Middle schoolers created a ceramic loom out of air dry clay, rolling out a slab and carving out the center in the shape of a square or rectangle. They added holes for the loom in addition to holes for hanging the loom when it is complete. 

 

Sadly, every single loom broke in the drying process ... however, we made the best of it! Inspired by Kintsugi ('golden joinery'), the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. We owned our cracks and improvised our own method of Kintsugi using metallic acrylic paint. We can't wait to see how they turn out! :)

Fifth through 8th graders were introduced to Wayne Thiebaud's dessert paintings. They have been working diligently on ice cream sundaes, having fun adding toppings and creating new flavors. We talked about pattern, size and paper orientation. They'll be adding color using watercolors after outlining with black sharpie. 

Fifth through 12th grade students are beginning their year in art drawing mandalas (a radial design). 

 

All grade levels began by painting a colorful watercolor background using liquid watercolors. They choose either a cool color palette (blues, greens & purples) or a warm color palette (yellows, reds & oranges). Ninth through 12th grade students were given the additional option of adding one of the colors from the opposite color group; using salt; and using plastic wrap to add textural elements to their backgrounds.

 

Next, they will draw their mandala design on this colorful background using white paint pens. And finally, to really make it pop, they will outline the white lines using ultra fine tip black sharpie.