Finished Bottle Cap Mural: Starry Night! (And what I learned about making a bottle cap mural!)

Well, here it is!  Our bottle cap mural has been finished and mounted!

Is it bad that I look at this, now that it's all finished, and I see some things I would already fix???? Like the fact that the end of the top swirl has a break in the dark blue caps...and that the small end of the bottom swirl looks like it needs some dark blue caps in it?

Friday was staff development at my district and we were all allowed to take the day to basically work on whatever we needed to do, which was GREAT!  A few people had grade level meetings and such, but I was finally able to get my room back in order!  I spent about 30 minutes helping to hang this and getting caps glued back on that fell off in the process.

During the hanging process, these caps fell off the mural and had to be re-glued...Not too bad.  

Now, believe it or not, there are some faculty who DON'T know that this is Starry Night!  I'm going to make a nice sign that gives a little history of VanGogh, as well as how and why we made this, and a poster of Starry Night to display next to it.  I'm also going to make a DO NOT TOUCH sign.  That's the custodian's worse fear...that the kids are going to rub up against it and pick the caps off since it's not behind glass.  The fact that bottle caps fell off only makes them worry more! :-/

Here are the types of caulking I used, and which I found to work the best!
Whenever I do another bottle cap mural, the first caulk with be the one I buy again!

Positive:  Best hold.  I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10.  The custodians had to pry a few pieces off in order to screw it onto the wall...they said the ones glued on with this were really stuck!  Relatively cheap too...bought a 4-pack at Ace Hardware for $10.

Negative:  Dries white.

  

Positive:  It dries clear.  

Negative:  Some of the caps glued on with this fell off.  I'd give it a hold rate of a 7 out of 10.

Positive:  Honestly, can't really think of any!

Negative:  Dries a cloudy white color.  Very poor hold rate.  This was the first one I used because we already had an open bottle of it at home.  A lot of the caps fell off the next day just by running my hands over it!  I'd give it a hold rate of 3 out of 10!

The only other advise I'd give that I learned is how to glue the caps on.  Initially, I was just running a line of caulking on the board and then pressing the caps onto the line.  A lot of those caps fell off.  I found that we had to actually apply a generous amount of caulk to EACH individual cap.  What worked great was having two students work with you.  One would pick up a cap, I'd apply the caulk, and they would replace it while the other student did the same.  Just had to keep reminding them to keep the caps as close together as possible!

YAM Spirit Week: Thursday and Friday

Thursday was wear a warm or cool colored outfit...so I wore one of my favorite tops that has the cool colors on it!  (Didn't get any good photos that day of student outfits...)

Today was crazy pattern day...and let me tell you, there were some kids with awesome outfits!  

This student's outfit definitely was a rival to mine!  (And, a model I am not!  lol )

Today we managed to get all of the bottle caps in place on our Starry Night mural.  I was hoping to have the kids get them glued on today, but the caulking is so hard to squeeze out.  Even the 6th grade boys were having a hard time squeezing it out!  If I'm bored this weekend, I may go in to glue some on so I can have my two tables back.

This awesome cupcake was brought to me by my student who takes private art lessons with me.  She told her mom that she wanted to make flower cup cakes for snack when it was her birthday, so her mom bought her some fondant!  Awesome cupcake...and tasty too!

YAM Spirit Week: Tuesday and Wednesday

To continue my spirit week photos, Tuesday was secondary color day...

I had to buy green pants just to pull off this dress-up day!  

And today was complementary colors day.  The students did pretty well picking out outfits for today!  

I wore a yellow shirt with a purple sweater....and these awesome shoes that have complementary colors on them!  Blue and orange!

Tonight was also parent-teacher conferences.  We had early dismissal at 11:30 for teachers and students, and then teachers had to be at school from 3:30-7:30.  While I didn't have any specific conferences, I invited the random students who were wandering the hallways to paint on our bottle cap mural.  On a high note, what few parents I did talk to told me that they were loving the dress up days and their kids were having fun with them!

Getting Ready for YAM!

Tomorrow officially kicks off my YAM festivities at school.  Here's what I have done so far!

This is for my YAM bulletin board.  I'm going to put the caption, "Share your favorite art memory!" on the board with this and invite faculty, staff, students and community members to write in the logo.

Every day I will be giving an art trivia question on the morning announcements.  I'll take all of the correct answers at the end of the day and do a drawing for sketchbook and an art medium to go along with it.  Since I don't like the washable watercolors I bought, I'm going to give the rest of them away.  I also have some conte crayons that I don't use in class that I'll give away.  I got these YAM stickers from Nasco to attach to everything I give away.

Here are my interesting trivia facts.  Some of these are trivia I had in my art history notes, others just from surfing the web.  I don't have all of the sources to site for these...but if you search "interesting art trivia" on Yahoo! or Google, you'll find most of these.

I am a priceless painting of a woman.  I was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris by an employee in 1911, but returned two years later.  In 1956, a man threw a rock at me and damaged the paint next to my left elbow.  I am currently in the Louvre Museum in Paris, protected in a climate controlled environment and encased in bullet proof glass, which cost seven million dollars to build.  Leonardo da Vinci spent 12 years painting my lips.  Who am I?  The Mona Lisa

Vincent Van Gogh produced more than 2000 artworks during his lifetime: approximately 900 paintings and 1100 drawings and sketches.  How many paintings did Vincent Van Gogh sell during his lifetime?  While Vincent Van Gogh is now considered a very famous artist, he only sold one painting while he was alive, Red Vineyard at Arles.  As with many other artists, Van Gogh only became famous after his death.

Where was the first pencil invented?  England in 1565.

What are Mondrian’s favorite colors?  Mondrian painted all of his paintings with the primary colors: red, yellow and blue.

Pablo Picasso is an artist famous for starting the cubism style in 1909.  He has a very long name, made up of 23 names, as he was named after various saints and relatives. (Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso).  Interestingly enough, Picasso learned to draw before he learned how to walk!  His first word was “piz”, which is short for “lapis” and is Spanish for what?  Lapiz is Spanish for pencil.

This artist is also well known for being an inventor.  In 1495, he designed a pyramid-shaped parachute and began painting The Last Supper.  This artist and inventor is also credited for designing and inventing the high heel shoe for Catherine de Medici, who was from a prominent Italian family who commissioned lots of art from famous artists.  Who is it?  Leonard da Vinci.  Rumor has it, da Vinci invented high heels for himself because he didn't like being short, but others say he invented them for Catherine de Medici to wear at her wedding.

This artist considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter, but eventually Pope Julius II convinced him to paint the Sistine Chapel.   It took this artist four years to paint the ceiling, and he did so while lying on his back.  Who is it?  (Hint:  One of the Ninja Turtles was named after this artist!)  Michelangelo

This artist is famous for his glass work.  This artist designs all of his art, but because of a car accident in which he lost one of his eyes, he cannot blow the molten glass to create his art.  Because of that, he works in collaboration with other glass artists.  Some of his famous series are the Macchia series, his chandeliers, and Persians.  Who is the artist?  Dale Chihuly

This artist was born in 1958 and died at the age of 31 in 1990 from a disease that was untreatable at the time.  His art style was a blend of graffiti art and advertising design.  This artist’s work is very colorful and our mural by the Elementary gym is based on his artwork.  Who is the artist?  Keith Haring

This artist was influenced by history, philosophy, religion and music.  He believed that, “Artists must express the spirit and their innermost feelings by orchestrating color, form line and space.”  Not only did he create art, but he also played the cello and the piano.  This artist claimed he could see colors when he listened to music, so he painted all of his paintings while listening to music.  Who is the artist?  Wassily Kandinsky

This artist is probably most well-known for the metal breakdown he had while fighting with his artist friend, Paul Gauguin.  During this fight, the artist got so upset that he cut off part of his hear and sent it to his girlfriend!  Who is the artist?  Vincent Van Gogh  (I realize that this fact is a little skewed...there are many versions of what actually happened...I've heard he mailed it to his girlfriend, cut it off and hand-delivered it to a prostitute.  I figure this is the most appropriate way to say this trivia fact over the announcements!)

This artist was born in 1912 and died in 1956 in a car accident.  He is known for his “drip” style painting, also known as “action painting.”  His canvases were so large that he once knocked down a wall in his studio to make it large enough for a 20-foot canvas.  In 2006, his painting, “No. 5, 1948” sold at an auction for $140 million, making it the most expensive painting ever.  Who is the artist?  Jackson Pollock

I'm going to fill in some of these artist facts with some random color theory questions, elements of art questions, etc. etc.

This is my flyer that is going home with students for the spirit week next week.  I am reviewing each color theory term in class and having the students color in the words with the correct colors.

This is the version of my take-home flyer that is hanging in each classroom and in the hallways.

Finally, today we started prepping for our first bottle cap mural.  I had my kinders start sorting the caps within each color category...light, middle and dark tones of each color.

These 5th graders helped draw out the Starry Night on the boards, and the rest continued the bottle cap sorting.

These 6th graders were finished with their projects so I had them outline the traced Starry Night with black marker so we could see it better.  Tomorrow I'll have students start painting the boards.

Gettin' Ready...One More Day of Relaxation!

I decided to head to my classroom today to see what damage was done when they cleaned my room over the break.  This was one of those BIG classroom cleanings, where they take everything out to strip and wax the floors.  Surprisingly, I was shocked to find that it was 96% put back together!  All I had to do was rearrange my tables to be in the correct color order.

I was also happy to see two boxes from Blick delivered to my room!  In box #1...the small box...I found all my 4" canvases I ordered before break for our March faulty meeting about YAM. In box #2????  (Drum roll please...) My display strips that I ordered!  

 I must say I am impressed with these!  I pulled one out to test it and I was able to hang an 8 1/2"x11" canvas board AND a thin collage project together on one strip!  Gave it a shake, and nothing fell out!

Thanks everyone who helped me out and gave their input on those display strips back in January.  I ended up being torn between option #1 and #2.  I decided to try #1 and I bought it in 6' lengths.  That was the cheapest way (cheaper than the 8' lengths).  I bought enough to do two walls of 54'.  Hopefully I'll have pictures to share this week after I convince the custodians to hang them for me!

I also worked on getting ready to do my first bottle cap mural.  I decided that I like the idea of doing the cap mural for YAM.  I'm thinking I will be able to get each class to work on it once to finish the entire thing.  I bought this 4'x8' board from Lowes for $10 and had them cut it in half for me (so it would fit in the back of my truck and be more manageable).  Today I took them in and primed them with a layer of gesso.  I was thinking of having the students gesso them, but I didn't want any of that wasted so I decided to do that part.

I plan on borrowing the COW (computer on wheels) from the library to project Starry Night onto the boards and I'll have my art club draw it out and outline it with black markers.  Then, I'll have the kindergartners and 1st graders sort the colors into dark and light (right now I just have all the blues sorted into one pile, reds in another, etc.)  I'll have 2nd and 3rd graders work on painting the board the colors it will need to be when we place the bottle caps.  I'll have 4th, 5th and 6th place the caps and glue them using caulking.  At least that's my plan as I think of it right now...it will probably change as I start this and run into road blocks, but that's the joy of being an art teacher who is flexible I suppose!  (Somewhere in there I'll have to have students clean caps for me too!)

I know Starry Night is probably a tad bit overdone in bottle caps, but I can't help it!  I LOVE Van Gogh, as do my students!  And, my superintendent's favorite artist is Van Gogh, so it will definitely get hunt in our school! ;)  I've seen so many versions on Pinterest and they all turn out awesomely different!  Next year, I think we'll make up our own mural to do in caps.