Fish Prints

Well things got a little fishy yesterday as Grade 2 did Gyotaku, traditional Japanese fish printing.



Here the fabric print is sewed onto a enviro grocery bag.  Mine had a logo on the front so I just turned it inside out.

Here are some of the paper prints.  You can see we had a lot of Rainbow Fish!

So you need a fish, I got mine from the supermarket the day before.  It was not gutted.  This made for a better print with a full fish.  We used tilapia as they are easy to find and the have a really nice scale for printing.

-and no I didn't realize the headline for this photo ahead of time!

Now the traditional method is to use India ink but I found it was just too watery for a good print so we used acrylics which also gave us a permanent print on our fabric versions.


Paint your fish.

We did our paper print first.  Lay your paper on top of your painted fish and gently press.  You are trying to get a good outline so I would ask the kids to find the tail, the mouth the eye, etc.


Lift and set aside to dry.

Next up is the fabric print.  We placed cotton muslin on top of the fish, we did not repaint it in between, the paper print blotted away the excess paint.

The kids would press down on the fabric amazed by the scale detail coming up.

Lift and set aside to dry.

Now I had 3 fish and I would wipe each one off with a baby wipe in between as well as place it in a tub of water for a quick dip before the next student would begin painting.
When the print is fully dry you need to run it through the washing machine or else your prints will smell.  You don't have to worry about the paper ones, no fishy smell there!

Some kids even had a scale become embedded in there paper versions, very cool!

That's it, now I have 23 more grocery bags to sew so I'll see you next time.

Sand Casts

After a few beach vacations it seems we have baggies of shells, "magic" rocks and other collectibles all over the house, time for an art project!

I took some recycled containers (we had takeout Friday) and added some sand from the sandbox.  Sift out any leaves or twigs that might interfere with your cast.

If you are doing a whole class you can also use those little Styrofoam bowls like I used for the sand candles.

I started off thinking we would do hand or foot prints but our sand was way too coarse for that.  We couldn't get a good impression so on to Plan B.

We pushed in a bowl shape but you could also form one with your hands, just digging out a form.

Then the kids started placing in their special shells, bits of sea glass and rocks.

You want to have the side you want to see facing down into the sand.

Once you have your composition the way you want it....it's time for the plaster.

Now you can pick this up at the hardware store or Wal mart.  At school I have it by the sack.  I use it to make stamps for ceramics as well as for projects like this.

You want to mix it up in an old recycled container that you will throw out when done.  I'm also using an old salad dressing cup for the measuring.

Mix well with a chopstix or old spoon.  Make sure it is nice and smooth.  You have about 20-30 minutes before it will harden.

Only mix up as much as you can deal with in that time frame.  For a class set of projects you are better to do up 2 batches than have it harden on you before you can dish it all out.

Scoop into your sand bowls carefully so you don't dislodge any of the treasures.

Let sit for an hour or so until it has really hardened up.

Remove from the sand and give it a quick scrub under the tap.

That's it......now you can use this method on your little collections!

Ryan wants to cast his rock collection but I'm going to try to get some finer sand so we can cast it in the shape of his hand.



We'll see you next time.

Paper Mache Puppets

Aren't these great.  I especially love Jeff's (age 7) mutant one eyed attack chicken........

and Ryan's (age 10) blue lizard man!



It's great when a project gets done.  This one took a few days so the kids were glad to get it completed.

I first did paper mache puppets with my daughter's Grade 3 class for Halloween. ( that was 5 years ago)  We made spooky monsters and creatures, because it's Halloween I find the kids can just let their imagination soar when coming up with ideas.

Materials Required:

- sticks
- paper towels
- foil
- white glue
- Kleenex
- recycled container to hold glue mixture
- paint
- mod podge (optional)
- string
- scrap fabric
- odds and ends to embellish with

Take a stick, about pencil length and wrap a ball of foil on the end.

Mix up a glue/water solution at a 1 to 1 ratio.

Using paper towel strips dipped in the mixture start wrapping the head.  You want to cross over strips randomly, smooth it down and make it tight, and wrap some strips down onto the stick to hold the head in place.

Every once and a while use a dry strip..it will soak up the excess glue.

Put some Kleenex in the glue mixture and use this to mold your facial details.

Set your heads aside to dry for a few days and turn them once and a while.


Paint with acrylic or tempera paint.

If you want you can add a coat of mod podge for a nice shine.

All our puppet heads ready to go!

Tie a length of string around the neck for the arms, you could use yarn, anything flexible.

Cut a rectangle from some scrap cloth. you want it to be twice as long as you want the puppet's body to be and as wide as you want it's arms to be.

Take your length of fabric and fold in middle, then fold lengthwise and cut a notch in the center of your fabric.

This is where the head will go.

Slide stick into hole and pull in string, lay it out like this.

Wrap stick with some stuffing, scrap fabric, whatever is around to add some bulk to your body.

You can trim your fabric a bit too at this time getting a triangular type shape.

Now you want to add some glue at the neck, under the hands, and down the sides.  You can use tacky glue, I used hot glue.

Alternatively you could also sew the fabric in these places.

I thought I took pictures of "making the hands" but I guess I forgot.  Cut out 4 hands, use felt, craft foam, fabric.  Lay one down, add a drop of glue, place end of one string arm in the glue and then place another hand on top sandwiching in the string.  Repeat for other hand.

You can add feathers, hair, and embellishments at this point.

This is the back of Jeff's chicken puppet.

Attach a string, I'm using fishing line, around the neck of the puppet.

Find 2 sticks from outside that are about 6 inches or so and cross them in the middle, wind some pipe cleaner around them and then secure in place with hockey tape or duct tape.

Near the end  of one of the sticks tie on a small loop made from pipe cleaner, tape down.



Now attach string from your head to the center cross of your sticks.

Measure out a length of string that is double the length from where your puppet's hand is to the sticks, an extra hand comes in handy here, someone to hold the puppet upright while you are measuring.

Tie one end of your string on one hand, here I threaded one end onto a big needle and feed it thru the felt hand, knot it tightly a few times.

Feed the other end of the string thru the loop you made on your stick and down to the other hand, attach in same manner.

Now your puppets are ready.

Here Mutant Chicken and Lizard Man
battle for world domination!





See you next time.

Woven Eyes - Frogs

This is a project based on "weaving in the round".

You may remember the flowers that Grade 1 did last spring using a paper plate to weave a round.

In this case we are weaving on a smaller cardboard disk creating eyes.

Here is Jeff's (age 7) frog.  He whipped this up in record speed being the master weaver of the family.

Find some stiff cardboard and trace out 2 circles for your eyes.  Cut out.

Using a knitting needle poke a hole in the middle of your circles.

Now you need to divide your circle into an odd number.  The easiest way to do this is divide it into fourths and then in one of the sections divide it into 2 and in the remaining 3 sections divide them into thirds.  This way you always end up with 11.

Take your scissors and cut a little slit at the top of each line.  Then take a piece of yarn, poke one end thru the hole and the other end you feed thru the slit and tie it to the ends in a knot around the back.  Trim ends.  Repeat this for each slit until you have yarn marking all sections.     UPDATE: Just take 1 piece of yarn and do all the slits and then tie off in the back.  I was taught to do each one separate but you don't need to, can't believe I wasted all that time the last few years doing each string separate!

Take the end of the yarn you want to weave with and push thru the hole in the middle from the front.

Tie the end to one of the other pieces of yarn in the back and knot off.

Measure out a arm's length or so of yarn, cut, and then feed thru a plastic needle.

I usually tie the short end that's thru the needle into a knot on the other long end, close to the needle.  This stops the kids from pulling it out and having to re thread it all the time.

Start weaving.  Alternate under and over and don't pull to tight as you want it to lie flat and not bunch up in the middle.

When you want to change colors just knot them together.

When you are finished weaving feed the end thru the next slit to the back.

Knot onto a piece of yarn in the back.

Now you can paint the ends of the cardboard where the weaving stopped.

On some watercolor paper or heavy sketch paper paint the body of your frog.  We marked out where the eyes will go.

Cut out and glue to background paper.  You may have to put a book or 2 on top to have it dry flat just make sure to put a layer of wax paper on top of your creation first so your books don't get all gluey.

Of course my son Ryan couldn't resist making an one eyed cyclops.

See you next week.