From Trash to Chihuly

We began the week by noticing the wide-array of colors trash comes in. So, we decided to make a 'Rainbow of Trash!'

We tried to appreciate the beauty in trash and see its full potential. The kids began experimenting last week with how they could use recyclables in their art.

Junk collages were created! It's always fun to use a glue bottle.

Some kids found joy in printing with cardboard tubes.

(A floating plate... magic!)

Then, had fun adding a splash of color by dipping chalk pastels into water. It almost seemed like paint, but looks like chalk now that it is dry.

Another group of kids used dried out watercolor markers and revived them by dipping them into water and coloring onto a coffee filter. The coffee filter absorbed the color and we could watch it spread.

We wanted to do something with the circles, soooooo I showed the children some art sculptures by an artist called Dale Chihuly. We learned that he melts sand into a thick liquid and picks it up with a metal pipe, blows into it and spins it to create stunning glass sculptures. He does individual ones like these called macchias. We noticed they looked very similar to our coffee filters.

We formed our coffee filters around the top of a plastic cup and then sprayed it with liquid starch to stiffen it and emulate the macchias.

Our Chihuly-inspired macchias look pretty awesome. Now we are trying to figure out how to display them.

After the kids saw Chihuly's more elaborate sculptures, they asked if we could make those too. Hmmmm....

Here we go....

We colored on some plastic cups with Sharpie markers. This took a long time and the kids showed great perseverance. 

It was fun to look through the cup after it was colored. It made the whole room look like a rainbow.

These two came over to color a cup looking like pirates, but really they were trying to look like Dale Chihuly. He does patch one of his eyes and of course, the kids were curious about that. It's so fun to witness the creativity that grows from one small idea or picture.

When we were done, I cut a few slits in the cups and then we popped them into our cookie oven. It was the most fascinating 7-8 seconds with the most ooooo's and ahhhhhhhs I have ever heard. 

We witnessed the melting and curling. So cool. Now we have to figure out how to string them together like a real Chihuly.

The children made one final request. A curly Chihuly. I have seen his work in-person in Naples, Florida, and Seattle Washington and it is fabulous. The kids thought so too!!

We decided to paint plastic bottles with acrylic paints and then I am going to attempt to spiral cut them and bundle them together. Stay-tuned for the finished results.

Little artists at work!! 

So exciting!!