Lesson video

Hello everyone, it's Mrs. Tong here again with your lesson three out of five for our sculpture unit.

Can you remember that in the last lesson, we looked at lots and lots of joining techniques.

Well today, we're going to use some of those joining techniques.

You're going to be able to choose from them to be able to make your own piece of sculpture today.

I'm really excited, I love making things.

So are you ready to be sculpturists today? Fantastic.

Let's get started.

For this lesson, you'll need some cardboard, the best cardboard to use is the brown-corrugated cardboard that packaging comes in.

But if you don't have that, cereal boxes or any other cardboard from your recycling will do.

Please do ask permission before you take things though.

You'll need some glue, a pencil or a pen, some scissors, and if you have it, some of the equipment from the previous lesson.

But remember, you didn't need it.

I've got here on my list, a hole punch, a stapler, some tape, or remember, the best thing to use was paper strips and glue, wasn't it? And if you have them, some paper clips and some paper fasteners if you want to use them.

In the lesson today, we're going to find some shapes to use for our sculpture.

We're going to review suitable techniques.

Those techniques that work the best for us.

For the material that we're using which is cardboard today, and for different-sized work.

So do you want to make quite a big sculpture today, or a small one? It's up to you.

We're going to be creating our own sculpture which is going to be so much fun.

And then we're going to review it and change it if we need to.

For example, to make it stand up as we want it to, or to make it taller if we want that.

I've got some star words today, will you say them with me please? Sculpture.

Three dimensional or 3D.

Assemblage.

Can you remember that assemblage meant the sculpture that's put together with lots of different parts.

That's the type of sculpture we're going to make today too.

Scale.

Abstract.

Well, it seems like we have some new words today.

We're going to look at the two words at the bottom.

Scale first of all.

Scale means the size of your sculpture.

So it could be on a large scale, if it's a big sculpture, or on a smaller scale if it's a smaller one.

Abstract.

Let's have a look at that word together.

Abstract means that your sculpture might be made up of shapes and colours.

It's not recognisable as something we can see in the world.

So it's not a sculpture of a face or it's not a sculpture or a tree or a building.

It's shapes and colours that have been put together.

When those shapes and colours are put together, they might remind us of things though, and that's different.

But it starts off as abstract, a collection of shapes and colours.

Can you remember all of those joining techniques that we used in the last lesson? Mmh, have a good think, see how many you can remember.

Mmh, have a good think, see how many you can remember.

Mmh, I'm having a think and using my fingers to count the ones that I can remember.

How many did you remember? Let's have a look at them together.

So we might use at the top of the screen, using split pins.

Sometimes we call them paper fasteners too.

We typed things together, didn't we? And when the tape wasn't strong enough, we also used paper tabs.

And at the bottom of the screen, we used paper clips and we stapled the cardboard together.

My favourite technique was slotting the cardboard together.

Can you see the picture on the right-hand side of the screen? We made two cuts, didn't we? One in each piece of cardboard, and then slotted them together.

I've got a thinking challenge for you.

Which joining techniques do you think would be best to make a tall sculpture? Or a long sculpture along the floor? A sculpture hanging from a wall, and a sculpture that might move if we hung it up.

Maybe you might want to pause the video, have a look at the pictures that I've got here on the screen of joining techniques or the joining equipment, and see if you can match the ones that you would use to these types of sculpture.

You don't have to make them, I just want you to think about them at the moment.

Oh, I wonder what you came up with? What joining technique did you think would be best for a tall sculpture? Which joining technique do you think would be best for a tall sculpture? Now, if it's tall, it's going to need to be strong, isn't it? So I don't think I'd use paper fasteners or tape or paper clips.

I think I would either slot them together or staple them together perhaps.

But slotting them together would probably be the strongest.

Then I might use paper strips on the joints to make them extra strong.

What about a long sculpture, something that lays on the floor? Well, that doesn't need to be so strong, does it? So really, I suppose we could use any of those joining techniques.

Maybe if we didn't have to make it strong, we could use something that looked nice as well.

So it might be that we chose paper fasteners or paper clips perhaps.

What did you choose for that one? What about a sculpture hanging from the wall? What if pieces are hanging off each other? I guess they need to be quite strongly attached.

I think we could use lots of those techniques, definitely the slotting together and the stapling together.

But I think some of those other techniques would be useful too.

And finally, I asked you to think about making a sculpture if we hung up, it might move around.

So here are going to need something where the joints are flexible.

They can move.

Mmh, what's the best joining technique for that? If you chose to use the paper fasteners, then I agree.

I think I would either use the paper fasteners or maybe I might make little hooks with the paperclips if I'll bend them a little bit.

What do you think about that idea? Did you choose the same? So choose some shapes either from the artwork on the previous slide, or from just around you, and just stay where you are and look around you and you'll see lots and lots of shapes.

I can see the circle of a clock and the rectangles in the windows.

Then next, you'll need to cut your shapes out.

Okay, pause the video then while you complete the task.

Choose some shapes for your sculpture.

Draw them onto the cardboard, and don't forget to make lots of them.

So if you chose for example a circle, you could make a larger circle and a smaller circle.

And don't forget to choose a lot of them.

Don't forget that you'll need quite a few shapes to choose from.

So for example, if you chose a circle, maybe draw a larger circle and a smaller circle.

Or certainly more than one of each shape.

That way then, you'll have lots that you can select from later.

Cut your shapes out, but don't forget that you may need an adult to help you with this.

Be careful with the scissors, won't you? Okay, pause the video now.

Off you go, sculptors.

Then you'll need to cut your shapes out.

Now remember, it's best to ask a grownup to help you with this because cutting a cardboard, especially if it's thicker can be really quite tricky.

Do be careful with the scissors.

Okay.

In a moment you're going to need to pause the video while you draw your shapes and cut them out.

Don't forget to draw quite a few shapes because then you can select from them later.

You won't have to use them all.

You can also have more than one shape.

So if you have a circle, maybe you have different-sized circles too.

Okay, pause the video now.

Off you go sculptors.

What shapes did you draw? Now, can you hold them up so that I can see? Fantastic.

That's a really good range of shapes.

Now you're going to have lots to choose from.

Okay, we're ready to make our sculpture now.

We're going to make an assemblage sculpture.

So let's get assembling.

Okay, your task then is to join your shapes together using your chosen joining techniques.

Think about which technique is going to be best for the effect that you want and join your pieces together securely.

When you're joining your shapes together, think about whether they make you think of anything or you might just like the way that they're arranged.

I've shown you how I've joined some of my shapes together.

Pause the video, when you're ready to start the task.

Join your shapes together using your chosen techniques.

You're going to make your own assemblage sculpture.

Off you go.

Well done, that was excellent.

Let's recap.

What went well with your sculpture? Mmh, I'm thinking that some of the joining techniques I still found a little bit tricky, but I kept trying until they worked.

Would you change anything about the way that your shapes are put together? You know, it's quite a tricky idea to just put some shapes together until you're happy, because sometimes we keep changing our minds, don't we? That might mean that you might want to make more than one sculpture after this lesson.

That would be fun, wouldn't it? Okay, you have a sketchbook task today.

I'd like you to present your sculpture.

Show it to someone at home.

Tell them all about the joining techniques that you made.

You can't actually put it into your sketchbook because it's three dimensional.

But you can certainly tell an adult at home all about it or maybe a brother or a sister.

Can you remember some of the shapes that we found in the artworks that we looked at in lesson one? I found some of the shapes and I put them on the screen and here they are again.

There are triangles and rectangles and rectangles with curved corners as well.

There are circles and semi circles, and all sorts of fluid shapes too, with curved edges.

Your first task today is to choose some of the shapes from the previous slide, all from around you, and draw them onto your cardboard.

Remember, our star word scale.

Think about a size of your piece that you want to make.

If you want to make a larger scale sculpture, then draw your shapes as large as you can onto the cardboard.

If you want to make a smaller scale sculpture, then you're drawing smaller shapes.

My tip though, don't make them too small, because you won't have to join them together very easily.

Then you'll need to cut your shapes out.

Now remember, it's best to ask a grownup to help you with this, because cutting a cardboard, especially if it's thicker can be really quite tricky.

Do be careful with the scissors.

Okay, in a moment, you're going to need to pause the video while you draw your shapes and cut them out.

Don't forget to draw quite a few shapes because then you can select from them later.

You won't have to use them all.

You can also have more than one shape.

So if you have a circle, maybe have different-sized circles too.

Okay, pause the video now.

Off you go sculptors.

What shapes did you draw? Now, can you hold them up so that I can see? Fantastic, that's a really good range of shapes.

Now you're going to have lots to choose from.

Okay, we're ready to make our sculpture now.

We're going to make an assemblage sculpture.

So let's get assembling.

Okay, your task then is to join your shapes together using your chosen joining techniques.

Think about which technique is going to be best for the effect that you want.

And to join your pieces together securely.

When you're joining your shapes together, think about whether they make you think of anything or you might just like the way that they're arranged.

I've shown you how I've joined some of my shapes together.

I'm ready now to start to assemble my pieces of cutout cardboard into my sculpture, my assemblage sculpture.

So assembling them makes an assemblage.

It's clever, isn't it? So I've got some circles, I've got circles and these curves that I love the curves.

So I had quite a few of those.

Can you see, I've used the same shape, the same motif, but in different sizes or different scale there.

A large circle and a smaller circle.

And you can have as many as you like.

I've got around 10 pieces here I think.

I've also got some angular shapes that I found, and I've got, although the rectangle was kind of from my table top I think, I think I was just sort of looking around me, and then I found a pot on my desk that had a sort of swirly pattern on it.

Just choose whether you want mostly curvy shapes or mostly sort of angular, pointy shapes.

And you could just make lots of those.

I've also got a piece of spare cardboard because I wanted to show you this because I rather liked the way that this shape is cut out.

So I'm going to use this shape.

So I'm going to cut this shape a little bit more until it's like, oh, it's a bit like a mountain or an M, isn't it? I'm just going to tidy up this edge here 'cause I don't want this raggedy edge on my cardboard.

So I'll get rid of that piece.

All right, so I've got all of my shapes now.

Oh no, the piece leftover looks a bit like a house, I might leave that just in case I need it.

Okay, so I'll pop that over there.

So I'm going to have a look at my shapes and just think about which ones I'm going to start with at the bottom.

So I think if I want this to stand up, to be free standing, which I think I do at the moment, I'm going to start with a larger piece at the bottom.

And I think that I'm going to start by slotting together some pieces.

So if this stands at the bottom, maybe I will slot a piece like this in here to make it stand up.

Now, as you can see, I want something I wanted to share with you, is that some of my pieces of cardboard, when I drew them onto the cardboard box, they've got curves in them because of the box.

And that's really useful because it helps things stand up by themselves.

If I just had a flat piece of cardboard, it wouldn't stand up, it would fall down.

But because this has has curves in it, folds in it already, it will stand up by itself.

So I thought that was really interesting.

So I think that's a kind of happy accident that I'm enjoying.

So I'm going to cut a slot into that piece and see if I can join that one together as well.

Now I think this slot needs to be deeper.

So we have to just explore as we go, don't really quite know what it's going to look like.

So that first one fell out.

So I needed to re-slot that back in.

Now, I really love the way those shapes are going together but they're not very secure at the moment.

So I'm going to take some tape and just pop a piece of tape on, pushing it into the corner for now to hold it there.

Because if I join more pieces on now, I think it will fall apart because it won't be strong enough to support the new pieces.

So I'm going to turn it around.

The other thing I wanted to say to you, was that your sculpture may well end up having a back and a front.

So I think I'm going to keep this as the front at the moment.

So I'm working from this side looking at it, but it doesn't matter that your cardboard has labels or bits of packaging on it, or if it's cereal boxes, it might have obviously colours on it on one side.

That doesn't matter because in the next lesson, we're going to work on covering our sculpture the surface of our sculpture and adding colour to it.

So don't need to worry about what your cardboard looks like at this stage.

So I think I'd quite like to have this curve coming down over here.

Now, if I move this out of the way for a moment, you can see how that is at the back.

So it just sits on the table just on this tip over here, which I really rather like.

Now, how am I going to attach this? I think it's probably, because it's not in line with this other piece, I think I'm going to have to use another slot.

So made my slot.

Now my sculpture is getting stronger with each piece that I put in because I'm making more points that touch the ground.

So that's going to be a much more stable structure now that I can build up high with.

I think I'd quite like to join two circles together, and to do that, I'm going to use my split pins.

So do you remember that we have to make a hole in each of the pieces, to be able to push the split pin through without hurting our fingers.

Now I don't want it to look straight like that, I want it to be sort of at an angle.

So I could actually put in another type of fastening there.

I think I'll put a piece of tape maybe on the back, to hold it in place where I want it.

But I rather like the split pin in there, because it's a circle, in a circle, in a circle.

So I'm making a kind of creative decision there, as well as a technical one, aren't I? So I think I'm going to try and attach these circles.

Gosh, should I try and attach them on the top? If I do them flat with this piece, and then maybe they will rest on this curve.

I wonder what technique I could use here.

Do you know, I think I need something really strong.

So I'm going to try and staple those.

Now, if you're stapling, and you can't lay it on the desk like I can do there, please do ask your grownup to help you.

Mmh, I'm pretty happy with my sculpture at the moment.

If I turn it around, you'll be able to see it from all angles.

Because when we look at sculptures in a gallery or outdoors, we can walk all the way around them, can't we? 'Cause they're three dimensional.

Right, I think that I'm going to turn my sculpture around gently, and make sure that it's really well secured all around before I do anything else to it.

Join your shapes together, using the different techniques and the techniques that are most useful that you want to use, the most useful for Joining your pieces together.

So if you're joining flat pieces together, you might staple or split-pin them here like here.

Or if they are joining across each other, then you'll be better to slot them together.

Okay sculptors, it's over to you now.

Pause the video when you're ready to start the task.

Join your shapes together using your chosen techniques.

Well done.

That was excellent.

Let's recap.

What went well with your sculpture? Mmh, I'm thinking that some of the joining techniques I still found a little bit tricky but I kept trying until they worked.

Would you change anything about the way that your shapes are put together? You know, it's quite a tricky idea to just put some shapes together until you're happy, because sometimes we keep changing our minds, don't we? That might mean that you might want to make more than one sculpture after this lesson.

That would be fun, wouldn't it? Okay, you have a sketchbook task today.

I'd like you to present your sculpture.

Show it to someone at home, tell them all about the joining techniques that you made.

You can't actually put it into your sketchbook because it's three dimensional.

But you can certainly tell an adult at home all about it or maybe a brother or sister.

If you'd like to share a photograph of your work with Oak National today, the details are on the screen now.

But please always remember to ask an adult to help you to do this.