tooling foil- questions answered!

Some of you may have inherited a roll of metal tooling foil or seen some of these beautiful metal projects on blogs and pinterest and not known what the material is. 

It is metal tooling foil. It can be bought cut down already or in a roll (and comes in silver, gold, copper).

For an example from Dick Blick click here.

Here are the tricks to using it!

First of all you can cut it down on the paper cutter! Woo!

It can also be cut with scissors if you want to alter the shape.

(I would only let students fourth grade and older do this though.)

As I explain to my students, you need a "cushion" underneath the metal when you draw on it so that there is some give for the metal and place for it to be pushed to. I use the metaphor of what it feels like to jump on a hard floor versus a gym mat. For the cushion I fold up newspaper, works great. 

I also make my students use the fat pencils (the kinder ones) which have a fatter softer point so they won't make a hole and the point won't break as easily. 

The cool thing is that you can draw on both sides so that the design both gets incised/engraved

and also can pop out. We really focus on texture during this process.

You can't erase any lines so we do a lot of rough drafts. 

I used to have the kids tape and trace their rough draft designs but I aborted that a while ago. 

For coloring, this is tricky to get across- I really emphasize coloring in the negative spaces and letting the silver pencil lines show (like a coloring book) but there are always one or two that sneak past me and just go ahead and trace their lines. 

Colored sharpies (or liquid metal markers) work best for coloring. Sharpies are actually transparent and not opaque- so the color looks metallic which the kids love. 

I did a patina experiment this fall- where we covered the metal with black tempera, let it set up for 1 minute, then rubbed away the paint. I think they came out cool. It was fun to try something different.

Bonus- you can punch a hole in the metal as well. 

Last year I cut down 2" squares and punched a hole in the corner.

The students made snowflake designs and strung yarn through the hole to hang them. 

If you want them "framed" you can staple it right to posterboard.

Frida-inspired Portraits with First Grade

 First of all, this book is SO fantastic!

Frida by Jonah Winter

I would read it to elementary or even middle school students because the pictures are beautiful and the text is concise and well written, quickly hitting the big ideas students should be taking from Frida's life and work.

 

Moving on, following the reading self-portraits I decided while

we were in the groove to do self-portraits of the students whole faces too.

I took it as an opportunity to tie in an artist and have been itching to get to Frida!

The children get so invested when they learn about an artist's life it is truly worth the time to share the information. The kids were so invested in their pictures AND Frida. 

I approached her work as an artist this way:
Frida Kahlo was a sad person because she was in pain. She really enjoyed art so she painted to make herself feel better. She painted many self-portraits that included things that made her happy using her imagination since she often could not leave her bedroom or house. This is why we see animals, flowers, and vegetation in her images. 

What makes you happy?

 

Students drew self-portraits, used their appropriate skin color crayon, and added in things, places, and people that make them happy. These included many animals, pictures of family member, Six Flags (of course), flowers, and bright colors.

Did you know she had a pet deer?

compass rose designs on metal

This lesson corresponded to a lot of my student's studies in math and social studies which was great. 

They are currently studying fractions and by designing our compasses by thinking in terms of 1/4's and 1/8's this really established a strong connection. 

We discussed the purpose of a compass and a compass rose, where and why they are used, and how far back in history they have been used. 

 

Students had to accurately show the viewer where the cardinal and intermediate directions on their compass were by pointing to the 8 directions. The use of the corresponding letters (NEWS) was optional. 

They also had to use a ruler and demonstrate purposely use of texture.

gumball machines - circles & ovals

I realized that my kinder students were having trouble drawing circles and ovals that were distinguishable from each other and that my first graders drew them so fast they couldn't tell the difference either. 

We did these gumball machines to try to drive in the difference between the two shapes. 

The frames had a circle-oval border. 

The gumball machines were supposed to have all circle gumballs inside. 

As simple a project it was the kids really enjoyed making these!

What happens when an art teacher gets married...!

(I realized I never followed up on my sneak peek into my wedding and apologetic blog absence from over a month ago. If you are interested in my self-promoting post read on - if not then I'll be back to posting art work tomorrow while I enjoy my 'hurricane' day off from school!)

Carrying on... well when THIS art teacher got married: 

we had a rainbow themed ceremony and a purple packed wedding overfilled with handmade items and labors of love (as my mom calls them). Everything from the flowers to the food to the invitations to cookies and desserts to streamer shakers to the quilted chuppah to our make up to the calligraphy to painted can lanterns to the rosemary & lavender sprigs on the napkins were courtesy of loved ones amazing efforts and made our day that much more special, so I have to brag!

The letters above were courtesy of my friend who flew in from Arizona!

I made our invitation suite. It was a long involved process but I do not regret a single minute of work I put into them.

Our programs were made from the painted table paper I saved from my classes last year!

Our ceremony had a rainbow theme. I walked in to an instrumental Rolling Stone's She's a Rainbow

and we walked out to Kermit's charming voice belting Rainbow Connection.

(and on Sunday evening a complete double rainbow went over Cape Cod, true story)

I dyed wood pieces and my mom painted the table numbers and I painted vines on the flower bases.

 

The vases are the ones I showed that I painted in my previous post.

 Bob proposed on a scrabble board- 

we now have our proposal on a board and these tile racks in our apartment. 

I painted these papers and my friend (who is a scientist by day and is practicing calligraphy at night) did all of this gorgeous calligraphy!

I made thank you cards for our vendors 

and the 'sea glass' jars below hung on the fence by the ceremony. 

I showed them in progress in my previous post as well. 

I made them from spaghetti sauce jars, glass paint baked in the oven, and a spray coat of the new frosted glass spray paint.

This stamp I had made from a design my friend did for our save the date was worth a million dollars- 

I used it for everything!

Fly away chuppah-- the winds were CRAZY! 

This chuppah is AMAZING. My close friend spent months collecting purple fabrics and crafting this. It even has an anchor embroidered in the corner. 

We had to improvise since it wouldn't stay on the pole!

 Rainbow streamer shakers! Well worth the glue gunning effort of putting them together.

Cookies made by my mother-in-law who is also an art teacher.

This frame was an engagement gift- it is the cutest art teacher frame--- 

the bottom says "drawn together".

Purple, purple, purple!

For the groomsmen:

 My bridesmaids:

and us:

To make you all feel better, this is what my poor Nana's living room looked like all summer:

 Professional photos are courtesy of Love and Perry.

And I am launching my own business of wedding 

and special event stationary and accoutrements that I will be posting about soon.