Cool Messy Art Project

I'm not sure how many "messy art" classes we've gone to over the years but it's quite a few. We've been doing these classes since we lived "up north." Now that we live further away, it's still worth the drive to me to take the boys. Only my youngest wanted to go this time so we headed north to have some fun.

As always, Karen had a fantastic plan for the kids. We were told it was a "sculpture" class and to bring "gloves" because we would be using "prickly" stuff. We were all very intrigued to arrive and find Karen had moved the classroom outside. It was a glorious early spring day (re: no bugs yet!) and it was wonderful to stand and chat with the other moms. Because, that is the real reason we do these classes - homeschool mom support! Not really, that's just a great side benefit. 

So the project. It was super interesting. My son is holding his finished piece and I took no other photos so I will do my best to describe it.

Karen had a rack of old t-shirts for the kids to pick from. They needed to pick fabric for the back and front of their project. Then they needed to cut out roughly 8-1/2 x 11 pieces from the shirt - anywhere they wanted. My kiddo chose a black shirt with this design on the front. We used that for the inside of his project and plain black for the outside. 

The secret to this project was hardware cloth. If you don't know what it is (as I didn't before this class), it is essentially meshed wire that is rather flexible and lightweight. Once the fabric was cut, the kids used paste to cover the cloth. Then they made a "t-shirt sandwich" with the hardware cloth between the t-shirt material. 

That's not the end though. They were also given paper and told to make a design. A box, a spiral, anything. Then once they had a design, they used wire cutters to snip the cloth covered hardware cloth into that design. I was glad my kiddo opted to make a very simple box/tray. We only needed to cut in about an inch on either end and then bend it up. 

He decided to use duct tape - camo of course - to wrap around the all the sides to add to the design and to help the box keep its shape. 

Once again, a total win in the "messy art" department. My favorite thing about these classes is that Karen just explains to the kids what they need to do and gives them help as needed, but just lets them create and explore with minimal interference. This is why we moms like it too. We can visit for the 90 minutes we are there while are kids get in some "fine arts." 

We go back next week for another class. All we've been told is it will be using wax and a "blow torch." The boys are pretty excited to see what that's all about!