arteascuola

New ARTEASCUOLA web site is ready!

2013-07-08T18:00:00.000+01:00

Dear friends, to make the contents of my blog more accessible I decided to transfer the blog of personal domain, so, from now, you can follow me on the new web site www.arteascuola.com

There is also the Italian version where you'll find all the post in italian language.
For now, I invite you to edit the RSS feeds that will be http://feeds.feedburner.com/arteascuola

I'm looking forward to meet you on my new web site!

The paper bags made of clay

2013-07-04T19:14:00.001+01:00

With slabs of clay we created these elegant handbags copying them from paper bags that you find in the shops. The surface was imprinted with flowers to create a texture inspired by nature. After the first firing the handbags have been decorated with underglaze colors and have been glazed for the second fire. The final touch has been to add the black rope as handles, as in the real handbags.

An articulate manikin

2013-07-01T09:13:00.003+01:00

With the students of Year 8 we built an articulated manikin made of cartonboard which served as a model for drawing figures in motion. Each student has chosen a pose for his manikin, which could be from front or in profile, and invented a character to "dress up" and paint in an appropriate scenario. Here you will find the sheets to create your manikin!

Pop-Up Italian Roman arenas

2013-06-28T09:52:00.000+01:00

On May 19, I led a "pop-up card workshop" to teach how to build a card pop-up inspired by roman arenas, particularly by the Colosseum in Rome and the Arena in Verona. The Workshop was organized by the Italian Cultural Centre of Bristol and involved a dozen children who have designed, cut out and built their imaginative and colorful pop-up arena.

A gift for the teachers? A group painting!

2013-06-16T11:13:00.000+01:00

Year 5 of Elementary School of Madrano "Celestin Freinet" in Pergine (Trento), created these paintings as a gift for their teachers at the end of the school year, in order to leave them a special memory at the end of the primary cycle. The work was led and carried out by Sabrina Ubaldi, a dear friend of mine with whom we designed the project. Each teacher received a composition of these squares (5x5cm wood) painted by their students and it was really a success!

Wood, glue, recycling and fantasy

2013-06-09T15:07:00.002+01:00

With a few objects and tools in the middle of the woods we issued a challenge: build something with your hands and your imagination! It may be a small sculpture, a miniature toy that will become a souvenir of this forest.

You may be amazed how many things may be concocted by the children!

My pottery in Bath

2013-05-18T11:20:00.001+01:00

I'm attending a pottery course at the City of Bath College, and I have the possibility to learn, confront and try out new ceramic techniques. Here are my last pottery! I thought that could be an attractive proposition for students to design a set of 3 small pots with different shapes but with similar decorations, to work on the concept of a "triad" of objects connected by an idea that unites them.

Precious rings

2013-05-16T09:34:00.000+01:00

Some of the girls of Year 6 are making and selling these precious bead rings, they are really beautiful! They also taught me how to make them!

Another painted guitar : Les Paul "Journey"

2013-05-14T16:00:00.000+01:00

I was fascinated by painting on wood that I have experienced on the previous body guitar Telecaster "Red Baron" in maple. I painted another body, this time of a Gibson Les Paul in mahogany, with a subject of my own invention titled "Journey".

I know this is not a lesson to be proposed at school, but who knows if it can serve as a starting point for some creative project such as design and painting a musical instrument ... also in the classroom, why not?

Three dimensional Mirò

2013-05-09T18:39:00.000+01:00

I thought of a way to create a three-dimensional structure with the characteristic drawings by Joan Miro, which are specifically two-dimensional. Students have copied some drawings by Miró with a black permanent marker on cardboards recycled from boxes of corn flakes. Afterwards they have painted the drawings with acrylic paint, and when the cards have dried, the students have also painted the back with the same solid colors. The funniest part was assembling the small paintings in three-dimensional structures, cutting the cardboard at the connection points and adding a little 'glue when necessary.
Check out my video tutorial!

Here the photos of the entire procedure:

Oriental fans with paper plates

2013-04-30T13:12:00.000+01:00

With students of Year 6 we painted some fans in Oriental style, with colorful watercolors on the background and silhouettes of bamboo plants and branches with cherry blossoms painted in black ink. For the fans we merely used half of a paper plate!

Silhouettes of chairs for poetic evocations

2013-04-26T10:32:00.000+01:00

PRIVATE GIG

With students of middle school (classe 3) we choose some different shapes of chairs to cut out from different sorts of paper in order to create a suggestive composition. The students tried to give an evocative title to every composition, assembling the chairs with different backgrounds and colours.

A LULLABY

MISUNDERSTANDINGS

READING A BOOK

CHAT BETWEEN OLD FRIENDS

LONELY THOUGHTS

SPANISH CRADLE-SONG

Symmetrical masks painted

2013-04-23T10:23:00.000+01:00

With students of Year6 we have drawn some masks with abstract but symmetrical designs.

To make symmetrical lines we have drawn them on half face and then we have recopied them on the other half. With carbon paper we transferred the design on white cardboard.

Afterwards we have painted them with acrilyc colours, making sure that even the colours were symmetrical.

A shared experience in Omaha, Nebraska

2013-04-18T10:35:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I was delighted to receive a lovely email from Cynthia Vana, a Library Specialist in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. She led a workshop at the Florence Branch of Omaha Public Library where the participants used white oil pastels and acrylic paint to create African patterns on brown craft paper. Her workshop, part of a February program series celebrating African American Heritage Month in the United States, was inspired by one of my lessons. You can find this lesson in a previous post called African patterns on wrapping paper. Sixteen women attended Cynthia's workshop and each of them produced a unique and beautiful piece! You can find more photos of her workshop on Omaha Public Library's Flickr page.

What gave me the most pleasure was to see such smiles on the all the students' faces -- they obviously had a lot of fun and were very satisfied with their beautiful work!

Well done Cynthia! (and Omaha Public Library!)

Small ceramic house-box

2013-04-16T11:48:00.000+01:00

The slabs of clay can be used for lots of different projects. This project needs precision in measuring, cutting and assembling the slabs and the consistence of clay must be not too soft. Remember to use "slurry" clay to join the slabs on the edges, after having scratched the surfaces to be joined.

The surface of the box may be textured, carved or decorated, and in the same way you can build a roof-lid.

Pop-up with the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World

2013-04-13T10:38:00.002+01:00

With the pupils of Year 3 of Cherry Garden Primary School we realized these pop-up card to summarize their topic about the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Every student realized a colorful pop-up card with his own drawing. Here are the full instructions and below are the wonderful results!

Inspired by Gustav Klimt

2013-04-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

With students of Secondary School (classe 3) we made mixed-media drawings inspired by the works of Gustav Klimt, the great artist of the Viennese Secession that best of all interprets the style of Art Nouveau in the early twentieth century.

Looking at the technique of this painter we have drawn realistic details emerging from a carpet of abstract decorations: elegant textures with gold and silver inserts.

We have traced the main lines of the picture on tracing paper and then we photocopied it on white cardboard. The areas of the faces, hair and hands are colored in pencil, with shades of black and white, but the backgrounds and clothes are colored with felt-tip pens, limited to a range of 7 colours, enriched with pieces of gold and silver paper , ribbons, aluminum foil and copper foil.

Optical illusion cube

2013-04-08T10:45:00.000+01:00

It is a small cube in a room or a large cube that lacks one corner?

This cube is easier to draw than to describe in words how to draw! We used a squared paper to draw (freehand!) the lines that create the cube, counting six segments to the outer cube and three for the inner cube. While drawing you have to follow the instructions carefully, only under this condition will be possible for everyone to realize this plan!

When we finished the pencil drawing each student chose two colours in three different shades: dark-medium-light (eg: 3 felt tip pens green dark-medium-light and 3 felt tip pens red dark-medium-light).

Following the three directions of space we colored the chessboards with the colours chosen (the two dark colours for the first side, the two medium colours for the second side and the two light colours for the third side).

Happy Easter Cards!

2013-03-28T10:27:00.002+00:00

An idea for Easter Cards by a wonderful teacher of Cherry Garden School, just to wish you all a happy Easter! Colored cardboards, painted with spring colours and gold painting, decorated with ribbons, wrapping paper for letters and sticks.

Prints inspired by the German Expressionist group "Die Brücke"

2013-03-25T10:26:00.002+00:00

With pupils in Year 9 (classe 3) we made some lovely prints inspired by the German Expressionist group "Die Brücke". We have carved small plates of Adigraf (a special soft linoleum) with engraving tools and we printed the matrices on paper, with printing inks.

We started with a sketch on paper which was then redesigned over the adigraf and then engraved with various gouges. Printing was done with typographical colours applied with the roller on the matrix, which then was pressed manually on paper. I think these are very expressive faces!

Painting the Mona Lisa

2013-03-22T09:15:00.000+00:00

In the painting competition of 3rd February 2013, organized by the Italian Cultural Center of Bristol, children between 6 and 11 years have ventured into the copy of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and it was very interesting to watch the interpretation that every child gave of his own Mona Lisa!

Playing with Pollock dripping

2013-03-18T17:59:00.000+00:00

It's just an on-line game to paint like Jackson Pollock with his DRIPPING technique!

Your student can try to paint in few second his painting in "Pollock style". Just click on the mouse to change the colours and move the mouse very fast to drop the colour on the surface. Here some experiments from my students!

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Coil vase with a 'not round' base

2013-03-15T10:56:00.000+00:00

Starting from any shape as base of the vase, you can model a vase not round, by growing as a free shape in your hands. The coils follow the shape of the base and then they can widen and narrow as you like. Here's my vase made with this technique.

I glazed the interior of the pot, and I colored the outer surface with manganese oxide.

Collaborative Dragon!

2013-03-10T13:10:00.000+00:00

To end with flourish the topic about China with the students of 6th Year at Cherry Garden Primary School we have made a great Chinese dragon using paper plates. Each one has painted her paper plate as a color wheel, using only the primary colours and obtaining secondary and tertiary colours.

In another paper plate each one has painted her name in Chinese, this has been glued to the center of the colored plate, and the white edge has been cut to make some petals. Other petals have been cut from tissue paper and stuck on the white petals. At the end of the work, each student has realized his "flower". The head and paws of the dragon have been made with other paper plates and then painted with tempera. A long rope was inserted in all the dishes to form a long, colorful snake ... and here is our fantastic dragon!

A special thanks to the wonderful Year 6 teacher, Ms Formoso!!

Small Jewelry Polymer Clay

2013-03-07T09:36:00.001+00:00

Do you know "Fimo" or "Cernit"? It' a polymer clay that you can cook in the owen at 110°C. With students of Grade 7-8 can do these small jewels with tools for clay. Laura (11y old) has realized this jewels for her friends but I thought about a School Art Club, to model key rings, earrings, bracelets, lockets and pendants for a charity market. You need a little 'skill and patience but is very funny realize these small things!