Tooling Foil Masks with Folk Artists

Discussion: Mayan Masks

Pattern

Tin Art

Folk Artists

Folk Art Tin work, known in Mexico as hojalata, goes back to the 16th Century. Artists use natural, oxidized and brightly lacquered paints to create ornaments, nichos, mirrors, lanterns and other decorative pieces. Our interesting variety of tin work comes from Oaxaca where the artists use more natural and lacquered tin, and from San Miguel de Allende where oxidized tin is more popular.

The Maya occupied a vast area covering southeast Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Mayan culture began to develop in the Pre-Classic period, around 1000 B.C. and was at its heyday between 300 and 900 A.D. The Maya are well known for their writing, of which a great part can now be read, as well as for their advanced mathematics, astronomy and calendrical calculations.

Mayan masks had a wide variety of uses: 

Some of the most complex masks were created to adorn the faces of the dead.

The Mayan's wore masks during important events, including during battle.

Whatever the use of masks in battle was, today’s scholars are able to learn a lot about the Mayan civilization from surviving masks made by the Mayan people.

There were also masks that showed the faces of people. We know that some masks were used in wedding ceremonies, 

There were masks made to commemorate many births and deaths.

The Mayan's also used masks for entertainment.

The uses of masks by the Mayan people were as varied as the style of the masks themselves.

Tips for tooling Foil: 

Use dull pencils (we used colored pencils

Work on a pad of folded newspaper

Project create a two tear tooling foil sun mask 

Step1: On the first square, draw a new pattern on each of the four sides

Step2: cut the corners off the second square turning it into a circle

Step3: Think about what type of mask you are making, add eyes, nose, mouth, ears hair, etc. 

Step4: using sharpies color both of the tooling foil pieces

Step5: using a large bead hot glue the square pattern foil underneath the round, mask foil 

MATERIALS: 

2 sheets of 5”x 5” tooling foil

Dull pencils

Newspaper

Sharpie markers. 

Hot glue gun

Beads

Form in Wire with Claire Falkenstein

blue tape on the left side of the picture has the students name for identification for upcoming art show. 

Discussion: Form

What is form? 

How is it different then a painting?

what is space?

Negative space?

Positive space?

Claire Falkenstein, 

Body Centered Cubic

on display at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA

Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) 

American artist and sculptor

Through her long and prolific career, Claire explored every medium, from sculpture, drawings and paintings to prints, wallpaper and jewelry. 

An Oregon native who worked in Paris, France, the San Francisco Bay area and Venice, California. 

Falkenstein is best known for her monumental sculptures as well as her more intimately-scaled prints and jewelry. 

Falkenstein experimented endlessly, learning about metals by melting them in spoons over a kitchen stove. 

Soon, she was manipulating gold, silver, platinum, brass, copper and steel into necklaces, brooches, rings as well as large-scale sculpture.

Working in Italy in the late 1950's, she made one of her great discoveries, devising a way to virtually "fuse" glass and metal—two very different materials in behavior and chemistry—into single pieces. 

This combination of materials became the hallmark of her creative production.

While she was working small, Falkenstein was thinking big. 

Gradually abandoning traditional media like wood and clay, she began producing large-scale sculptures, fountains and other structures using innovative glass and metal techniques first explored in her highly experimental jewelry.

SAFETY discussion is necessary for this project. I gave the students 3 feet of wire. If students are too close together someone could get hurt. If you can not spread students out, coil up the wire while children work and remind them at all times to be safe.

Project: create a small wire sculpture with beads

Step1: know that you must be gentle while working with wire

Step2: decide on a shape, our artist used the shape of a square. YOu finished product should be no bigger then your fist

Step3: as you begin to twist and mold your wire into a shape remember your beads 

Step4: add in all beads into your sculpture 

Step5: add in a small colored wire as your last step

Materials:

Beads

Wire 3 feet, Dick Blick wire for students. 

1 Twistezze per child, Dick Blick

Sculpture with Bean Finneran

Discussion:

Form

Space

Monochromatic

Artist and 20,000 curves

20,000 turquoise curves

Bean Finneran

On display at Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Artist: Bean Finneran (1971-     )

Cleveland Born

Career beginnings in avant-garde theater in Boston

Designed Jewelry in San Francisco

returned to painting 

eventually began to roll and stack clay

Project: Create a sculpture piece inspired by this work of art

Step1: start with a styrofoam florist cone. 

Step2: cut chenille stems in half or close to half

Step3: add a bead on the end of each half and bend the stem so the bead does not fall off

Step4: place the 1/2 pipe cleaner in the cone

Step5: continue working on this project until you have it completed and are happy with the results

Note: Students will study monochromatic color schemes, pipe cleaners will be displayed by color but if a student wants to use multi colored pipe cleaners they will not be discouraged. 

MATERIALS: 

One styrofoam florist cone per student

50 pipe cleaners per student   http://www.dickblick.com/products/chenille-kraft-stems/

Multi-colored beads for the ends   http://www.dickblick.com/products/pony-beads/

Weaving Tissue and found objects with Ellen Kochansky

K-1-2 Grades

DISCUSSION: Look at several examples of Ellen Kochansky's  work

Weaving? How is weaving art? 

What is weaving? 

Art A: how would this art feel? 

Is there a pattern? 

What is the pattern of this weave? 

Why did the artist name this piece riverdance? Nancy Curry

How to Weave: Over under, over under

Under over, under over

ARTIST: Ellen Kochansky

American textile designer

owns and designs for EKO. 

From rural South Carolina, 

she has made quilts and textile art for over 30 years. 

She has served as an American Canvas panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and as a trustee of the American Crafts Council. 

Her works are in many public and private institutions including the Museum of Art + Design in NY, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC.

PREPARATION: Create looms in advance (one per student):

Step 1: cutting 12x18 black construction paper down to 12x12 square

Step 2: Gently bend them and cut strips one inch from top bottom and sides.  

MATERIALS: 

Looms

Chenille stems

Glue

Found objects

Yarn

Fabric

PROJECT: 

Weaving with Tissue paper

Step 1: grab loom and tissue strips

` Step 2: begin weaving by going over and under stems

Step 3: with you next tissue strip go under over the stems

Step 4: return to over under

Step 5: return to under over

Step 6: embellish the weave using found objects like our artist

Step 7: glitter station

Step 8: glue on yarn 

Step 9: glue on fabric, glitter, beads, pom poms, feathers