Yesterday we had part two of my mask making art atelier for the kids and it was just as fun as the first one. This week the kids painted their masks on the table in my dining room, which was covered in makeshift Carrefour grocery store bag table cover (ie. bags joined with masking tape). I keep adding on to that table cover every few weeks and now it's huge!
It was nice outside but a little windy and slightly nippy so we stayed inside but we left all the doors open and gave them the liberty to paint a little and then run around a little outside. They painted for a good long while, then came back and finished some more. Then I broke out more supplies, --glitter glue and beads to entice them to come back again. I think it's important not to tie the kids to the table but to make them want to be there. You can do this if you moniter them for boredness and try to break the project into at least two stages.
They all said they loved it and I was really happy that the first one came off with such a success. I was really surprised this morning to see them carrying their masks to school!
The moms helped their own kids with the themes. My own philosphy is to steer kids away from themes as much as possible but in a friendly mom group it's hard to impose this on other's kids (but I would have if we were alone). I gave S no guidelines for painting his own mask but some of the other moms drew on the masks, helping the kids in a sort of paint by numbers fashion and they also helped the kids decide what colors to choose. Again, not at all my thing but the kids were really pleased with their results and I do think their masks look great. It's my hope that if we continue the atelier the mothers will stop guiding so much, or maybe just gently nudge, and let the kids do it their own way.
While it's hard to let go and let kids make a potential mess of a project I think children need to be teaching us, and not the other way around.
I'm being terribly selfish too. I want to capitalize on that little untainted brain as much as possible,--peer inside and look around. I'm so inspired by children's art that I don't want to be tripping them up by getting in the way with my oversized adult artist feet. I'm really just there to clean water jars and help them with dangerous instruments. Hopefully this spirit will weave it's way into the art workshop later on.
Here are three of the masks (the other two kids had already gone when we took this picture but theirs were also very nice). Little S's mask is the brown one that's got the big nose and tons of glitter. They make great wall decorations and you can probably do a whole wall collage worth of them if you decided to make one a month.
For the activity you will need at least two sessions.
For supplies:
balloons
flour and water
newspaper ripped into long strips
paints and brushes
embellishment
glitter glue!
1) Mix flour and water to make a soupy paste and that's about it for papier maché. Blow up a balloon for each mask. Dip the newspaper strips into the paste mix and then squeegie off the excess with your fingers. Lay the goopy strips on the balloon face (no need to cover the whole balloon but they can if they want) and make at least one layer of it.
2)Dig in the recycling bin for things to lay on the mask for noses, eyebrows, etc. We used milk caps, water bottle caps, toilet paper rolls snipped in half, ...pasta for eyebrows! etc. Put another layer of goopy maché newspaper on the mask (this is where the kids start getting bored), and let dry one week.
3) One week later set up for painting. Time to pop the balloon! (the kids loved doing this part) Trim up the shape of the mask with scissors and cut out eyes with an x-acto knife. We helped them with this part. I cut out large eyes but I like how one mom helped her daughter cut out small eyes and then they painted the rest of the eye,--great idea (see picture).
4) Time to paint! And finally after the paint dries a little you can embellish it. The glitter glue works really well if they use their fingers to spread it around. I bought some art varnish for the giving a final coat in a few days so that they'll be shiny and a little bit harder and more durable. I bet you can use regular wood varnish if you can't find it in the art store. I can't see why not.
Have fun! I'd love to see the result of the activities anyone tries. Drop me a link if you do it.
10 comments:
This is just awesome.
I was thinking about your email (I will respond! Promise) and I was thinking that maybe I should lend you an awfully dry book on judicial and fiscal arrangements for artists. There are apparently three kinds of livings you can make as an artist and if I remember them correctly they are: Artist/sculpter, illustrator/writer, or art teacher. Of course they all have different rules. This wouldn't be France if they didn't... :-)
It would be awesome if you could build yourself an association so that you don't have to get a desk job later on.
And I agree about guiding children. You shouldn't! My daughter asks me to draw stuff for her all the time and I tell her no. She has to learn for herself. It usually makes her cry because she's 8 and I'm 34 so I've had more practice, but that's the only way...
And why would she want to hold herself back by my adult imagination?
Yay!!! Great stuff! I love the way you're actively adding creativity to your community, makes me wish you lived round here ;) You should be very proud of yourself!
I made masks like that a while back with the kids. I agree with you that children shouldn't be guided but struggle with it sometimes myself. Luckily my eldest will NOT be guided in any way and has to do everything in her own way, on her own terms and just how SHE wants it! For that reason her mask was a riot of pink and glitter with no real face! She's really taught me to let go and see how things turn out :D
I love the idea of the wall collage. We may have to try this one during the summer vacances.
Reading about the parents guiding the kids, drawing on the masks, choosing the colors, etc, made me think "how very french". But I guess there are parents here in the States who would do the same thing, sort of like how a lot of my friends do their kids homework so they will get good grades and get into a good school....seems so weird to me though! My mom always let me work this stuff out for myself. Thanks Mom! (and for the record, I'm kid-less, so I guess I should not really weigh in on any kid-rearing subject)
Mrs C. - I don't think I would fit any of those categories. I have no idea if it could work. I'm just thinking out loud as usual :)
Oh your daughter must hate that. I don't think a little instruction is bad. Like I 'll show S drawing tricks, perspective and shading, and it's fun for him. It's that sort of corrective instruction that I hate. That 'no you're doing it wrong!' thing.
Jemma - Thanks. It is a nice thing to bring to a community isn't it. Have you thought of doing something? You guys are so creative.
Erica - I might do the mask wall collage myself! Decoration for my future buanderie.
Rebecca - haha obviously you know france well! yes that is very french like the coloring books that "show" your kids which color to use. That always makes me laugh (Btw these activities aren't just for kids).
What a neat thing to do. It must be great for the kids to have this opportunity. I'm so with you on the 'guiding' or rather 'directing' kids. Guiding = OK. Directing = bad, at least in terms of creative outlets. We let Angelina make her own "creative" decisions, even if those decisions are shoes on the wrong feet (the shoes are big, so it's fine). The important thing is that she gets to make the decision. So often in life we do need to direct the kids in the more important things (esp. safety), that in fun stuff, they need to find their own way.
Those look like so much fun and to not lose your mind with all that glue and paint on all those little digits - wow! Very cool.
I've been meaning to ask...I love the name of your blog, where did it come from? (and yes, I do know France, but I have never lived there...just summers, I am counting the days till I get there!)
I suppose directing is what I mean. We all need guidance in starting otherwise we're more liable to spend time spinning our wheels than anything else. And I can't say that I've never received instruction. I still read books about technique.
That being said, I think that there shouldn't be too much. Art is a good example of rules that are meant to be broken. It just sometimes seems that the French are so "there's only one way to do something" but at the same time, are pretty good at breaking the rules that I get confused.
:-)
I had an instructor who said that there were rules, but if you made the same mistake more than twice when doing something it was no longer a mistake but a technique. So...
Umm....
Yeah.
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