Butterfly Portraits

Here is another butterfly project I recently completed with grade1/2.

It combines a few mediums, papier mache, weaving, using drywall, and the use of dye.

It gave the students a good chance to try out all these techniques.

Lots of 3D action here.





















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- background substrate, we used 12x12" hardboard but cardboard can easily be used, poster board, or canvas
- acrylic paint
- paper towel strips
- white glue
- newspaper
- masking tape
- drywall filler
- scraps of cardboard
- yarn
- dye, liquid watercolours or food colouring
- coffee filters
- paper
- small goggly eyes
- tacky glue
- 1/2 a pipe cleaner and 2 pony beads for the antennae
- glue gun (adult only)


PROCEDURE:

I had 4 1hr. sessions to complete this with Grade 1/2.  The photos are not in the order of the sessions so here is the schedule I used:

Session 1
- papier mache body
- cut cardboard and drywall
- weave flower circle

Session 2
- paint background
- paint butterfly body
- paint butterfly cardboard
- dye coffee filter

Session 3
- paint drywalled pieces
- paint little bit on woven circles
- paint paper for flower petals
- glue dyed filter on butterfly shape and trim

Session 4
- cut out flower petals
- cut out leaves
- glue on pieces
- add eyes and mouth to butterfly
- add text

Take a section of newspaper and roll into a body shape.  Tape with masking tape.

Mix up some white glue and water (1 to 1 ratio).

Have some paper towel strips ready to go.  Our butterfly body is pretty small so not much papier mache is required.

Cover butterfly body with 2 layers of mache, just enough to cover it and hold it together.


Set aside to dry. (overnight)

With scraps of cardboard cut out a long strip for a stem and a circle for a flower centre.



I did not use the petal shapes in this project.

Working on top of wax paper or newspaper, coat the front of the pieces with drywall filler.


Set aside to dry, (6 hrs.)

In the meantime paint your background with blue acrylic paint.  Originally I was going to have them all taped so that we would also paint in the ground section.  I decided at the last minute to remove the tape, this gave us all sky and more room to place all our elements.


Set aside to dry.

Out of some extra corrugated cardboard I cut a butterfly shape.  For the kids I pre cut this for them, if I had more time I would have had them cut their own.


We painted them white.

Set aside to dry.

We painted some paper red for our flower petals.  I used some paintable wall paper to get that nice texture.

If you use paintable wallpaper you must use acrylic paint, the tempera doesn't stick.

I don't have a picture of the process, just the end product.  I had the students dye some coffee filters.

We used Easter egg dye which I always have on hand for Pysanky.

I put some different colours into little cups and gave them eyedroppers to use for each colour.

The colours are always spectacular!

We worked on top of a piece of newspaper that was on top of a piece of wax paper.  I kept the newspaper as it had wonderful colours to use in future collage projects.

When the papier mache body was dry we painted it black.

Glue the dry dyed coffee filter to the white butterfly, right on top of the white.  It needed to be painted white to show off those spectacular colours.

Trim away the excess to reveal the butterfly shape.

Paint the stem and the flower centre with acrylic paints.

To add extra interest I had each student weave a circle to use as a flower.


I use the technique I outline here in the woven eyed frog project.

Glue the pieces together on the background.  For fussy pieces you can have an adult assist with a glue gun.  We used a glue gun for the butterfly wings and the antennae.  Add 2 goggly eyes and a mouth if you wish.


I ran some green card stock through the paper shredder to make some long stems.  We also used scraps of green painted paper to make the leaves.

Finally we added the text "Flutter By Butterfly".


Some kids switched it to "Butterfly Flutter By".



That's it.

See you next time, school is almost done, counting the days!

Gail

"Lifecycle of the Butterfly" Inchies

Hi everyone…..started a new residency this week and we are doing a few Butterfly and insect related projects.



This is an inchie project that I have mounted on hardboard but could be done on heavy paper or cardboard. I completed this with Grade 1 and 2.

I have been doing a lot of these hardboard projects lately.

I wanted it to be 3D, (of course, that's becoming a trademark of my work).

So each square has parts of it that stick out.


















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- substrate (base) can be hardboard, cardboard, primed canvas, heavy paper. My hardboard is 12"x12".
- acrylic paint ( I used acrylic as I'm podging the finished piece, if you are not adding a sealer you could use tempera)
- 4 squares of wc or heavy paper like card stock. My inches are 4.5" x 4.5".
- 3 little glass gems
- regular white paper
- small scrap of card stock around  3"x3" but don't spend time measuring.
- white tissue paper
- tacky glue
- small scraps of corrugated cardboard and thin cardboard
- dried Lima beans
- sharpie
- 2 small goggly eyes
- piece of brown kraft paper
- plaster strips, you could also use papier mache
- I used a wood butterfly shape because I had a bunch but this could be cardboard
- piece of sponge to sponge on clouds
- black craft foam and hole punch for butterfly eyes
- printed text from the computer, EGG, CATERPILLAR, CHRYSALIS, BUTTERFLY
- Mod podge, optional

PROCEDURE:

Materials Preparation:

So with every inchie project I start off by determining what size of squares I need.

The ones pictured here are 2"x2" .

For this project I'm working with Grade 1 and 2 so I know I have to go larger and because I'm only doing 4 squares I want them to fit nicely on the background.

I decided to use 4.5" x 4.5" as that looked the best on the 12"x12" hardboard.

We start with painting the backgrounds.


1 square a mix of  blue and white.

1 square in dark blue.
1 square in light blue.

1 square in turquoise.

Set aside to dry

We also painted our hardboards.  I gave them a choice of red, purple or black.




Set aside to dry.

Take your 3"x3" square of card stock. Now this is just approximate you do not have to waste time  measuring this precisely.  Each student just needs a piece around this size.

Spread some glue on the square.

Lay your tissue paper on top and scrunch in some wrinkles.  After doing this a few times with kids I find it's better to have them scrunch the tissue first and then lay it onto the glue.

I know the photo does not reflect this and I'll try to update it in the future.

Let dry.

Take some regular white paper.  Paint in a light green.

Take a small scrap of corrugated cardboard, dip into a darker green and print marks on top of the light green background.

To make the chrysalis take a piece of thin cardboard and cut into a teardrop shape.

When I do a residency I try to expose the kids to multiple mediums.

We used plaster strips to cover our cardboard but you could also do this in papier mache.






Cover the teardrop shape.

Bunch up some strips to form the caterpillar inside and place onto the teardrop shape.




Let dry.

Now I had a whole bunch of wooden butterfly shapes I had bought at the Dollar store last year so we used those and covered them with plaster strips.   You could cut out butterfly shapes from cardboard and do the same thing.

Again you could cover this with papier mache.


Let dry.

Take a piece of brown kraft paper, mine is about 4" by 10".

Twist into a stick.

Dry brush on some brown paint to make it look more branch like.




Let dry.

Take the glass gems, turn to the flat side and add a little white acrylic paint.

When your tissue paper covered square has dried trim away excess tissue.

Paint with green paint.






Assembly:

Egg Square:

Take the background square that is painted with both blue and white.

Cut a section of the green painted paper to fit into the corner of the background square. Save the scraps!

Glue into place.

Glue on the glass gems.

Caterpillar Square

Now technically the painting of the caterpillar parts should be in the material prep section but I did not want to lose any of the parts so we did this all at once.

Out of a scrap of corrugated cardboard I cut a small circle for each student (or they could cut it themselves).  This is the head of the caterpillar.  I then gave them 7 dried lima beans. These are the body segments.

I gave them 4 colours, (yellow, orange, purple, and red).  I told them they could paint the pieces whatever way they wanted. If they wanted to do a pattern they could.
Paint all pieces and set aside to dry.  This only takes minutes.

Cut a leaf out of the tissue covered paper.  Then cut a bite out of it.

Glue onto the dark blue square with the bite section facing the centre.

Add a strip of that green paper we prepped along the other side.

Now glue on your caterpillar pieces having the caterpillar trying to reach that leaf.

Add 2 goggly eyes, a mouth with a scrap of white paper, and feet using a sharpie.

Chrysalis  Square:

Take the turquoise square, add some clouds using the sponge and some white paint.

Glue the branch into place, trim to fit.

I took my plaster chrysalis that was now dry and added some watered down grey paint (a wash).

Glue it in place hanging from the branch.

If you still have some paper scraps you can add some leaves to the branch.

Butterfly Square:





Paint your butterfly.

Glue into place on the light blue square.

For eyes we punched 2 circles out of the craft foam and glued into place.

Glue your squares into place on the base.  We had a volunteer helping with the glue gun (adults only).

We then added the labels that I had printed out from the computer.



Add a coat of Mod podge to seal the completed piece if you wish.

That's it.


Here is some student work in progress.



Great work Grade 1 and 2.

See you next time.

Clay Butterflies

Here is another clay project that I recently completed with Kindergarten, (I just finished a residency where I did clay with the entire school so there a few clay posts coming up).





I know it's a bit early for butterflies but it seems to be a standard Spring theme for Kinders and Grade 1.

Here are some classroom results.





They don't have their antennae yet.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- clay, if you don't have access to a kiln you can use air dry
- fabric placemat
- nail
- butterfly template if needed
- small cup of water
- texture tools, I use rubber stamps, buttons glued to corks, plastic forks, shells, etc.
- wooden skewer
- chinet bowl
- glaze in bright colors if you have a kiln, acrylic paint if using air dry clay
- pipe cleaner
- 2 small pony beads

PROCEDURE:

If you want to use a template, trace out a nice butterfly shape onto manila tag.

Cut out.

I used templates with the Kinders.  My template was about 16cm across or about 7 inches.

Cut a piece of clay off your block.  Roll out your slab to about 1/2 an inch thick or so.  You want to work on top of your fabric placemat.



Lay your template on top.  It will stick into place on the wet clay long enough for the kids to trace around.

Using the nail cut the butterfly out of the slab.

When I first made this butterfly I scratched in the body of the butterfly with the wooden skewer.


I added 2 small eyes. Attach by making small scratches and then adding a little water with your finger.

When I did these with kindergarten I had them roll a snake and then add it to the butterfly shape for the body.  This turned out really well.

Some chose to just poke 2 eyes with the skewer.

Add some texture and designs to the wings.


Make 1 hole at the top of the head.  I know this photo shows 2 but you only need 1.  Make sure it goes all the way thru.

When you are finished with your design place the butterfly into the chinet bowl for drying.

Make sure to put the child's name on the back.

Place in a warm spot to dry.  Drape with plastic for 2 days to equalize, uncover and then leave for 10 days.

When the clay is ready do your bisque fire.

Glaze with bright colours.


If using air dry clay, when your clay is dry paint with acrylic craft paint in bright colours.  You can then add a coat of Mod podge or duraclear sealer to get that shiny finish.

Fire again in the kiln.

Thread a pipe cleaner thru the hole. Twist together.

Add 2 pony beads on the ends.

That's it.

I'll see you next time.