Stocking Sculptures or 3D on a budget
Submitted by: Becky Thornton, middle school
teacher of Bob Courtway
Middle School and
Carl Stuart Middle School in Conway, Arkansas.
Sculpture Gallery Below from Florida High, Tallahassee
Grade Level: 6th - 8th grade
Materials:
- Knee high stockings (one per student)
- Scrap wood (for a base about 3"x3")
- Hangers or wire
- Elmer's Glue-All
- Water
- Paint (spray paint is great! If you can, get it "Stone" spray paint)
Resources:
Procedure:
Drill or have drilled 2 holes in each base.
Have students bend off the top part of the hanger.
Students then twist the hanger to make an interesting shape.
Put hanger in base. If there is a lot of resistance....it is a good
idea to change the shape. After hanger is in base...look at hanger
design
from all
sides. Make sure that hanger does NOT stick out bottom, or it will have
to be cut
off.
Draw line design.
Take the knee high and making sure that the seam is on a hanger line (
a design line that is already present) stretch the stocking over the
hanger. Pull it tightly over the base. Be very careful not to run the
stocking. It is helpful to demonstrate how to handle a stocking. It is
also important to warn students that their fingernails can run the
stocking, as well as jewelry.
After the stocking is in place, notice design changes, how the stocking
extends over the base. It may be necessary to modify the design at this
point.
Make a 50/50 mixture of Elmer's glue and water ( I made this up in baby
food jars) Paint the sculpture with glue. It will be necessary to paint
the sculpture at least 3 times.
I prefer to paint it 5 times. I find that it is best to paint it
with glue at the start of the period and work on another project until
it is ready to be spray painted. For more mature students, it would be
good to draw the sculpture in different medium each day.
Optional: Gesso
sculpture and leave white - or paint as desired. (Tip
from
AnnaLouise Haynes Myers: Instead of using multiple layers of Elmer's
glue, we
used one thick and gooey layer of Wheat Paste
. It works great and
saves
the time of waiting and re-coating.)
These make beautiful sculptures. Before painting with spray paint,
cut off extra stocking part from bottom of base. Make sure that
students coat base with glue! The glue will make the hose stiff and the
paint adhere.
These can be painted with tempera. However, they look superb in stone,
gold, black, silver and bronze. They look heavy and
expensive!
Alternate Finish: Apply a thick coat
of latex house paint to seal.... Then turn the students loose with
Glitter Glue (paint) - sold in tube and pint bottles. Sculpture is stunning
painted black - then accented with the glitter glue. This idea was shown at
NAEA 2006 convention by Handy Art.
 |
From Becky Thornton:
Last
year my students took the stocking sculpture another step forward.
After some study about Dale Chihuly, they made stocking sculptures
without a base and then we spray painted them (while they were hanging
on a clothesline) and added various colors of blue and violet spray
paint, as well as pearl spray paint, some green and fine glitter. Our goal was to make them look glassy! This is a picture of the
sculpture and a picture of Michael and Matthew standing with the
sculpture at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Michael
and Matthew are students at Carl Stuart Middle School in Conway,
Arkansas. They were part of the seventh grade class that made the
sculpture. The sculpture was part of the Young Arkansas Artists
Exhibition. |
Submitted by: MaryAnn Kohl
Revised from: Stocking Sculpture by Becky Thornton
Create a wire sculpture worthy of any
gallery showing.
Materials:
1 scrap wood block, cut approx.
4"x4" [10cmX10cm]
1 coat hanger or medium wire (white wire hangers work well)
Wire Cutters
(adult supervision required)
Wood Drill
(adult supervision required)
1 new pair ladies' knee-high stockings
White Glue, thinned half-and-half with water, in cup
Foam Brush
Assorted
Spray Paint (adult only)
Process:
- Drill 2 holes in the top of the wood
scrap square the same width as the coat hanger wire. Drill the holes about
2"-3" [6cm-8cm] apart and almost all the way through the wood.
- An adult can cut the "loop"
part of the hanger off with wire cutters. Set the "hook" aside,
as it will not be needed. Bend the wire into an interesting form. Push the
2 ends of the formed wire into the holes in the wood, one end in each
hole.
- Carefully pull a knee high stocking over
the wire form. The stocking can be carefully pulled over the wood base as
well.
- First coat of glue: Coat the sculpture
with the thinned glue using a foam brush. Dry for 48 hours. The sculpture
will need an additional 4 coats of glue (5 total coats), with one day
drying time between each coat. A week of coating and drying will be
needed. After the last coat is applied, let the sculpture dry until it is
hard and not tacky to the touch.
- The work area should be well-protected
for the spray painting step, or choose to work outdoors. Spray paint
the sculpture in a well-ventilated area with room to let the
sculpture dry. (Choose any paint from neon to
Metallic Spray Paint. A combination of
paint colors is effective too.) If spray paint is not suitable, paint with
Acrylic Paint. Optional: The form can be covered with colorful art tissue paper torn and glued over the form with more thinned white glue and a Brush.
Painting Ideas:
Optional:
Plaster addition - cover with one layer
of plaster gauze - then paint as desired.
Alternate Lesson: Picasso
Faces - by Bunki Kramer
Shape wire into abstract portrait/profile.
Insert into 3" to 4" wood block. Stretch stocking over. Staple
excess stocking onto bottom of wood. Paint sculpture with Gesso. Paint Picasso
style portrait using Acrylics.
See the "Great
Wave" Union City Middle School - Kris Fontes
What other master works of art would
work? I can see someone turning them into "The Scream"
- Van Gogh's cypress trees?
Dali's clock?
(lots of surreal possibilities) Interpreting a 2-D composition in 3-D is a good lesson. Share your
new ideas for this lesson and I will add them to the plan.
I'm still waiting for someone to try hands...I know
you would have to cut and sew the stocking to the wire - probably would have to do plaster gauze,
too (or Papier Maché). I bet someone could even turn them into fish.
From Susan on Long Island - a la Mondrian:
Paint the whole sculpture white using Tempera or Acrylic, (even Gesso will work). Discuss Mondrian's
use of primary colors and how he achieves balance through the use of those colors. Then, ask the students to achieve this balance by translating it to their sculptures with sections of red, blue, and yellow. First, they need to divide the area of their sculptures with painted black lines, then fill in areas with color to achieve this balance, leaving areas of white as well. As part of their plan, I encouraged my 5th graders to continually turn their sculptures when they were deciding on a design and to write a "b", "r", and "y" in pencil to designate that area of color.
Try taking this is new directions. See the
work of Lee Bontecou September Smithsonian issue (article begins on page 98). See her images on Facebook and MoMA.
Sculpture Gallery
from students of Barbara Davis, Florida High, Tallahassee
Click images for larger views
