out their first name in marker this time. They may print or use cursive, then trace their name in wire.

Write out name on paper, trace with sculpture wire (teacher example).

Did you notice? I added a single pony bead to dot each lower case ‘i’ and ‘j’.

There should be a lot of excess wire at the end of the wire name. Students should loop the excess wire back, and attach to the beginning of the name with a quick twist. Voila! Name art with hanger!

Approximately 85% of 10 and 11 year olds were able to make their names in wire. I would recommend struggling students create a larger, single initial.

Session three (optional):

Want to take it further? Offer pony beads, sequins, and super-fine wire (I use pre-cut 18 inch 26-gauge stem wire).

Students can string the hanger wire with pony beads. They can clip the excess wire with (kindergarten!!) scissors. They can thread a bead or sequin onto 26-gauge wire and tie a knot around it.

Some students created small sculptures to embellish their name art.

Robby suspended his name from his sculpture.

Milan made a tiny mouse.

Riley perched a peacock on her name art.

How nice these will look on the students’ walls at home!

This would be a nice tie in to an Alexander Calder project. Check out my other Calder wire projects: wire sculpture and wire portraits.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Amazon and Blick Art Materials. I have been using Blick’s 14 gauge sculpture wire for 9 years and I love it!

Olympic Sport Sculptures

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Olympic volleyball trophies made by fifth graders

Olympic archery

Sumo wrestling is NOT an Olympic event, but it makes for a cool sculpture.

: Women’s gymnastics

Student designed the water polo sculpture so it is different on each side: reverse shows player with torso above water.

Want the full lesson plan? All the details are on my earlier posts: part 1, and part 2.

I just love the Olympics!!!! My favorite summer events are men’s and women’s gymnastics.

Have you ever made an Olympic or sport project with your students?

Old School Friday- ‘Henry Moore’ Plaster Sculpture

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Arts and Activities Magazine – June 1968

I inherited a treasure trove of old Arts and Activities and School Arts magazines from the 1960s and 1970s.

Plaster sculpture cast in a wax paper milk carton. Inflated balloons create interesting negative space.

The balloons created terrific negative space. It reminded me a bit of Henry Moore’s sculptures. I thought it would be cool to try this out as a Henry Moore sculpture lesson with my art campers. We looked at some images of his work, then got busy.

The campers were able to scrape and shape the damp plaster.

It was a huge mess, of course. But fun! The kids (ages 8-11) really enjoyed the process.

Paris Graffiti 2012

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

I just came back from a week in Paris. It was wonderful to visit all the museums and see in person the artworks we teach our students (oh yeah, the food was awesome, too).

But Paris has a very different kind of art as well. Many streets are covered with a wide variety of graffiti, or ‘street art’. This initially came as a shock to me, an American tourist, as I had a pre-conceived notion of Paris as a tidy, historic city. Well, take a look at the latest Paris art, photographed in June, 2012.

This is an intricate, laser-cut sticker.

These were printed out and pasted on the wall. Is that a Mr. T sticker?

Multi-layered street art included newspaper collage for the clothes.

These were printed out and pasted to the wall.

These photos were taken on the Rue Amelot in the 11th arrondissement and in the St. Germain de Pres.

On the one hand it saddens me to see public property defaced. On the other hand, it is exciting to be surrounded by contemporary art everywhere you turn. I took a ton of photos and will share more in the next post.

Sport Trophies for Fifth Grade: Update

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

This week the fifth graders continued work on their spectacular sport trophies. The wire and foil figures are now posed and wrapped with plaster wrap. Almost all have been stapled to wooden bases. Our fifth graders have experience working with plaster (see this post and this post) so almost all finished wrapping the figures during our 40 minute class.