Dia de los Muertos

It's been awhile since my last post, so I've decided it's time to get serious about blogging and post more regularly.
Today I took out my year eights clay from the kiln, we made clay skulls based on the Mexican celebration , "day of the dead". We had quite a few breakages through environmental factors, the clay dried too quickly and split. Next time I will cover the clay during the drying process using my polyester clay mats. Students have been experimenting with melting coloured glass within their designs, making sure their clay can contain the melted liquid. One of my favourite effects is the crumbly powdered glass, sprinkled on the surface, it ends up looking a bit like sprinkles or confetti.

Big Words

Today in Extension art we started making large 3D letters out of cardboard, paper cups and tape. We want to freshen up our Library and Study Centre signage. Little did my students realise how much maths is involved in creating such large letters. We found the hardest letter to make was R, and we ended up cheating and projecting an R from the computer onto card. Students learnt how to score card to have clean crisp folds and use paper cups to support the inside of the letters.
 We will be covering the outside in paper mache, then students have decided they would like to decorate their letters with paint.

New Kiln Arrives

When ever a student comes to the art room and I tell them about my kiln they often want to see it, but because its a health and safety issue having students going into my pottery bay while the kiln is firing or baking, they often don't get to see what my oven looks like.
So here's your opportunity to take a look as the old one gets removed and the new one arrives from Hamilton. The old Cob craft kiln was about 30 years old, it has seen better days and so Brent from Kiln Services found me this old girl (we called her Jenny after Brent's Wife!) The new/old Kiln is about 20 years old, built in New Zealand and by the looks of it only been used once, so she's very tidy.

Jenny my Kiln

We had to get a special crane truck in to lift her as she's close to 300kg in weight. The next adventure is getting it through the pottery bay door and installed without the use of a crane.

Titanic Portraits

In the art room we are practising our drawing skills, finding interesting ways to draw the features of our faces. We then enlarge the drawings onto giant pieces of paper using the projector and paint our outlines in blue in preparation to fill in our face in unusual colours
 

Painting our outlines in blue

Our unusual selections of colours

These cardboard templates will be inked up and printed on our backgrounds making a wallpaper.

Tape at the Dowse

On Friday my year 8 class from Team Apirana spent the day at The Dowse art museum. Under the expert advise from Erica Duthie and Struan Ashby the students collaboratively created an amazing walk thru mural.
The students created their drawings on two different walls, one internal wall and a glass exterior wall, allowing an extra depth to the final result. The theme was musical inventions entwined with the Hutt Valleys flora and fauna.

The wind blew and blew and finally the rain arrived and it hosed down. We managed to stay dry under the eaves and finished our mural after about 4 hours of drawing.

Its been an amazing experience for us all and we would sincerely like to thank Erica and Struan for their patience and passion for drawing with tape.

The Tape Project

The last two lessons of art have had the great pleasure of working with Erica Duthie and Struan Ashby, a couple who are passionate about drawing. We've chucked out pencils, given up paint, shunned crayons and have picked up the strangest of mediums......Decorating tape!
Our first workshop explored the qualities and textures of the tape and how to manipulate it as a drawing tool. See the results below.

Natano's Solider

On our second workshop we ventured out of

Malachi's portrait

the art room and decorated the windows of the hall with people passing items. See if you can guess what item is being passed.

Brogan passing to Natano

Alysha and Crystal

If you want like to see more of the Tape Project click the link below.www.tapeart-nz.com

Art of Dentistry

Welcome everyone to another exciting year at AIS.

 As most of you know our technology rooms are being 'future proofed' and having a bit of a makeover. The Art Room will be getting a new lowered ceiling which will absorb some of the noise, new aluminium windows, a new paint job and a door to the pottery bay.

In the meantime Art will be taught in the old Dental Clinic. I think this is marvellous as I wanted to be a dentist when I was about 12, this way I get to have my two dream jobs combined.  The image below is a sculpture in Dunedin Mrs Campbell told me about. She dislikes it intensely. Do you know what they are? Its something to do with dentistry.

This term one lucky Tech team will get to participate in 'The Tape Project' run by Erica Duthie and Struan Ashby. This is a great opportunity for our students and a really cool project. Have a look for yourself http://vimeo.com/97643040 .

I shall keep you all posted on any developments, but for now welcome to all our new year sevens and welcome back to a year eights. May 2015 be full of positive changes and challenges for us all.