Styrogami

Ever since I first found the whole idea of Styrogami (probably on Pinterest like everything else I do), I have been obsessed with it! It's things like these sculptures that make me really wish I would have thought of them first because they're all just so gosh darn cool. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Styrogami is the process of using styrofoam cups to create beautiful sculptural forms. This whole process was started by artist Jules Vitali. Seriously, check him out, because it's some super cool stuff. 

As always, I can't start anything without appropriately matching attire that perfectly corresponds to the lesson. It just wouldn't be natural! 

I made this outfit and used it for the first time last year, but then my styrofoam cup skirt was completely destroyed from being left in my car in the unusual for Ohio bright sun. I thought about not making another skirt... but how could I not?! It's just too much of an attention grabber to ever possibly teach this lesson without it! The kids all think I'm totally nuts when I wear this whole ensemble, but I love it. And so do they. 

Here's a full body shot of the ensemble. Styrofoam skirt (made entirely of cups and too much hot glue to keep track of with duct tape straps to quickly slip on and off), necklace of styrofoam balls, cup bottoms cut out and attached to my shoes and earrings, head piece with styrofoam scraps, and bracelets made from cup rings. I'm also holding my example sculpture for the lesson. 

I basically start this Art I lesson by showing a Prezi with lots of examples of Styrogami and other examples of how artists have creatively used styrofoam in their art making processes. Then I give students a day to just practice with a cup and an x-acto knife since it's a little tricky to get the hang of at first. I have students try and cut out a circle, a ring, a square, a piece with cutouts, and a piece with a slot for another piece to attach to it. 

Now I'm not going to lie, this is one messy project. Hello static cling! You're going to find styrofoam pieces everywhere for days on end, and you'll constantly be telling your students about the styrofoam pieces they have in their hair too. It's just a fact of life with this project. The trade off, though, is that it can lead to amazingly beautiful sculptures like these that were both made by freshmen!

BUT... your room will look a lot like this, and you have to be super careful about moving them as things can easily break or stick to you thanks to our static electricity friend. 

When it comes to holding everything together with the sculptures, we use tacky glue and occasionally a little bit of hot glue when it's really necessary. Students definitely get impatient with this, but I just know if I let them hot glue everything it would melt the styrofoam and be a total hot mess. The blue painters tape you see on a number of sculptures is used just to very lightly hold pieces in place that might be a bit stubborn when it comes to actually sticking together. The tape all gets removed in the end, though, so it's just styrofoam and glue on a mat board base, nothing else.

This year, I had a few students that wanted to paint their sculptures after it was all said and done, so I allowed them to use tempera paint in the colors of their choosing to paint their sculptures if they had extra time. 

The second part of this project once the sculptures are all said and done is to draw them in negative space. This is a great way to teach kids at this stage who are totally unfamiliar with the whole positive and negative space concept how to draw using only negative space successfully. Why? Well, students don't feel the pressure of having to make their drawing anything specific, like a chair or a stool for instance. It's all just abstract shapes, so it's often easier for them to see what they're doing. How do they accomplish this? I use the triangle self portrait mirrors and cover each side with a colored piece of paper. Each student places their sculpture in front of the mirror and we talk about only drawing the colored shapes we see and filling those in with Sharpie. My example is below:

These also look really cool when you display the sculptures to have these drawings hanging up right behind the right corresponding sculpture. This is just a 9" x 12" piece of paper, so it really doesn't take too much time at all. And it totally helps set Art I kids up for better drawing skills with future projects. 

Overall, this is definitely going to be a staple project of mine for at least a few years to come since I am always stunned by what students are able to do with something as mundane as  a styrofoam cup and very little direction from me.