Monday, March 31, 2014

Black Glue (tested and improved)

Most of the time when I use something from Pinterest, I test it first.  But as things are now, being a mobile teacher, I don't have much time to test things before I just have to throw them into my lesson.

Thus the black glue mess.

I was trying to do a Kandinsky-inspired lesson with the kinders.  I coordinated with the music teacher and we did a joint lesson about Jazz music and how that relates to Rhythm in art and the artist Kandinsky.  Then I had the kiddos draw with crayons to re-create the feeling of the jazz music we were listening to, keeping them focused on making lines and shapes; abstract, not representational.



Then the plan was to edit their crayon drawings, and pick what we liked the best, then recreate that on a new piece of drawing paper using the black glue you see all over pinterest, then color in between the dried glue with chalk pastels.

"Oh, it's so easy!  Just mix some black tempera or acrylic with your white glue and away you go!"

NOPE.

Wasn't that easy for me.  First of all, I had to find the right kind of glue.  The Elmer's worked fine, but the off brand melted the black paint and wouldn't mix at all, nor would the crayola glue.  (It was too thick.)

So once I had a billion little bottles mixed up, I gave them to the kids and woops!  "MINE WON'T SQUEEZE OUT!"  "MINE'S COMING OUT GRAY!"  "MINE'S BROKEN!"

Don't you love it?  My glue is broken.  Lol.

After dealing with all of that, I then realized I would have to refill the bottles for the next couple of classes, because they got used up pretty quickly.  And refilling the bottles with glue AND paint and mixing them before the kids had to use them?  Nope.  Didn't happen.  There just wasn't time.

So here's what I did:


I made use of an almost empty bottle of black tempera paint; the one that still has paint in it, but not enough to be pumped out by the gallon paint pumper, and I poured a bunch of bottles of Elmer's into it.  Then I closed the lid tightly, and rolled it up and down the hallway, and shook it up.  It mixed up great!  That was WAAAY easier than mixing 30 individual bottles!  Now I can refill the black glue bottles from my big one, and I know the mixture will be the same consistency with all of the bottles!

I did this in the hallway, too, by the way.  Lol.

7 comments:

  1. Omg, I can just hear all the kids telling you at the same time that their glue wasn't working. I can't stand when kiddies start randomly calling out things like that all at once!

    The project looks great though!

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    1. Haha! Thanks! My favorite it when they all yell, "I'm DONE!" I tried to nip that in the bud this year by reminding the Kinders that we aren't done until class is over. I make them work until my little time goes off!

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  2. This would have worked even better if I had one of those gallon pumps for the Elmer's. But I just made do with what I had!

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  3. I wish you had been my art teacher!
    :)

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  4. I've used the glue on black paper - glue dries clear so the glue lines appear shinny black! (no mixing glue). Pastels work well on colored paper, but do not stick to the glue. Try it on other colors of paper too!

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  5. Could you try painting the black glue on? I use stiff brushes or you can use regular brushes just can't really ever get them clean. With regular glue, not colored, I put the glue in disposable cups, put in a glue brush and let them paint it on. I don't know why it wouldn't work for black glue.

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