The Class Spider Sculpture

The children became ‘artists’ and thought about the question – Can we plan and create a sculpture as a class? The children were introduced to the artist Louise Bourgeois and the Maman sculpture made from bronze. The children were asked to give adjectives to describe the sculpture. (The sheer scale of the giant spider which is the same height as a double decker bus.) Miss Jones explained to the children that they were going to create their own class spider sculpture. The children planned their sculpture thinking about the features of the spider. They made the legs and body from struts – rolling tightly two pieces of paper folded diagonally. They made the legs using ten struts – five for the upper leg and five for the lower leg and fastened them together with masking tape. They also used the struts to create the body. They then worked together to fix all the body parts together. Miss Jones and the children recapped over the Artist Louise Bourgeois and how she used bronze to make her sculpture. She used bronze as it is a strong metal, heavy and expensive. It is used for sculptures as it will last a long time and doesn’t rust. The children painted the sculpture developing the technique of painting with a large brush and using a sponge to dab. The children worked together to completely cover the sculpture in black with a large brush. After the sculpture was dry the children applied bronze metallic paint over the top of the black layer using sponges, dabbing lightly. After painting the sculpture the children stood back and admired the completed spider! The children were asked to comment on the construction – Is it stable? What could make it stronger and longer lasting? How is it similar/different to Louise Bourgeois’ works? Great teamwork Kingfishers!