Zentangle Vases of Sculptural Flowers

Sometimes a good thing becomes bigger, more complicated, and more awesome than anyone imagined!

Second grade artists really knocked this one out of the park. What began as a weaving lesson kept evolving into a lesson which combines meditative pattern drawing, sculpture, paper folding, and color mixing. Whew!

This project started with the paper weaving. Second graders are at a perfect developmental moment to create their own paper weaving warps, and to focus on the checkerboard pattern created by the weft. Over, under, over, under...repeat!

Then I was out for a day, and left the guest teacher with this circles and patterns lesson which introduces a few simple Zentangle designs.

The second graders loved it, and so at once we had to figure out how to merge these two works-in-progress, the weavings and the circles. And, voila!, the weavings became tablecloths for vases made of the circle designs.

In a departure from the purist approach to Zentangles, students could add lots of color to their designs. For the vases, students chose to either use a template or design their own, which were cut out and glued down to the weavings on a larger piece of paper.

Next, students added paper stems coming out of their vases, and used an air-dry clay called Model Magic to create the first flowers. Model magic can be mixed easily into endless colors by drawing on it with markers, as the student above is doing.

Here the student is twisting and kneading the Model Magic to mix in the color.

Model Magic is sort of sticky and fluffy, much like a marshmallow, and can be put directly on paper without glue. Students made daisies, roses, chrysanthemums, and lots of original fantasy flowers in a rainbow of colors. It can be shaped by hand or can be snipped into petals with scissors.

Students were so thrilled with how their work was going, that I offered more elements they could choose to add. Using a simple set of folds like one might use for paper snowflakes, we folded and cut layers of tissue paper to make additional sculptural flowers to make their bouquets even more elaborate.

The fold technique let students quickly create symmetrical and layered designs to glue on. 

 Pressing a fingertip into the middle of the tissue flower, with just a dot of glue, makes the flowers pop out at the edges. 

Oil pastels were available too, for students who wanted to add extra details: thorns, leaves, or anything else they imagined might be in the picture.

Adding a window

Swirling wind, made with white pastels, blows the leaves to the side

Thorns and leaves

This project could go on and on! A fancy border! Buzzing bees or butterflies! Shadows from the vase on the table! It's been a favorite, the type of lesson that will definitely happen again in future years. Here are a few more awesome examples from this fabulous project.