My New Love of Metal

I know what you're think, NEW? Yes, new! I've never worked with pliable metal and boy did I have fun when I got to explore the process at a recent professional development. Made me feel a little silly that I've been missing out all these years! 

If you haven't tried working with pliable metal you must give it a try! This material creates an impact, can be molded, embossed, colored, painted, layered and so many more possibilities. This inexpensive material really packs a punch! 

With that long list of possibilities, I wanted to leave my first exploration into teaching pliable metal as open ended as possible. Simple requirement were give to students;

• Use the metal to demonstrate the concepts of depth (foreground, middle ground, background)
• Use knowledge of composition to show movement, contrast and whatever else you want to dazzle me with! 

I peppered in some art history to get their wheels-a-turning and then I demonstrated a few techniques for adding texture, pushing metal forward/backward to emphasize space location, and how to add metal to create a 3D effect. What fun the students had. It's a little difficult to see some details because of the shininess of the metal but still check it out!

 Here's a good look at the 3D effect the students got by manipulating the metal

IRON MAN!!!

GIVE IT A TRY!!! Sharpies/metal paint definitely give the most shine but acrylic paint gives a really nice contrast with a matte look. My students also really liked my white paint markers for some added details in white. 

LEARN FROM ME!!! I chose to use hot glue to stick on the extra metal on. Big o' did NOT work! I suggest using E6000 for adding any materials to this unique material.  

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for stopping in!