Create Your Own Salt Ceramic Decorative Ball

Sometimes it’s fun to paint on something other than paper or canvas. This project gives you the chance to do just that.

Supplies Needed:

Salt
Corn Starch
Water
Measuring Cup
Wooden Spoon
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Wax Paper
Mod Podge
Paint
Paintbrush
Newspaper (optional)

First, ask an adult to make the salt ceramic for you. It takes fewer than five minutes to make. The adult should mix 1 cup of table salt, ½ cup of corn starch, and ¾ cup of water in a sauce pan. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. The mixture will get sticky and quickly form a ball. At this point, remove it from the heat. Wait a few minutes for it to cool enough to handle, then kneed the ball to soften it. At this point, the salt ceramic can be wrapped in wax paper and placed in an air tight container for storage, or molded into a sculpture.

Cover your work space with wax paper. As the salt ceramic dries, it gets sticky but it will not stick to wax paper. To make a ball, crumple up a piece of newspaper and mold salt ceramic around it. If you want to use your decorative ball as a paper weight, just roll out a ball without newspaper stuffing. If you don’t use newspaper, the ball will take longer to dry.

Salt ceramic is just like hardening clay. You can mold any shape so feel free to use your creativity.
Allow your ball to dry. This will take several days.

When the ball has dried, brush a layer of Mod Podge over it to seal it. Mod Podge dries quickly. You’ll only need to wait about 5 minutes before you can paint.
Choose colors and paint any pattern or picture you want.

Finally, when the paint has dried, brush another coat of Mod Podge over your creation.

Enjoy!

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Create Your Own Roy Lichtenstein Starburst

If you really liked Roy Lichtenstein’s artwork, try this project and make your own Lichtenstein-inspired drawing. This project is best for kids in upper elementary grades or higher.

Supplies Needed:

White paper
Graph paper
Tag board
Pencil
Markers
Ruler
Hole Punch
Scissors

Gather your supplies and cover your workspace. You’ll want to color all the way to the edge of the paper and this could get messy.

First, create a star stencil out of tag board. (You can choose any shape you want but I chose a star.) Then create a stripe stencil. Just cut a thin strip from your tag board. Finally, use a hole punch to create a Benday dot stencil. Punch holes in every other square of your graph paper. Make two rows of holes. Then, line up the graph paper with the edge of your piece of tag board and punch through each hole.
Trace your star in the center of the page. Draw some diagonal lines from the edge of the star to the edge of the page. Begin to fill in the spaces on the page with either stripes (using your stripe stencil) or with dots (using your Benday dot stencil). Choose any colors you want to fill in your designs.
Continue until you’ve filled every space.

Check out Roy Lichtenstein: Artist at Work by Lou Ann Walker.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Roy Lichtenstein's ABCs by Bob Adelman

Roy Lichtenstein’s art stars in Bob Adelman's Roy Lichtenstein's ABCs. This is a great ABC book. If you have young children you should check it out.

Each letter, taken straight from a Lichtenstein painting, occupies its own page with a short list of words that begin with that letter. On the facing page is a painting that contains the objects listed. Kids can search for the items in the painting while studying a great artist’s work and learning their ABCs.

Adults who like Lichtenstein’s work will enjoy sharing this book with their children.

There are lots of ABC books out there but this one is special.

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Roy Lichtenstein: The Artist at Work

Welcome to Fantastic Non-Fiction Friday!

I didn’t tell you much yesterday about how Roy Lichtenstein creates his giant Pop paintings. He uses some unusual tools and techniques. For example, after he has sketched what he wants his painting to look like, he uses a projector to make the image larger. He then copies the larger picture onto his canvas. He also uses tape to help him paint sharp, clear lines.

It’s not often that we get to watch an artist at work in his studio but Lou Ann Walker gives us that opportunity in Roy Lichtenstein: The Artist at Work. Walker tells the story of how Lichtenstein creates his paintings, from the idea to the sketch to the finished product.

What I really love about this book is the photographs. You get to see Lichtenstein in his studio, studying a canvas, sketching, taping, and mixing paint. He looks joyful as he paints. You can’t help but smile at the pictures.

Check back later in the day for another book recommendation!

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Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923 in New York. He went to a high school that did not offer art classes but he liked to draw and did so in his free time. After high school, Lichtenstein went to Ohio State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in fine art.

He taught art classes as Ohio State University, State University of New York at Oswego, and then Rutgers University. His art evolved during this time from Cubism and Expressionism to Abstract Expressionism.

In 1961, Lichtenstein created his first Pop Art painting. He liked the way commercial art looked and he liked the sharp, black outlines in comic book art. The Pop paintings he is known for combined the two styles.

Lichtenstein used thick, horizontal stripes and Benday Dots in his paintings. Benday Dots were originally used for printing pictures inexpensively. By spacing four different colors of dots close together, far apart, or on top of each other, all the colors can be made. Lichtenstein liked the way the dots looked and so he borrowed the technique. You’ll notice that the faces of the people in many of his paintings are made up of Benday Dots.

Lichtenstein’s Pop Art portrays things from popular culture. That’s why it’s called Pop Art. He drew inspiration from cartoons, newspapers, advertisements, and things he saw in real life (like his art studio). He used this inspiration to create enormous paintings as well as sculptures as you can see in the pictures here, here, and here.

At first, critics didn’t like his work, but today Lichtenstein’s Pop Art can found in most museums that house modern art.

Lichtenstein died in 1997.

Check back throughout the day tomorrow for two Fantastic (Non)Fiction Friday posts and a bonus third post!

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