Junk to Jewels

I've noticed that when you mention the word "collage," students tend to groan. I can only imagine that they've been forced into boring collage projects. This past Friday we explored mixed media collage. I pre-cut the foam board from Artsjunktion (this was a big job which left me wishing I had an old electric carving knife), and I used a glue gun to attach felt to the boards. I was going to have the students do this part, but this would have used up the entire Art block just doing the prep work and I wanted to get to the creative part. Students were given three different templates of an outline map of Africa. They could trace onto fabric, paper, or some of those cool vintage transparencies from Artsjunktion. They could do whatever they wanted so long as they mixed their media and tried to do something original. The results were wonderful. They will go up on the wall of the gymnasium for the African Heritage Concert tomorrow and we will eventually attach string to them and cover the back with paper. 

Diverted from landfill: styrofoam presentation board, old fabric, used transparencies, and  newspaper. Thirty pieces were made (two students were absent). Who says you can't do messy Art projects in a large class? See the pictures below for some of their completed pieces.