Years 1-6: Paper beads and Spirit Characters
In week 5, students continued to explore the idea of transferring a 2D surface to a 3D object. It has been a recurring theme in our exploration into sculpture. Over the last few weeks we have been creating designs and working out ideas for our wire and wood sculptures. We have been thinking about the kind of characters we would like to create and have also been reflecting on the idea of transferring a 2D drawing to a 3D sculpture, and what kinds of things we need to think about when we do this. As we have to postpone our making of the sculptures while we are working on-line, we will continue to create materials to add to our sculptures for when we return to school. The artist, Simryn Gill works with paper to create paper beads. She uses old books that have a special meaning for people, and remodels the pages into 3D sculptural artefacts or sculptural pieces. So, for her, old pages from a book, comic or magazine, can be transformed into a different way of being seen. Below are some examples of her work.
Students began the process of creating their own paper beads that they could use in their sculptures when we return to school. Below are a range of the paper bead creations that the students made! Their inventiveness was impressive!
This week, it was important to think a little more deeply about what we will do with our sculptures made from wire, wood and paper beads. Surface embellishment is a wonderful aspect of sculptural works. This week, we examined the possibilities for surface embellishment for our yet to be made creatures! Emma Gale is an artist who creates very elaborate drawings of spirit animals. This week using Emma Gale’s drawings as inspiration, we redrew and revisited our ideas for our sculptures. We also thought about how we would embellish the surface of these characters by adding patterns onto the ‘skin’ of our creatures. Emma Gale has used shapes and marks to create her patterns. It is like she paints the spirit of the animal on the surface of the animal.
Students contemplated what spirit they wanted to show on the ‘skin’ or body of their creature or characters.
They used a variety of materials that they had on hand to draw and then embellish their spirit creature. They explored patterns and surface and considered a range of different kinds of patterns and colours that best suited the spirit of their creature.
