Open-Ended Sculptures

With just four simple and common art supplies, our students were able to come up with some pretty amazing open-ended sculptures. Their creativity really took off and they even used iPads to make stop-motion videos. And that’s not all! What we displayed the sculptures on was just as special and unique.

A Little Back Story

My principal called me one Saturday and said she saw an old wooden door on the side of the street in town. I told her she better grab it up! So, we made a display shelf in art club out of that door. The students used an electric sander to sand down some rough areas.

Luckily, the door didn't have any old paint on it. It was plain wood and had never been painted. This made it simple for the students to paint it with house paint. Our district's maintenance department attached the shelves to it and hung it in the school's foyer. That same year, we used it to display sculptures.

Super Easy Open-Ended Sculptures

For this project, all you need to gather are four supplies that you may already have stocked in your art room:

• wire

• painter’s tape

• plaster wrap

• acrylic paint

How to Make this Project

The students started by manipulating the wire into a person-form of their choice. Some students chose to have one arm pointing up or out to the side and the other one bent inward. Then, they wrapped in the wire with painter’s tape to both hide the wire and secure the form they wanted their wire to take.

Next, they painted the tape with acrylic paint of their choice. I also provided them with a tub of random junk that I had saved up over time. This is another reason why I say to not throw things away. They can always come in handy, especially in times like these.

Last but not least, after securing their sculptures to blocks of wood, they used iPads to make stop motion movies with the sculptures. We also created QR codes that could be scanned for people to see their stop-motion videos.

Final Thoughts

Doing art projects like this touches base with so many techniques and developmental domains of learning. Not only are students working on their small and large motor skills but they’re also able to be creative, learn how to use different thought processes all while working with different art supplies. Let me know if you try this with your art students!