Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Welcome Back from Break

We hope everyone had an enjoyable break! We are excited to have you back in Kids Workshop!

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Making Magnificent Mosaics

Frannie uses a mosaic from last year's Rainey Room as inspiration for her "Beach Mosaic"

Building off of our work with collage and clay, KW Rainey Room begins working on mosaics. On the first day, children uses tacky glue to attached chosen materials to their bases. Jordan "challenged" children to find smaller and smaller pieces to fill the bases so that only a small amount of space remained between the chosen materials. 

Jade: I like your mosaic, Lily. I like the sunrise. (Jade pauses and reflects) It might not look like a sunrise to her but it looks like a sunrise to me.

Lily: Yea, it does look like a sunrise.

Jade: (When I chose my materials) I was thinking of the beach. The red is the umbrella and the blue is the water. You have to fill it (the base) in and then save a little bit of space to fill with the sand (grout).

Thinking about the space as a challenge helped us focus on the work and challenge ourselves 

Lucas: What are my challenges, Jordan?

Jordan: Hmmm. I'm going to challenge you, Lucas. I think I can see 3 spots where you can fit small pieces. Can you find them and add more?

Lucas finds the areas and uses smaller materials. Other friends watch looks and ask for challenges as well.

Bea: I have two more pieces to add. Two challenges

Lily: I have 1 challenge left.

Day One: Added Our Materials

Next Step: Adding Grout

The next step in the process was adding sanded grout. We knew the grout was a "sandy" mixture "like cement" that will hold our work together. The children added a small amount of water to the dry, sanded grout so that they each had their own . Next, they added a small amount of acrylic paint to create soft, new colors for their individual grout

Bea: What are the sponges for?
Lily: It looks kind of milky. It's red pinky. (Lily reflects on her now paint infused grout)

Everyone begins working

Bea: You can smooth it off with a knife
Lucas: It looks so hard
Lucas: (After finishing his work). Its sticking because of the grout we used and the grout. (Looks up proudly) I've never made anything with grout before. Never before today!!​

After Grouting

Top Left - Bea.
Top Right - Lily.
Bottom Left - Jade.
​Bottom Right - Lucas

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Mono Printing

On Monday, Jenn and Jill led the staff in a print making training. After that, we were inspired to bring this new material to KW. Tuesday, we used the new material and process, printing with printers ink.  The children created mono prints by using printer’s ink on a sheet of glass.  Then they place paper on top and used a brayer for rolling. As she started to place the ink on her glass, Lily said, “Oh and we put the paper on top and that makes a print.”

​Frannie: It doesn’t really look the same. (She is referring to the fact that the paper doesn’t pick up exactly the design created with ink.  Also, the image is reversed.)

Finlay - This is so awesome, because it’s like mixing colors.
Frannie - I love rolling and putting the ink on. 
Finlay - I can’t wait until I se it .  I hope this is my favorite on.
Bea - That’s the magic part (when you lift the paper and see what it looks like).
Cate - I only see the red swirls.  (Cate if referring to the fact that only the red part of her design actually transferred to the paper).

"You paint on the glass and you put some paper on and it makes a print." - Bea

Cate: I like rolling it
Jade: I want to do more printing today. I  like the rolling
Luke: Oh I know how to do this.
Lucas: I never painted on the glass before yesterday!

Our First Mono Print Attempts

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Geometry, Pattern and Color

Cape: I'm making a house (pegs support rubber band walls)
Wilder: I'm making a giant house.
Cate: This is my house.
Cape: Wilder, yours looks wild!
Cate: This is my hose and this is my neighbor's house.
Wilder: Look at this! I connect two boards
Cape: Want to connect my board?
Wilder: Yea!
Cape: It's a big train