Sunday, January 12, 2020

Collaborative Repoussé Project Evolves at Don Bosco Technical Academy

A collaborative metal engraving project is evolving at Don Bosco Technical Academy in art teacher Patty Kaminski's classroom.  
This project was begun earlier in the fall and was conceptualized by Ms. Kaminski in conjuction with WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras and WPU PIR Robin O'Brien.  The broad inspiration for this project is the artist El Anatsui whose art projects involve community collaboration, recycled metal scraps, and large scale. El Anatsui, born in 1944, is a Ghanaian sculptor active for much of his career in Nigeria.
Above:  Nigerian born Artist El Anatsui with one of his art projects
At Don Bosco Tecnical Academy (DBTA) Students are engraving small squares of copper foil with a pencil/pen and a wood stylus.  This is a two part process.  Students work on both sides of the copper foil to first, transfer the design, then next, emboss the copper foil.
Next they use colored, permanent markers to highlight their designs.  This process is also called  repoussé or tooling.  (For an example please see link below.)

 "Repoussé is a method of decorating metals in which parts of the design are raised in relief from the back or the inside of the article by means of hammers and punches; (for middle school a wood stylus and/or dull pencil is used) definition and detail can then be added from the front by chasing or engraving (for middle school colored sharpies are used).
 The name repoussé is derived from the French pousser, “to push forward.” This ancient technique, which has been used extensively throughout the history of metalworking, achieved widespread popularity in Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. (http://www.britannica.com/art/repousse) Another name used for this technique is called tooling."  LINK
In Ms. Kaminski's class, students are choosing African symbols and using them to communicate a desired message.  
Each student is creating a unique design.
 
Later these student generated individual art works will be joined together with other objects to create a large-scale and permanent artwork for the school.  
For a complete lesson plan see LINK
For a simple demonstration  see: LINK




Arts Integration Lesson for Any Holiday or Celebration at PS 21


At School 21 art teacher Raquel Ford integrated math with art to create an arts integration project for the holidays that combines both subject areas.  Using simple paper patterns students learned to cut and fold construction paper to create three dimensional cubes and rectangular prisms.  

 They used glue and tiny bits of tape to hold these structures together.  Next they decorated these holiday "gift boxes" with bits of paper and paper strips. They also added pencil drawings.  


This simple and inexpensive lesson engaged the students as they transformed a two dimensional surface into a three dimensional form. This box lesson could be used for any holiday or celebration in the calendar year.  Ms. Ford shared this activity with other teachers in the building who followed suit.  For patterns like the ones Ms. Ford used please see these LINKS:

  1. Pyramid
  2. Cube
  3. Tetrahedron
  4. Octahedron
  5. Rectangular Prism
  6. Cone
  7. Trapezoidal Prism
  8. Hexagonal Prism
For an artist who uses paper folding as an "engineer" please see this link:
Above:  Paper Sculpture by Artist/ Paper Engineer, Matthew Shlian