Wood Burning Ornaments

I'll have to say, I was super excited to try this little project. I'll also say that I was a little nervous about giving my students tools that reach up to 750 degrees in temperature, but all in all, our first experience at wood burning was pretty successful. 

I had spent the better part of the previous evening, looking up ornaments that people had used a wood burner on, on Pinterest to find examples. I gave my students a page full of pictures of ornaments they could make, did an overview on wood burning and talked safety, safety, safety! My first hour is full of Junior & Senior boys so I can always use them as guinea pigs or crash test dummies lol....I know they can handle it and they're super artistic so they can generally give me a good idea if this project will be a good project to continue with the rest of the day with my other classes. They can also give me feedback on what adjustments I need to make to make the project go more smoothly. So I'm pretty grateful for my first hour. They're a great class to have my first year of teaching!

The snowflakes seemed to have been the easiest to get done and they are beautiful. A few of the students used a light coat of paint to add some color. 

Leathercraft

The leather stamping project has probably been my kid's favorite art project this year so far! Thanks to community member John Caudill for making it happen! Before I knew what happened, he had bought enough wristbands, key fobs & bookmarks for 125 students, a starter kit for the art room, took off work an entire day and showed up in my room to book the day to spend with my art students and this was one of those few projects that everyone, from my 4th grade girls to my senior boys enjoyed, so it was definitely a win. 

Mr. Caudill wheeled in several suitcases of things and began setting up as we waited anxiously to see what kind of goodies he had. I knew leather stamping was a hobby of his, but I really didn't expect him to have quite so many things. He set up several leather projects he had made that filled up a whole corner of the art room...a patriotic picture of 1776, quiver for arrows with an impressive basketweave pattern, bible cover, portfolio cover, leather vase with leather roses and a whole lot more for use to look at and see the possibilities!

After sharing just a little bit about the basics of leatherstamping, he jumped right in, gave us a quick demo and let the kids get to it! Students got to choose from a large variety of stamping tools, alphabet stamps and 3D stamps with things like skull & crossbones, a cross, deer, indian feathers, etc. It was pretty interesting to see the designs that the kids came up with. Some made things for themselves and some made things for their parents or their girlfriends. 

Here are just a few pictures I got that day...