2015 Auction Project: Part 2

metal tiles for the table top

The kids made copper tiles with mandala designs on them for a table top. We used 5" x 5" aluminum tiles with a copper color on one side. You can purchase real copper or brass sheets too.  I had these tiles from another project and decided to use them.

I had the kids sketch out designs on a piece of paper until they were happy with their design. Then, I gave them a piece of foam - the kind you can cut up with scissors, it comes in sheets of 8x11 or rolls. I had a roll lying around and cut up 12 pieces that were about 6"x6", just a little larger than the metal tiles. The kids then put the copper side down on the foam and copied their designs onto the metal using a ball point pen. You can see the results in the image above - pretty neat! It is possible to then flip the metal and put more design into it for more dimension, but don't use a ball point pen on the front! Unless there is no ink in it. For our purposes, we just made designs on the back.

You can use this material to create a lot of different projects: The frame of a mirror, a framed piece of art, as in our case a table top, you could even use these individual squares to make the prayer wheel we're making next...There are a lot of possibilities with this cool material. It's not expensive and the kids were really into it!

Stay tuned!

2015 Auction Project: Part 1

Prayer Wheel at Medicine Buddha in Soquel, CA.

It's that time of year again! Time for creating a piece of collaborative art! This year I am again working with students at Tara Redwood School, though my son is no longer there. It has been a cherished annual project for many years now and I wasn't quite ready to give it up. This year I will be building a prayer wheel with the kids. It hasn't been an easy project to find how-to's on. Someone gave me a book with a few technical details on the proper mantras and prayers and which way to wind the prayers on the inside and exactly what mandalas to place inside...but it's a wide-open design project, aside from those few details. Ours is a good-sized table-top version, the drum part will be about 12" tall, and the over-all dimensions about 20" - but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

My plan is to have two students per row, six high (we've got 11 students, plus the teacher).  I will transfer their designs to copper foil and adhere them to the cylinder, which is an 8" cement forming tube (very heavy duty cardboard). I'm planning on using a lazy susan bearing set for the spinning action which I ordered from Amazon. The base is going to be an upside-down wooden bowl - found at Goodwill - that will have the children's designs on it. I plan on being the painter once they sketch the designs onto the bowl.

I think the secret to making a great, quality auction piece with a group of children is to know what part of the project to let the kids do and which part I should do. This year the part the kids are doing is mostly the drawing/design part. I will take their designs and implement them on the final piece, and of course I'll be doing the assembly. That way you get the spirit of the kid's work and tidiness of an experienced artist or maker.

Stay tuned for my own how-to on building a prayer wheel! Our auction is at the end of February, so it's going to be a high-speed project for me.