"I never met a color I didn't like."//Chihuly in the Classroom

After our return from winter break, I introduced the artist Dale Chihuly to my students. A few of my students saw an exhibition of his glass work at the Clinton Presidential Center so I thought I would share his work with everyone! 

To introduce the art of glass work and Dale Chihuly, my students watched the following YouTube videos. I have found that hearing about the art directly from the artist intrigues the students more than listening to their ole art teacher. Feel free to watch!

"Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass"

"Dale Chihuly: Colors of Life"

These videos inspired a great discussion in each class with questions ranging from his eye patch to how can fire and sand make glass. It was very cool to see how each grade level interpreted each video. 

Now onto our projects!

1st/2nd Grade

Our little bitties made Chihuly inspired "macchias." Macchia means "spotted" in Italian! Although you can find decorative and artistic glass work in several countries, it originated from Murano, Italy...hence the Italian term. Cool, right!? 

Here is an example of his macchias...

Can you find the spots? 

Here is an example of his work displayed in a similar fashion as our students' finished artworks...

For our little macchias we used:

• Coffee filters
• Markers
• Spray starch
• Paint bottles (to form the macchia)
• Rubber bands (to secure the macchia to the paint bottle)

Our process?

1. Create a "macchia" inspired design using your markers to decorate the coffee filter
2. The design must include a colored rim and spots.
3. Rubber band the center of the macchia to the paint bottle like so...

(Our second graders modeling this step.)

Then they sprayed them with spray starch and voila! 

       

Aren't they beautiful!?

3rd-5th

Our older students worked together to create a classroom "chandelier." This collaborative project required them to create a design on a transparency using sharpies. The 3rd and 4th graders used a spiral shape to create their artwork while the 5th graders were charged with designing their own organic shape. 

Each student had to include color, line, pattern to show movement. 

Here is an example of Chihuly's chandeliers...

...and here is our students' work! 

Each class has their own chandelier! (Sorry the picture is do dark..the lighting is off.)

  

 

This was a wonderful project that I will definitely keep on file for another year! Thanks for stopping by!

Up next: Henri Matisse