Making a mosaic tile @ WBCL

This is one of the best mosaic projects I have had the kids do. It involved making a design on the back of a tile using tile adhesive then filling the surrounding space with pebbles to make the design stand out. The kids quickly figured out what tiles would make their design and then picked out the stones that would make it look best. Lots of parents with fingers in this one too. Even the youngest kids got a good tile done.

ART ENRICHMENT MINI-CAMPS AT THE ANNEX have a few spaces remaining this summer

ART ENRICHMENT MINI-CAMPS AT THE ANNEX 

Junior artists (age 7 1/2-12)  12-3:30 pm T/W/Th  Learn a bit of history and do the projects in depth. Each camp is $40. Registration is at the MUD rec center. More information on MUD website or: https://sites.google.com/site/woodenitbewonderful/art-mini-camp-2013-1  40% of fee is dedicated to programs in WB. Limit 26 

7/22-24 Make it by hand--Mosaics, weaving, sewing/quilting, &  paper mache-
We will be making a Princess mononoke mask from paper mache and trim it out, do several weaving projects including a dream catcher, paint and embellish gourds, and create a couple of awesome bags with critters on them, Potter-ish items and more. 

7/29-7/31 Food Art from color to style (9 am-12:30) Not for kids with allergies  We'll create artist designs from food items. We will reverse collage  the plates, make bird sandwiches, decorated mini-cakes, make sherbet in a bag. We will make fruit pizzas and have a watermelon decorating contest. we may eat our creations for lunch.  

8/5-7 Sharks and creatures of the deep Painting and drawing III --We will celebrate  the deep blue sea painting and drawing sharks, whales, jellyfish, reefs, and sailing ships. We will learn about the old time divers and do something with the Jules Verne theme,

Beginning Artist Sessions (age 4 1/2-7 going into Kinder/ 1st grade) 9-11:30am T/W/Th  Limit 16 We will read books/ tell stories and use them as the basis for our projects. We'll learn a bit about how art happens and what the kids like to do as they  complete the projects. 

8/5-7 Sharks and creatures of the deep--we'll explore the deep creating a 3D aquarium, octopus, shark and lots more. we'll learn about coral & make some of our own.

Making Mosaics kid style @ WBCL

Kids love to create pictures using stones and glass pieces but they never seem to "get" why all the area around the design needs to be filled in with something. Maybe  unless you are walking on the mosaic, it doesn't. I handed out glass floral beads, glass sticks, and colored gravel along with pencils and plenty of tacky glue. Lots of stories about what their tile had on it and from the smiles, it was a fun project. It is one that almost any age can do which makes it great in the summer. 

Mixed Media art camp=glass mosaics, weaving, collages, and more

 We started the week with Altoids tins and CD cases to decorate using beads, felt, sequins and gems. Some of the campers had done tins before but each one is unique and given the option of 2 surfaces some just like the tins. I just like what they do.

 Glass floral beads are fun to look at and fun to use.We had tubs of the glass beads and bottle caps both metal and plastic to use.  Each camper was instructed to take the caps and beads and create a picture with them on the foam board squares. We used E6000 which works well but smells really bad as our adhesive. It is always better when the project pieces do not fall off due to the glue. Everyone did well spreading the adhesive with sticks.

 Weaving provided a bit of a challenge for many of the campers. I had a giant pile of embroidery hoops to use for this project and lengths of floss and ribbon to serve as the base. We taught the kids how to secure their threads to a center ring and bring them around the hoop but lots of the kids cannot tie knots. With lots of help from the JCs we got them ready to weave fabric strips and yarns then add a feather or two for smashing dream catchers.

 Painting and decorating on jeans pockets was one of the favorite projects this week. The kids had a choice of front, back, full or leg cuts to use and create their designs. we had buttons, gems, cording and other trims to add once the designs were painted. At the end we glued the ends closed on the leg ends and full jeans to make carry bags and added cords. One of the campers decided to construct his own  adding a couple of denim squares to make his project larger.

 For this collage I made  the pressed paper seahorses and starfish in advance. the campers used shades of blue paper to create the impression of water then added charms and the seahorse and starfish. Some added a few confetti for bubbles. The paper pressings were easy to paint with watercolor paints.

Our last project of the week was a doozy. I thought it would be fun to do a mixed media collage and use painted areas combined with decoupaged papers and napkins. We drew geometric designs on our canvas boards then painted parts of the boards. the campers next got to shop for their papers and trims and the group really got into this. Teaching decoupage was interesting as everyone seems afraid to use enough glue and not on top of the project. Once we got going though things really worked. At the end I got out very fine glitter and we added that to the other trims. What a fabulous way to end the week!

Making pebble mosaics @ WBCL

I was given a box of 6x6 tiles and some plaster earlier this year. I thought that would be the perfect start for this project. We mixed the plaster with water and a little school glue but it hardened up way to fast. So on to plan 2, just use the glue. 
First the participants drew their designs with pencil onto the tiles. Next they started filling areas with glue then adding the colored stones. They did need to be reminded that it was essential to use enough glue to hold the stones--Do Not Stint on the glue. Everyone seemed to have good time and turned out some great designs.

Pebble Mosaics @ WBCL

Pebble mosaics or pebble art has been a hit everytime we have tried it. I have been looking for a new glue to hold it all together and think I found one. It was so simple and produced an old-fashioned paste kind of like I used as a kid. I love these cook-it-up-in-the-kitchen items.


We used thick cardboard as our base and drew our designs. Any design was fine as long as the 4 colors of stone I brought would work in their project. We had green, blue, lavender, and red stones to use. The nicest part about using paste is that you can see the lines you have drawn so the design is much easier to complete. 
The kids, all the ages of them from parents down to about age 3, slathered on the glue and created dogs, flowers, t T-rex, fish, and even the Titanic.
I found the recipe for the Paper Paste on the web and made it up in about 10 minutes. 


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details.

More mosaics 2 at mini-art camp in Wells Branch

These are the rest of the project we did this week for the small group at my place. We had fun creating our T-shirts then creating the Talevera tiles and discussing the types of mosaics in the library books I brought.


One of the most uniques projects was our metallic eggs. We looked at the website for the American Society of Mosaic Artists and examined the egg on the site then created our own from a plastic egg and a little base. we used metallic tissue, sequins, metallic ribbon and special jewel glue to do these.


The Arts mini-camp is held in Wells Branch and taught by Dianne Koehler.

More Mosaics at art mini-camp

What a great time we had this week! We met at my place this time and successfully created more than 8 projects. The masks and banners went very smoothly with lots of new ideas for the banners including dragons and more detailed drawings than the 1st time. The kids also learned how to play "telephone" and a couple of other "quiet" games.


Our large tiles were mostly a "crazy quilt" type but we did create a dragonfly, a phoenix and butterfly too. It was fun to sort through the types of materials from broken dishes, glasses, and mirrors to colored rocks and glass beads.


The Arts mini-camp is held in Wells Branch and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Mosaics mini-art camp day 3 @ WBCL

What a busy and fun day! The campers really got into the art discussion today as we looked at Talavera tiles and tile murals. Lots of opinions on design and color use. 


They completed their flag/banners with a lot of extra design elements (if only I had time to take a few more photos!) We added sequins and other glitzy stuff to embellish the designs. 


The kids drew their own designs on the 2"x2"tiles then painted them with Glossies paints in the traditional bright colors. Some went back to the books on Mexico and Mosaics that I checked out for ideas, others used the ideas from the video tour and their imagination. We finished the tiles by attaching them to felt backing or magnets.  


Our last project was a bit of a stretch for the younger kids but they all got the frames for the stained glass done and some of the colored tissue attached. The "Oh WOW" moment was as each was completed, we held them in the sunny window to watch the light stream through. Thanks to my rrfreecycle friends for supplying the iridescent tissue to make the clear panes.


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Making mosaic tiles and T's @ art camp

The kids have been really working hard to master the art of mosaics. The did not have to break their own tiles but they drew their own designs then chose the tile pieces to complete them. We looked at a lot of different types of mosaics and designs including those in quite a number of books from the library to get our ideas. Some just came from imagination as I never saw a 2 headed dragon anywhere. Spreading the tile glue was a bit of a challenge--the kids did not like using the plastic gloves and soon had their fingers into the stuff with better results. We used small ceramics, broken pottery, broken mirrors, beads and colored river gravel to get just the right look. 


The T-shirts turned out great and are a bit different that the usual "paint a t-shirt" type of project. It was hard to get some of the kids to stamp the design on but once they got into it the results were great!


We are finishing up a banner/flag with thoughts of medieval tapestries that should be great to hang out, going back to Mexican art for a Talavera tile and creating a "stained glass" window from tissue paper to finish camp. 


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Mosaics @ Mini-art camp feature Aztecs, T-shirts

Mosaic camp got off with a bang! We spent the lunch period looking at the history of mosaics including ones and the ones from La Maison Picassiette where he covered his entire house and garden in mosaics. We also looked at Aztec masks of a variety of materials and talked about thier use. The library has a large selection of books on mosaics that are available to the campers to view this week too.


Each group made a t-shirt (pictures coming) of an animal stamped using tiles cut from foam meat trays. We used regular acrylic paints for this project with good results. The turtle group even got to embelish theirs with metallics.


The groups then created Aztec masks using plastic masks I sprayed with flat black paint and fun foam squares to create the designs. Lastly we added a couple of feathers to the top of some of the masks. They were so popular that most of the campers wore them home!


Our last project was creating a bead mosaic on a small flowerpot or crystal light container. This was a bit chalenging as the round surface does not hold heavy beads well but hot glue (cool melt) to the rescue and the designs were coming out very well.


You will see us in the bright orange aprons donated by our local Home Depot for the art camps. 

The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

A favorite project: Mosaics @ WBCL

February 24, 2010
A perenial favorite is the broken tile mosaic project and this time was not exception. Using recycled tiles from a Wells Branch neighbor as a base the participants selected various tiles, glass beads, mirror pieces, and shells to construct their project.
This is a messy one and everyone had to wear gloves (also a donation from another Wells Branch neighbor) to protect their fingers from getting cut on sharp edges. We used a combo tile adhesive/grout as it is easier and applied it with crafts sticks. No two were remotely similar as anyone can see.

Futuristic art & mosaics at art camp

The mosaics as always were a "smash" hit! we set the broken dishes, glas beads, and tiles into a glue/plaster base on the back of a tile. Makes for a safe adhesive for kids and the back of the tile being unglazed is a great surface.
The futuristic 3D pictures got off to a slow start with each camper imagining themselves 200 years into the future, but once they got started the pictures really built up. The most elaborate included a playground complete with futuristic creatures to play on it and a home entertainment area with a swing under a foiled umbrella and a TV viewing platform with a floating chair. Another imaginative camper had a variety of wild colored futuristic caterpillers with fuzzy feelers. There was even a car with golden coils of exhaust flames curling behind it. What a great way to end the summer! Great activities for the room at the Wells Branch Library.

Modern Art camp final day making mosaics

For our grand finalle we looked at pictures from professional mosaic artists, discussed materials to use, dia de los muertos art and fractals. Each child selected his own materials--glass florist beads, broken dishes, and tile pieces and made an arrangement on a 6"x 6" surface. Our grout/adhesive was a plasticy mess so we used crafts glue with great results. Seems like everyone is still having fun!