100 Days of Art: African Beads (Day 15)

In our Expedition Earth curriculum, we "traveled" to Kenya this week. One of our craft projects was to make our own African beads, since Kenyans do a lot of bead work. I know these aren't really authentic, but the kids had a great time making them!

We used polymer clay for this project. The kids chose two or three colors and tore off small pieces of the clay.

They then flattened them out and layered them, then flattened them out again.

Next they rolled the clay longways like a snake.

They then tore off chunks of that roll and then rolled them in the palm of their hands to make balls.

We then used wooden dowels and the plastic tools that came with the clay to poke holes all the way through the beads.

We baked them at 240 degrees for about 20 minutes. Once they hardened, they strung them on string!

I love the marble effect they have. Mercie made hers to look like earths. The boys used random color combinations but they all turned out beautiful!

Check out our other projects in my 100 Days of Art Challenge!

Day 1: Learning to Draw

Day 2: Pyramids

Day 3: String Art

Day 4: Optical Illusion Art

Day 5: Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Day 6: Rainbow Paint Chip Mosaics

Day 7: Llama Valentine Box

Day 8: Minecraft Valentine Box

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies

Day 11: Butterfly Feeder

Day 12: Dragonfly Magnets

Day 13: Watercolor Peruvian Llamas

Day 14: Panamanian Molas

100 Days of Art: Panamanian Molas (Day 14)

In our study of Panama this week, we read about these layered, fabric appliques called molas. I thought it would be fun to recreate our own! This craft did produce a few frustrated outbursts from a child or two, but overall they were pleased with their projects.

 

Supplies:

fabric scraps

sharp scissors

chalk

white glue (fabric glue would be ideal but we didn't have any)

 

The first thing to do is decide on a shape. A simple shape is best, because fabric is hard to cut straight and you'll be cutting three or four of these shapes. Silas chose a diamond, Titus chose a star, and Mercie chose a circle/oval shape.

 

Chose the first fabric you would like and turn it over. Draw with chalk the shape on the back of the fabric. Cut it out.

Next chose a different fabric. Turn it over and place the shape you just cut out on it. Draw with chalk about 1/4 to 1/2 inch outside the edge of your shape. Cut it out.

Repeat once to three more times.

 

 

Next, glue your shapes together, layered, in order from biggest to smallest.

 

 

And now you have a simplified form of a Panamanian mola!

 

(Silas, 9 years old)

(Mercie, 12 years old)

(Titus, 7 years old)

 

You could also use construction paper or scrapbook paper, which may make this a  bit easier. I think we'll try doing that.

 

 

Check out our other projects in my 100 Days of Art Challenge!

Day 1: Learning to Draw

Day 2: Pyramids

Day 3: String Art

Day 4: Optical Illusion Art

Day 5: Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Day 6: Rainbow Paint Chip Mosaics

Day 7: Llama Valentine Box

Day 8: Minecraft Valentine Box

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies

Day 11: Butterfly Feeder

Day 12: Dragonfly Magnets

Day 13: Watercolor Peruvian Llamas

Watercolor Peruvian Llamas: 100 Days of Art Day 13

While studying Peru in geography, we discovered that llamas are very important to Peruvians. They are used for carrying loads, for meat, and fur. My 12 year old daughter loves llamas, so I decided to make our art project this week about llamas! I saw a project we liked on Pinterest and decided to recreate it.

First we drew a llama"s head and part of the neck. The kids traced it with Sharpies and then filled it in with watercolors.

While that was drying, they used crayons to design the background on a separate sheet of paper. I had them draw a pattern that would look like Peruvian fabrics. They then painted with watercolors over the crayons for a crayon-resist effect.

When those were dry, they cut out their llamas and glued them to the paper! They were super impressed with how this project turned out, and I was super impressed with how well they free-handed the llamas! I love the way Sharpie and watercolors look!

Titus, 7 years old

Silas, 9 years old

Mercie, 12 years old

Check out our other projects in my 100 Days of Art Challenge!

Day 1: Learning to Draw

Day 2: Pyramids

Day 3: String Art

Day 4: Optical Illusion Art

Day 5: Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Day 6: Rainbow Paint Chip Mosaics

Day 7: Llama Valentine Box

Day 8: Minecraft Valentine Box

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies

Day 11: Butterfly Feeder

Day 12: Dragonfly Magnets

Dragonfly Magnets (100 Days of Art Day 12)

We are studying dragonflies in science this week and have learned so many interesting things about them! Did you know that a dragonfly can fly up to 35 miles an hour? I saw a really cute dragonfly craft on Pinterest and decided to recreate it my own way.

All you need for this project is:

craft sticks

packing tape

Sharpies

googly eyes

plastic gems

white glue

magnets

The first thing to do is tear off a piece of packing tape about 8 or 9 inches long and then fold it in half, sticky side in. These will the wings for the dragonfly since their wings are mostly transparent.

Next we drew the outline of a dragonflies wing on one of them. We then put the others on top of that one and traced it so they would all be about the same size.

 

 

Then we used Sharpies to draw the veins of the dragonfly's wings. (These veins provide support for the dragonfly's wings so they can fly so fast and perform many mid-air tricks, like hovering and flying backwards and even upside down!)

 

The kids colored a few portions of the wings in different colors and then cut out and glued the wings to the craft stick.

We added jewels and big googly eyes to complete the dragonfly! Dragonflies have the largest eyes of any insect, which is why we used big googly eyes! Of course, they have compound eyes with thousands of lenses, but the googly eyes will have to do for this craft.

We added magnets to the back so we can hang these on the refrigerator!

(Titus age 7)

(Silas age 9)

(Mercie age 12)

 

They look beautiful held up to the light! It is a rainy, cloudy day here which is why our lighting is terrible.

 

Here are two books we read about dragonflies!

 

 

Check out our other projects in my 100 Days of Art Challenge!

 

Day 1: Learning to Draw

Day 2: Pyramids

Day 3: String Art

Day 4: Optical Illusion Art

Day 5: Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Day 6: Rainbow Paint Chip Mosaics

Day 7: Llama Valentine Box

Day 8: Minecraft Valentine Box

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies

Day 11: Butterfly Feeder

How to Make a Butterfly Feeder (100 Days of Art Day 11)

To conclude our study of butterflies and moths, we made a butterfly feeder to hang in our yard! It was a pretty easy activity to do and looks really nice hanging from a tree.

 

The supplies you will need for your butterfly are:

an empty clear plastic 2-liter bottle

fake flowers

twine or yarn

hot glue gun

hole punch

cotton balls

thumb tack

 

For the food:

sugar

water

 

The first thing we did was cut the top of the bottle.

Next, we took a thumb tack and poked a hole in the bottom side of the bottle.

Then we took the plastic flowers off of the stems.

We poked one of the flower stems through the hole we made with the thumb tack. I hot glued the petals to the bottle to hold it on.

The kids took turns hot gluing the flowers around the bottom of the bottle.

 

 

Next I took a cotton ball and hot glued it to the center of the flower that I had poked through the hole. I also hot glued a cotton ball inside the bottle around the same hole.

 

 

We used a hole punch to make holes in the top of the bottle and threaded some twine through the holes so we could hang it up in a tree.

 

We mixed up about 1/8 cup of sugar with some water in the bottle for the butterfly food and hung it in a tree!

 

(Unfortunately it started raining so we haven't seen any butterflies at our feeder yet.)

 

The kids had fun making this butterfly feeder! Hopefully we will see some butterflies soon.

 

Check out our other projects in my 100 Days of Art Challenge!

 

Day 1: Learning to Draw

Day 2: Pyramids

Day 3: String Art

Day 4: Optical Illusion Art

Day 5: Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Day 6: Rainbow Paint Chip Mosaics

Day 7: Llama Valentine Box

Day 8: Minecraft Valentine Box

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies