Art

ART and Craft: Ideas From the Field!
PAPER

Using the edges from form-feed braille paper, use brass paper joiners (the kind you can swivel around like when you made pinwheels) to put through the sprocket holes to join the strips into shapes
Use crinkle-ribbon to curl twists for hair on something. Braid ribbon.
hanging mobiles with 3-D cardboard geometric shapes
Use 2 bits of paper or fabric cutouts (inverses of each other made by cutting two pieces at the same time to get a front and back) glued along the edges and stuffed with tissue paper, wood shavings, sawdust (for scent), potpourri or fibre filling.
kite structures made with paper and straws
make paper beads by rolling gift wrap, foil paper, colored paper into cylinders, balls, etc. Cut paper into triangles and roll to get beads with thin ends and thick middles.
use a cardboard tube, Pringles chip tube, oatmeal cylinder to make a Native American rainmaker. Push nails into the cylinder randomly (they should be too short to go through the other side). Put dried peas, beans, shells, pebbles, M&Ms or similar objects into the tube--to fill only 1/8 or 1/4 of the tube. Seal off the ends of the tube. Decorate the outside with fabric and dangling tassels. As the tube is turned over, it sounds like rain (especially with small objects).
make pillars, table legs, etc., for a stage play using the corrugated board used for bulletin boards. Use the same material to texturize other items.

METAL

bare copper wire twisted into spirals with long-noosed pliers to make jewellery, to frame around a picture, to be an integral part of a picture (e.g., as hair). Make earrings.
use the aluminium foil sheets from the raised line kit (or from a hobby shop) and a wooden dowel rod rounded or pointed at one end and cut on a diagonal at the other to emboss shapes in reverse in order to get bas relief on the shiny side. If you can get copper sheets, it is even prettier.
aluminium foil sheets/pie-tins with patterns of holes punched through (a cardboard cutout or cookie cutter can help guide the student around the edges to make an outline or silhouette of the shape). A carpet needle or large nail might be used to make the holes (put wads of newspaper under the work). The holes are textured for a completely blind student and a light can be shown through it for a sighted student. Joining several pieces of the metal sheets together can make a candle holder that lets light through without too much wind.

STRING, YARN

use a stiff, thin cardboard (shirt board or gift box) and draw two lines intersecting at right angles to make a large "L" or corner. This can be made as Elmer's glue lines allowed to dry. Using a braille ruler and a carpet needle, punch evenly spaced holes 1 cm apart along both lines--the same number of holes along each line (say 12 holes). Thread the needle with colored yarn. Starting from the back side (with the glue), pull the thread through the farthest hole (hole 12) on one line(A) and into the hole (hole 1) closest to the right-angle on the other line (B). From the back, go into hole 2 on line B and draw the string through and into hole 11 on line A, etc. When done, do the reverse order (hole 12 on line B into hole 1 of line A) with a different colored/textured string/yarn. The result is a pretty curve. Skills/Concepts: mathematical relationships (1-to-1 correspondence), pattern analysis, fractal geometry, physics (support bridges use cables similarly).
same idea but with a circle or oval with evenly spaced holes (number them, if possible from 0 to ___). I did this one and just photocopied the shapes with the marks where the holes would go. The students thread through hole one to hole 5, to hole 10, etc., skipping by 5. This was taped to the back of the cardboard. When the students are done, gently tear away the paper from the cardboard or cover the back with felt. It makes for a greatframe for pictures, 3-D art glued in the center, or just as art by itself. The students can experiment with getting a larger or smaller blank opening by skipping more or fewer holes (skipping by 3 produces a larger blank center than skipping by 7). As I recall, however, there has to be an odd number of holes along the rim of the circle (I think), and younger children get confused once they reach a hole that already has thread in it.
For an older child to do this independently, she/he can use a needlepoint ring, which (I think) has holes in the rim already. Once completed, it can be a free hanging "sun-catcher". Older children can imbed brass nails or hat pins into soft wood, cork sheets or styrofoam blocks (cover with black felt for a dramatic effect) and wrap the string around the nails (student can independently use a large gear such as a bicycle gear with lots of teeth as the template and place the pins into the notches).
fabric wreaths: use a straw wreath (craft shop). Use old pieces of fabric (LOTS) cut into 5cm squares with pinking shears. Using a pencil with the lead broken, a slightly sharpened dowel rod, or a Phillips screwdriver, place the tool in the center of the square of fabric and push it into the straw wreath. Continue over the front surface of the wreath. Different colors/textures can be focused in one area, or different sized squares of fabric can be used to create different effects (e.g., to indicate the "top"). Finish off with 2 small eyelet screws pushed into the back and use picture-frame wire for hanging.
different color/textures of fabric to make a collage. An animal shape made of small pieces of overlapping fabric can be glued to a poster board to make a collage.
Yarn, soaked in glue, wrapped around a balloon, when dry, the balloon is popped to leave a lace structure.
cheesecloth or similar cloth soaked in bleach and draped over jars, dowel rods, cardboard boxes. When dry, they retain the shape. These make great Halloween ghosts, just glue on craft eyes or macaroni or buttons.

BEADS/BRAIDS

braid hair, rope, dough
beads on hair, string necklaces, braclets, hanging planters
beads woven into fabric
leather strips braided into belts

EDIBLE ART

If you can get the domino sugar tablets (not the cubes, but the ones actually shaped like dominoes), Elmer's glue (if you want to keep it) or frosting can be used to glue them together to make pillars (putting a ruler lintel across them), pyramid arches, and curved arches (lightly sandpaper into blunt-edged wedges to get the curves). This can be used to teach the physics of architecture--why was it necessary for early structures using the pillar and lintel to have so many pillars? (The lintels can't support too much weight and structures couldn't be too tall--you would need too many pillars inside the building that there would be no room for people). What

advantage would an angle arch have in holding up a wall and roof? (Allows more light and air to get into a building). What advantages did the Romans and the Byzantines get from arches? (Could support more weight, needed fewer pillars, more light and air, structures could be taller). What advantage does a flying buttress arch have? (Like the Notre Dame Cathedral, the interior is free of pillars, so there is more room for people). Skills/Concepts: physics needed in architecture, pre-graphing for geometry, community awareness.

To go along with the above, put waxpaper or saran wrap inside a bowl. Periodically cover with a thick sugar coating (or tempered chocolate) and allow to dry. When thick enough, remove the dome to make a Rotunda (which is an arch swiveled 180 degrees that leaves a chocolate trail).
gingerbread house
pasta art using uncooked pasta: string them, weave them, glue them together. Pasta (macaroni, elbows, etc.) come in different colors now, or can be painted (add scents to the paints for another sensory stimulus).

WOOD

make a candle holder with blocks of wood of various heights, thicknesses. Use a handle-held drill to get holes deep enough to hold candles. Blocks can be glued together into a small centerpiece or dowel rods can be inserted into holes to spread them out. Don't have the dough for this? Get a log or thick branch. Plane the bottom to make it flat and drill a series of holes along the top. Spray paint or glue glitter, beads, macaroni.

SOAP CARVINGS

Use Ivory or scented soap bars and a plastic knife/nail/sharpened dowel to scrape, dig, and carve 3-D shapes, make textures by cross hatching, random small pokes, etc.
Use the shavings to scent the inside of a fabric animal shape or to glue onto a picture for added texture.

With thanks to Mario Cortesi for these ideas

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Web page editor Lyn Robinson. Last updated October 2009.