Friday, November 18, 2011

Wood dollhouse

Making the wood dollhouse with definitely my favorite project this term. I have never worked with wood before and it was so much fun cutting the wood and learning how to use the tools. I also liked how it was a group project and we were all able to work together. Cutting the wood was a bit of a challenge because it wouldn't always come out in a straight line. When we had the base of the house done we glued printed paper of red bricks on it and then put modge podge over it. Then we painted the inside of the house white. When the paint dried we put tape on the floor of it and painted over it in different colors so we could make a checkered design. The ceiling of the house has a line of chandeliers that we made out of paper clips. There are about 7 bunched up paper clips in a row. The roof is supposed to be like a garden. We put moss on half of the ground and glued it down then built pool chairs with towels and pillows to have a hang out area. Next to that we put down mulch and built a pool. The pool is made up of blue glitter that we found and we surrounded it with little rocks from outside. The whole house came out great and it was a really fun experience. I learned a lot about wood making this.

Plaster Pals

When we worked with plasters everyone made a plaster pal. I thought this was a really fun project. I made a pig. First I had to blow up a balloon and then put plaster sheets on it. When it dried some of it was cracked so I put paper mache over the whole balloon, which made it more stable. When that dried I made a nose made up of wires and paper mached it and glued it on. Then I made ears and eyes. The ears were also made with wires and newspaper. When I finished glueing everything on I painted the whole pig face pink. This project was so fun. The most challenging thing was getting the plaster and paper mache to stay stable and not break. It was really cool starting from just a balloon then working on it for a week and seeing what came out of it. I am very happy with my finished work.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Clay project

The three projects assigned by the clay group where an animal, texture, and whatever you wanted. I made a cat face, a triangle with different textures by using all the clay tools in the class, and I also made dice. I really liked working with clay because it was  cool just to play around with it and to make different shapes and see what comes up of it. A lot of the time I wouldn't know what to make so I just tried making different shapes with the clay and it turned out great. My favorite object I made was the dice because it looked real and it was fun to make. I liked making the cube and then the wholes on each side. The cat was fun to make because it came out really cute and I liked playing around with it, by making it's ears and eyes and nose. One mistake I made was not going on the pottery wheel. I would of liked to go on it and make a bowl if I had more time. I think it would of been really fun and I would have been interested to see how it turned out. I really liked working with clay, I thought it was a fun experiment.

Brainstorming on plaster project

I really like the idea with the paper mache balloons. I think it would be cool if we made masks or a mold of our hands. It would be really cool to paint them afterwards when they dry and make cool designs on them. Also we could maybe plaster animals and make their full bodies not just the face.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Making Paper

Making paper has been really fun so far. I made it by choosing the colors I wanted, then ripping them up and putting them in a blender. After I blended it I I put it in a tub of water and then put a square screen under it so the paper would go on top and shape it. After I took it out and took all the water out with a sponge. Then I put it on a piece of cloth and let it dry. I made one piece with dark and light pink with also some blue. The color was really pretty but it came out a little thin. I also put some flower pedals in it. I think this project is really cool and I liked it because I have never done anything like this before and it was a great experience. The second piece I made was with Julia. It was with light and dark green and some yellow. We made it big and thick and it came out really nice. We put orange specks in it after we finished and then let it dry. Both of my papers came out really nice.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Paper Reflection

Overall, I think our project/presentation went really well. I think we explained the uses of paper and the history of paper really well. We made a cudy catcher to tell the classmates different facts about paper and it really made the class interact with each other. I thought this was a fun and creative way to present our project. We had a good basic background on the history of paper. I think we could of added a bit more but we had all the general facts about it. I really liked that we brought in different paper objects like Liza's sketchbook and print making. We also made origami objects like paper cranes paper hats. I thought it was good for us to show the class how to make paper hats at the end of our presentation because it is a fun and easy thing to make. One thing we could of added was more detail in the making of paper, but it was too long to be in our presentation. I thought it was a good idea to add in the things you need to make paper, instead of writing the steps. For the first presentation to go I think our group did a great job and set the tone for the next groups to go and present. 

Monday, September 26, 2011

Sculpter of Ropes course

For our first project this year we made a  sculpture of a different object in school. We had to use only cardboard. We learned how to cute with a knife and make cardboard 3D. I chose to make a sculpture of the  ropes course by upper field. I really liked how it looked and the different objects on it.

I started off making a sketch of my object in my sketch book. Then I made it 3D. The different between my object and my sketch is that I didnt incorporate all the objects in the actual ropes course to my sculpture. I did not put in a tire swing and the color of the actual sculpture is a little different than mine.  At the end I painted the whole thing brown. I liked making this project because I have never worked with cardboard before and I thought it was interesting and fun.