8th Grade: Masks and Puppets Inspired by Indonesian Art

As I write this, it is one week from winter break 2007, and the 8th grade students have just started an exciting sculpture unit inspired by the masks and puppets of Java and Bali. Back in 6th grade, students studied Indonesia in Social Studies class. In fact, when I started the lesson with a digital slide show of the Balinese landscape, one student was able to lecture on a rare type of mud fish that helps carry rice seeds from one stepped rice patty to another! This is learning in action!! This page will be structured a little differently from some of the others as I will be using it to chronicle the unit as the students work through it. Here are some of the images students viewed today of Bali and Java on our “Virtual Vacation” (click on thumbnails for a bigger view!):

After taking a little visual tour of some of the sights Bali and Java have to offer, student studied images of Rod Puppets and Masks. I asked the students to consider that in choosing to make a puppet or mask, they must really create a character in their imaginations first. Based on the types of characters that seem to surface again and again in this type of artwork, students were asked to choose from the following options:

1. Mask or Puppet

2. Good or Evil

3. Person (man, woman or child) or Animal or Spirit.

To help students decide what direction they might like to go in, we viewed and discussed many images including these:

PLANNING THE DESIGN:

Students talked excitedly about what kind of character they wanted to create, and most of them seemed to be very sure about their choices. I passed around an authentic Javanese rod puppet, a marionette I have from Cambodia and a paper-mache mask I made that was influenced by Balinese demon-masks. The first phase of the design process was for students to create lots of sketches of possible masks or puppets. One student knew he wanted to create the face of a green monster he had been seeing in his dreams. Another student, who shared with me that she has Thai ancestry, developed a mask design that incorporated a very authentic looking and elaborate headdress. One student chose to design a mask instead of a puppet because her family collects masks from around the world. Another student wanted specifically to create a puppet because of the way they seem to spring to life when they are manipulated. Once these young artists added color to their sketches, they really seemed to begin to take on a life of their own.

Stay tuned for Phase II: Armature construction!

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January 3, 2008 Phase II: Construction!!!

Students completed their plan drawings and color plans for their puppets and masks and were eager to begin building. As a class we looked at how humble materials such as newspaper, poster board and tape could be manipulated to create structures. I demonstrated multiple ways to create spheres, cones, cubes and other three-dimensional shapes from flat paperboard. The students “got it” immediately. I am always intrigued how most of my middle school artists feel far less intimidated by creating three-dimensional work over paintings or drawings. Many of them agreed that their ideas started changing as they manipulated the three-dimensional materials.

The emphasis at this phase was to create a well constructed armature. An armature is like the skeleton of the sculpture. Some of the students’ designs required the use of chicken wire to create a stronger form.

Once the armatures were completed, students cut plaster gauze strips, dipped them in water and wrapped their armatures with them. This process required criss-crossing the plaster strips to create a strong surface that won’t fall apart when it dries. Students who are making puppets also started carving high-density foam to create a rough torso shape that will give form to the fabric that the puppet will wear. In this rod-style puppet, the head is attached to a dowel rod which goes through the center of the torso.

While waiting for the sculptures to dry, students had the opportunity to experiment with various methods of resist-dying fabric. In Java, the wooden rod puppets traditionally wear batiked fabric. In batik, hot wax is painted onto fabric to create a design. When the fabric is dyed, the color can not penetrate where the wax design is. In our class, we are trying various methods of physically resisting the fabric such as binding with clamps, tying with string, binding with rubber bands, folding and clamping, and anything else they can think up! Everyone seems very excited about the textile phase of this project. It is just pure magic to hand-dye fabric. The results are always a little bit unexpected but always beautiful!

Stay tuned for Phase III: Painting and assembling!

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Phase III: Painting and Assembling (Including resist-dying fabric!) (January 9, 2008)

Well, the masks and puppets are really starting to come together. It is so exciting to see the students’ ideas gel, change, re-form and take new shape. Some students created in three-dimensions exactly what they drew in their plan drawings. Many did not. I loved how they were able to understand how their ideas could and even should change during the construction phase. I know when I handle a variety of materials, my brain gets new ideas, and I am able to take my art to new places I hadn’t originally imagined. It’s the fun of the journey.

Just about everyone got really excited about dying fabric. We learned some basic resist-dye techniques, and they just took off with it. As I write this, we are all in the very final stages of assembly. The “puppet people” are adding their hand-made jointed arms, dressing the puppets and adding the control rods for the hands. The “mask people” are making final decisions about embellishment, color and even if the mask will be worn or become wall-dependent sculpture. Very soon, I will be adding more pictures and a slide show of the finished work. Stay tuned!

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Final Phase: Finishing Touches (January 15, 2008)

Wow, am I proud of my students!  It took a good deal of planning and good craftsmanship and dedication, but the masks and puppets are finally finished!  Many of the students agreed with me that their work didn’t really look like anything in particular for a long time. Then, at the very end of the process, everything came together quite suddenly.  The finishing touches have made all the difference!  Students were really happy with their work.  Many of them told me it was one of the best things they had ever made and that they had a lot of fun making them.  Now I have the fun of putting them all on display!  Pictures coming soon, I promise!