K – 6 Art

I love Alexander Calder! I teach a Calder wire project each year, but I have never successfully made a Calder-inspired mobile. Until now!

I recently received this 1975 edition of Making Things: Hand Book of Creative Discovery, Book 2 by Ann Wiseman. Inside this gloriously illustrated book I found these  instructions for making Calder mobiles:

Making Things Book 2 – Handbook of Creative Discovery by Ann Wiseman. ISBN-10: 0316948519

Easy to follow step by step illustrations for a variety of mobiles

I decided to test it out with items I had on hand in the art room.

Materials for first mobile:

• 18-inch pre-cut Stem Wire (AKA floral wire) 20 gauge
• construction paper
• scissors
• hole punch
• pliers (note: I didn’t have any pliers so I just did this with my hands)
• AND A BALANCING FINGER

Materials for making a simple Calder-inspired mobile

Ms. Wiseman tells us mobiles are built from the bottom up. Aha!

Success! A 4-tier mobile!

Now for my second mobile. I made this mobile using Ann Wiseman’s illustrations and Peel & Stick Foam Sheets.

Calder-inspired mobile made with wire and self-adhesive craft foam.

To add interesting organic shapes, sandwich wires between matching pieces of self-adhesive craft foam.

If you choose to make these multiple tier wire mobiles, try it yourself first, be patient, and expect a lot trial and error. Balancing those wires is tricky and takes practice. I think these projects would be great for middle and high school students.

If you want to try this with a whole class of upper elementary students, I would keep it simple. Stick with one or two wires. Check out this project from Meet the Masters. I like how they have three degrees of difficulty and incorporate a stabile as a base.

Illustration from Meet the Masters website.

Here are some more ideas for Calder mobiles for kids:

• Babble’s fun-foam and wire mobile. Beautiful! Great step-by-step instructions.
• The Princess Artypants blog has a great Calder kinetic sculpture project, including video links.
• Salamander Art has a super fun-foam hanging mobile project that ties in with children’s mystery The Calder Game.

If you love Calder, you might like my previous Calder posts:

• Calder Wire Sculpture
• Calder’s Jewelry
• Calder Wire Portraits
• Calder books to read online for free 

Have you ever made a mobile with your students? 

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Give your name art lesson a twist – literally! Our fifth grade students had a ball sculpting their names in wire.

Materials:

• Blick sculpture wire, 14 gauge, 6 ft. per child
• paper
• marker
• scissors (blunt tip kindergarten scissors are fine)
• optional embellishments: pre-cut 18″ Stem Wire (I use 20- and 26-gauge), colored wire (such as Twisteez), Pony Beads, sequins

Pre-cut floral wire (AKA stem wire) and sculpture wire

Session one:

To practice, give each child a piece of paper, marker and an 18 inch piece of wire. Kids should write their first initial on the paper. They may print or use cursive. They they trace their written letter in wire.

100% of 10- and 11-year-old students could do this by the end of the first 40 minute session.

Session two:

Give each child a piece of paper, marker and a 6 ft. length of sculpture wire. They should write out their first name in marker this time. They may print or use cursive, then trace their name in wire.

Write out name on paper, trace with sculpture wire (teacher example).

Did you notice? I added a single pony bead to dot each lower case ‘i’ and ‘j’.

Approximately 85% of 10 and 11 year olds were able to make their names in wire. I would recommend struggling students create a larger, single initial.

Session three (optional):

Want to take it further? Offer pony beads, sequins, and super-fine wire (I use pre-cut 18 inch 26-gauge stem wire).

Students can string the hanger wire with pony beads. They can clip the excess wire with (kindergarten!!) scissors. They can thread a bead or sequin onto 26-gauge wire and tie a knot around it.

Some students created small sculptures to embellish their name art.

Robby suspended his name from his sculpture.

Milan made a tiny mouse.

Riley perched a peacock on her name art.

How nice these will look on the students’ walls at home!

This would be a nice tie in to an Alexander Calder project. Check out my other Calder wire projects: wire sculpture and wire portraits.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Amazon and Blick Art Materials. I have been using Blick’s 14 gauge sculpture wire for 8 years and I love it!

The 5th graders showed off their amazing wire sculptures at the art show last week.  We had about 70 – the biggest group to date. I want you to see some of the best examples, and how we displayed them.

Fifth graders used wire and embellishments to made an elephant, a horse, a whale  and a dog.

Mariel (middle horse) and Natalie (dog) were able to sign their names in wire.

Connor was able to sign his name in wire.

Fish, pig and camel. Early finishers made name art.

Display:

Our silver-colored sculptures look best against a solid, dark background. We hung blue vinyl table covering (from a roll) across a wall. We attached twine in front of the covering, and hung the sculptures using paper clips (opened to form an ‘S’ hook).

Completed wire sculpture display.

Great job fifth graders!!!

Kudos to the parent volunteers who helped out in the art room every week. We really appreciate your efforts.

Thanks to our fabulous art show chair and her husband for designing and installing this display. That was a lot of hard work!

Wire sculpture is so much fun, and it’s not messy. Learn about Alexander Calder, the famous (and fun!) artist whose work inspired this lesson. Want to know how? Check out my previous Calder wire sculpture and Calder wire portrait posts complete with PowerPoints. *NEW* Read two Calder books online for free!

Good luck!

Note: All our sculptures were made with 14-gauge roll Blick Sculpture Wire

This week the fifth graders continued work on their spectacular sport trophies. The wire and foil figures are now posed and wrapped with plaster wrap. Almost all have been stapled to wooden bases. Our fifth graders have experience working with plaster (see this post and this post) so almost all finished wrapping the figures during our 40 minute class.

Volleyball

Don’t you love the poses and accessories?

Skier with popsicle stick skis and bamboo skewer poles.

Here’s a ‘wrap up’ (get it?) of all the steps so far:

wire armature made from two pieces of 18 inch pre-cut floral wire

Wrap wire with foil, trim arms

Wrap with plaster wrap and mount

UPDATE: see the finished Olympic trophies in this post!

NOTE: I used three basic supplies for these sport sculptures:

• Plaster wrap
• Pre-cut floral wire (aka stem wire)
• Pre-cut aluminum foil

Pacon 52720 Plast’r Craft Plaster Impregnated Gauze Strips, 20 lbs.

 18″ Pre-Cut Stem (Floral) wire 20 Gauge Bright Silver

(similar product available at Michaels and Wal-Mart craft department)

Pre-cut Aluminum Foil Popup Sheets

(similar product available at Costco and Smart & Final)

Calder’s necklace of glass jewels

Alexander Calder made this pin for his wife, Louisa

Calder’s earrings are miniature mobiles.

Did you know Calder designed wire jewelry? He made 1,800 pieces of jewelry during his long career. Learn more in this New York Times article and related New York Times slideshow of Calder’s jewelry. I was fortunate to see the Calder jewelry exhibit when it came to the San Diego Museum of Art in 2010.

The San Diego Museum of Art has a Calder inspired jewelry and wire sculpture lesson plan for upper elementary students.

Line drawing of Calder jewelry forms. Imagine your students making them in wire!

Calder jewelry-making techniques from SDMART lesson plan

Looking for a wire sculpture lesson plan? Check out my previous post: Calder wire sculpture lesson for 5th grade.

UPDATE: lots more Calder posts:

How to Make a Calder Mobile

Two Calder books to read online for free

Calder wire portraits