Friday, March 14, 2014

Mosaic Collographs, 3rd grade


For several years, my third graders have explored collograph printing by creating snowy evergreens. Our timing didn't quite work out this year for that theme, but we may have topped ourselves with our texture mosaic collographs - they are really outstanding, if I do say so myself! We had lots of craft foam scraps leftover from our Calder sculptures, and I had a few rolls of really old corrugated border that was a similar thickness as the foam. We used the contrasting textures to create nonobjective mosaic designs, where we found shapes that "fit" together, but without touching:


Next, we prepared a couple of printing sheets by gluing some dark construction paper scraps together to contrast with the white ink I bought (originally for snow!). I knew that the kids would start to cut their background shapes really small, so to avoid that I gave them a strict 5 minute time frame to get their scraps cut and glued, and then I did my printing demo and they realized the background shapes weren't really important, it was just a pop of color! Every student had great success and the results are very artistic - they remind me of a piece of clothing I had back in the 80's with geometric and organic shapes scattered about (Esprit maybe, 80's kids?) Ha - it was like a flashback when I pulled my first print - gnarly dude!




Here is a pic of our printing setup - the kids' printing papers are under the table mat to keep them from getting inked until the right time.
























20 comments:

  1. Very radical! I so loved a pair of Esprit stirrup pants I had back in the day - can still visualize the pattern today! Awesome project :)

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  2. Love them!! How did you attach foam....craft glue?

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    1. Thanks Mr. E - we just used regular old Elmer's white glue. The craft foam is that really lightweight, easy to cut stuff, so it doesn't need fancy glue. I guess if you were making a whole lot of prints, maybe stronger, but we just made a few each.

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  3. These are stunning! I saw them the other day on your Instagram and fell in love! :)

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    1. Thanks Mrs. C - I'd like to follow you if I'm not already - it's hard to know who people are on Instagram sometimes!

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    2. I'm not on Instagram...yet... I'm kinda dinosaur when it comes to technology. but I'm getting there! I just looked at yours through the link on your blog. My teens got my husband addicted to Instagram when he got an IPhone last summer! I still have an old texting phone! My kids said I have to get Smartphone this spring for my birthday! I think it's actually a great way to see what's going on day by day! Just take a pic and load it! :)

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  4. These are fabulous! We are creating collagraphs too in my art room. Can't wait to show my students another great printing idea :)

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    1. Thanks Mrs. Chance - it's one of my favorite mediums too.

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  5. I've never tried collagraphs before. Are the foam and corrugated cardboard glued to mat board? How to you manage a whole class printing at the same time? Not sure I could handle every one of my 6 tables printing all at once. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Hi Suzanne - I have 6 tables also, and I set up two inking trays and roller for each table and the kids take turns. In a 45-minute class, we can get up to 4 prints made for each student as long as the plates were complete the week before and the papers are labelled with names the week before. That way we have the whole class time for demo, printing and cleanup. I walk around the whole time, adding more ink to trays as needed. I never give the kids access to the ink. I tell them to place each print on the drying rack as they go, and when all are complete they wash hands and sit on the rug (out of the way). My cleanup helpers are in charge of going around collecting inking trays and rollers and washing them. Good luck - a good way to start May be to just have one table set up for 4 printers and have the students take turns going to the station - it takes longer but is more manageable if you are worried about the mess.

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    2. Oh and yes, white liquid glue for the shapes!

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  6. Those are soooo cool!! I want to try this!!

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    1. Thanks Cassie - it's a really fun and quick printmaking lesson (2 45 min. Sessions) plus it uses up lots of scraps of all kinds. Can't go wrong.

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  7. These are great! Excellent way to use up "stuff" we get donated to the art room. Also, I really enjoy your blog, thanks for sharing.

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  8. Hello !
    Thank you very much for all the works you share with us. I have a class in France with children 4years old. I have taken your idea to use it for "la Grande Lessive" we had in France March the 18th (if you want to see, it is here : http://taistoietrame.blogspot.fr/2014/04/la-grande-lessive-de-mes-petits-verts.html ) . It was beautiful. Thank you again. Have a good sunday
    Dvorah

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    1. I am so glad you were able to use this lesson with your 4-year olds in France! Can't wait to check out your blog - thank you for sharing it with me!

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  9. Did you show examples of other artwork? Were you looking at a particular artist?

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    1. We were focused mostly on the process of mosaics and printmaking with this one, but you could easily look at nonobjective works and talk about rhythm, unity/variety, so much, really.

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  10. Love the hidden papers under the table mat. What a great idea. Thanks for the great ideas!

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Comments are very appreciated - thanks for stopping by!