Flower Fabric Dying and Balloon Painting

It's spring time and beautiful flowers are in bloom! Because flowers have so much color to offer us,  I decided to try out a flower dying technique with the older classes. I gave each child a piece of muslin fabric and a mallet. They chose some flower petals and leaves, placed them on their fabric, folded the fabric over, and pounded away.

As they pounded, the dye began to show through the muslin. When they decided they were finished, they opened it up and peeled off the petals to find their fabric filled with color.

After our fabric dying, we moved on to bigger and messier things... balloon painting! We started off painting with small air-filled balloons (for safety it was important that if any balloons popped, they were thrown away immediately). The kids dipped the balloons in paint and dabbed them on the paper, which created circular swirls of color.

Soon I brought out balloons filled with water for the kids to try out. The water added weight and movement to the balloons and were really fun to squish around!

Things began to get messy and the kids moved around the studio painting at the easels and trying out their balloons in different places.

Some of the water balloons popped and the kids decided that they wanted more water to use in their work.

I recently got some new basters and was excited to have the kids test them out!

So much fun!

Oil Pastel Drawings and Making Our Own Paint

As leaves and petals begin to fall this time of year, I realized that they would make great materials for this week's art exploration... making our own natural paint! We began first with oil pastels and water color paper to create a base for our plant paintings. The oil pastels will resist (and show through) the paint to create a multimedia work of art.
For the older class, I placed jars of flowers on the table and invited them to draw a still life of a flower. I asked them to pick one or all of the flowers to look at, focusing on the shapes, lines, and colors. Although some representations were more abstract than others, all the children worked hard at observing the flowers.



Once the kids had some time to draw, I brought out the materials to make our own plant paint. Each child was given a bowl, spoon, and a bottle of water. Then they chose flower petals and leaves to crush with water in their bowl.
To crush the plants well, it's best to use a mortar and pestle, which the children took turns using.
In other classes, I used a blender to crush some red rose petals to get a stronger color.

After the initial experience of making our own paint, I offered watercolors to the children which was a little more interesting than painting with very diluted flower colors.


Eventually the children wanted to add glitter and jewels to their bowls, making a sparkling potion-type of paint!









Around the studio, the children found some interesting materials to work with!



A bowl of sparkly flower paint!

Colored Glue Collage and Garden Art

This week we focused on gluing and collage. In addition to gluing on paper, I brought out the children's dried clay work from the previous class for them to re-visit. I offered them colored glue and trays of collage material such as buttons, beads, sequins, pasta shells, and cotton balls.




Some of the kids experimented with the glue, rubbing it over their hands like finger paint. Although it may look like paint, they soon found out that it didn't quite feel like paint!



Before heading outside for the second half of class, some of the children found time to make prints and check out the shelf for more materials.
Because of the hot weather, I decided to bring the kids outside for the second half of class. We began with a bleeding tissue and water collage where the kids placed pieces of tissue onto a large paper and sprayed the whole thing with water. When it dries, the tissue falls off, but the color remains.


The rest of class was spent playing with water, making mud pies, and painting on the easels.





Some of the finished bleeding tissue collages!