Chihuly-inspired Sculptures, Split Complements

Thank you Mr. E for all of your Chihuly inspiration and resources!
I love your students' collaborative sculptures, they are amazing- hopefully next year I will not have the crazy short & traveling class schedule and will be able to go further with your inspirations and lessons!

But for now.... my fifth grade classes have been attempting to create sculptures from coffee filters, egg cartons, pipe cleaners, straws, and beads after viewing slideshows of Chihuly's macchias and installations.

First the students delved into color theory and we identified what Split Complementary colors are.
Each student painted three coffee filters with watercolors- painting a primary color circle in the center.
1- Yellow w/ blue-violet, red-violet
2- Red w/ blue-green, yellow-green
3- Blue w/ yellow-orange, red-orange

My first class went right to the sculpture part (and then had to paint the egg carton around it)- but my second group of kids painted the egg cartons with green paint first- much better idea. ;)

To introduce the idea of working 3-dimensionally and the process of creating a sculpture we talked about what a BASE is and why it is important. For this project the egg cartons were our bases. I had a variety of sizes and shapes available for the kids (the sous chef at the restaurant I work at saves the 12x12 egg cartons for me).

I gave each student a push pin (stuck into a scrap of cardboard so it doesn't roll away on their desk) as their tiny-hole-making-tool. They created garden like sculptures with the straws, pipe cleaners, and the painted circles. I only gave them tape to enforce the flowers as a last resort. I also painted a little acrylic medium on the flowers after class to give the blossoms a little more stiffness. The kids really really enjoyed this process.

The creations made it over to the case but I have not had a chance to work on the display. Pictures should be up of it next week but here's a sneak peak. (I apologize these are not the best shots but I should be able to get some good ones up soon.)

I can't access youtube while I'm at school. I was able to show my students this 5 minute video about glassblowing through "5 minute videos" that was great! (It was recent, fun, accurate, and short and the kids totally got a sense of what glassblowing is.)

And to boot--- I realized a Chihuly exhibition opens at the MFA in Boston in April!