Calling all artists!

[fireheart]

So one of my roles at work is running the Art Club. Once a week, we sit down and do different art or craft based activities. I'm currently working on exploring new mediums with the kids, but I would like some more advice.

So far we've done chalk pastels, papier-mache (done as a group project, we're going to redo this next term) and oil pastels.

I'm planning on introducing charcoal and also doing work with white pencil on black paper. Any other ideas for mediums or techniques I could introduce to the kids? They're between 4.5-8 years old.

[Kittish]

Clay. Simple sculptures can be air dried and painted, no need to fire them.

[MoonCat]

Clay. Simple sculptures can be air dried and painted, no need to fire them.

My thoughts too There are even some simple types you can make out of flour, water, salt, etc. Anybody else make salt maps when you were in school? We used to color the stuff with food coloring. Technically it was safe enough to eat, being made out of edible ingredients. Messy, but fun.

[Silvercat]

- Leather stamping
- natural dyes / colors
- creating sculptures from found / natural materials

One thing that's fun with charcoal, if you don't mind the mess, is doing charcoal erase (subtractive). You cover the whole sheet with charcoal, then erase out the picture.

[Seshat]

Paper weaving.

For the more dextrous kids; yarn work. Braiding, knotting, twisting, plying, rope-making (well, cord-making - thin rope).

Net-making, macrame-work, the whole range of fibre-crafts.


Playing with felt: tons of things you can do with felt.

google 'felt needlecase'. If you've got a sewing machine and are up to the prep work, you can make a bunch of undecorated felt needlecases and get the kids to decorate them, then give them to their parents to store needles in.
The older kids can even make their needlecases for themselves: anyone old enough to be trustworthy with crewel or tapestry needles has a use for needlecases, even if they're still too small for sharps.



Make bread-dough 'pottery' bowls.
Mix some bakeable 'playdough' - plenty of recipes online.
Smear a bunch of bowls with vaseline or cooking oil or something which will wash off and will help the bowl easily slide out of the shaped dough.
Give each kid dough and a bowl.
Have them turn the bowls upside down. (You did oil them on the back-side as well?)
Have them make a long sausage with some of their dough, and wrap the sausage around the bowl.
Repeat, connecting each sausage to the previous one.
Repeat until the bowl is covered with 'sausages' of dough.
Smooth the dough (some kids won't, that's fine), decorate the sides with bakeable decorations.
Mark each bowl with the kid's name (on the bottom).
Take the bowls.
Remove their interior bowl-moulds (and wash in a dishwasher).
Bake the kids' bowls.
Give them to the kids the next time they're in. (probably as they leave - the bowls will be breakable, and should be presents for the parents.)

Bowls made this way from clay, and glazed, can be waterproof. Depends on how well they're smoothed - mine leaked like a seive.

[Gravekeeper]

Silkscreening / Screen printing. Let them make their own t-shirts.

[MoonCat]

Tie-dying could be fun, too, if you can get some cheap t-shirts.

[dawnfire]

batik prints (if you got an iron)

[bhskittykatt]

Get your hands on some old magazines and have them cut them up and make collages.

[fireheart]

batik prints (if you got an iron)

We do have an iron. How does this work?

Re the tie-dying idea, I might go for doing calico instead so the kids can use it for a number of things. (ie tablecloth, lunch napkin etc.)

[Seshat]

Apply wax to cloth in patterns.
Dye cloth. Wax blocks the dye from 'sticking' where it is.
Remove wax by melting it off the cloth, possibly onto brown paper.


.... check online for details. I know the basic theory, but have never done it.

[fireheart]

Apply wax to cloth in patterns.
Dye cloth. Wax blocks the dye from 'sticking' where it is.
Remove wax by melting it off the cloth, possibly onto brown paper.


.... check online for details. I know the basic theory, but have never done it.

Hmm...that might be a good linkup for the following term. I was going to do wax resist paintings with the kids at one stage and that might be a fun follow-up craft.

ETA: I did a bit of googling. There's a variant with glue instead of wax that has a similar effect.