Wire in the Art Studio

Wire is an interesting artistic medium. It is flexible yet holds it's shape, comes in a variety of colours and gauges, and takes a certain amount of dexterity to manipulate. 

Using the copper wire harvested from the old blender (see our blender deconstruction here), and some steel wire the teachers provided, the children started exploring wire as an artistic medium.

"It's a bracelet." - Reid

 The children were intrigued when they learned that wire comes from the earth, and is indeed a piece of the earth. They learned the words to describe the brown and silver wire (copper and steel).

It takes a bit of practice for little hands to get the feel for wire. Owen persevered with his exploration for nearly 40 minutes.

Keegan made a necklace for his cat, modeled here by Riley the Bear.

Things got more interesting once the children learned ways to combine wire and attach pieces together. Can you tell in these pictures how it was done?

The children were introduced to various tools to help shape the wire. Wire is stubborn, and it needs a firm hand to tell it what to do.

 After a few days of explorations, the children were encouraged to make 3-D sculptures using beads and other found materials. To support our learning goal of sharing ideas, they drew pictures of their sculptures so the originals could be brought home.

 The children were guided to trace the lines of their creations and to carefully add details like the beads, buttons, and pop tabs. Some children added words to help communicate their thinking. We used only black markers in order to focus on the line, shape, and texture of the art.

"helicopter"

"sculpture"

"necklace (for Faith's mom)"

"necklace"

Note for teachers: We highly recommend "Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings" by Ann Pelo. Available on Amazon.