Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Calder inspired Pipe Cleaner Sculptures

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We've moved to sculpture in our coop art class.  It's always my favorite part since that's my background.  We looked at the sculptures of Alexander Calder, primarily the stabiles.

I provided three slides of very different works in class as samples.


Flamingo, image source:  Wikipedia



Fish mobile, image source:  Hirshhorn Museum

57th Stabile, image source:  Pace Gallery

The materials the students were provided were florists foam, pipe cleaners, and colored paper.  We talked about each of these sculptures and then focused on what style of working that would translate to with the materials on hand.  So the Flamingo has a lot of mass on one side with sections that reach out and touch the ground (foam with pipe cleaners dominating one side).  The Fish doesn't even have a base and could inspire other hanging work (all pipe cleaners and colored paper). The 57th stabile has a prominent base with elements almost floating above it (using all the materials provided).


The students were provided regular table knives for carving their florist foam if they wanted.  Scissors were provided for cutting the pipe cleaners as well as colored paper.  The colored paper was provided for adding sections of mass to the pipe cleaners.  If you cut out two mirror image pieces, and glue them together with the pipe cleaner in the middle, it expands the possibilities.


The students had fun with this project and came up with a great diversity of sculptural forms.


For more information on Alexander Calder and his stabiles check out these sources:


Artsology, L'Homme Sculpture
National Gallery of Art, Vertical Constellation with Bomb virtual tour or kids publication, Inside Scoop



4 comments:

Unknown said...

Great ideas! I would love for you to add it to my weekly Mom's Library Link-Up along with any other of your amazing posts.
http://heymommychocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/11/co-hosting-moms-library-4-for-me.html

Thanks and be blessed,
Julie

toady mama said...

Julie - Thanks for the invite. I did link up a post this week but not this one. I will try to follow your theme. Thanks for co hosting now.

Christy said...

Good ideas. Thanks for linking up to tip-toe thru tuesday.

maggy, red ted art said...

Another wonderful art activity. Love the projects you shared with teh students too - shows how varied Calder was.

Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Arty!

Lovely to have you join in again.

Maggy

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