Inside the Spin-Mosaic Studio

Just like an egg, this Activity is broken up into 3 parts.

Egg Shell = Activity #8 Introduction, "Cousin Justin's Tractor + Cackleberries", March 25

Egg White  = Activity #8 Discussion, "Eed-bawz, Egg Paints, and Pixilated Days", March 26

Egg Yolk = Activity #8 Demonstration Photos," ...The Messy Part!

Roll your sleeves up! 

Throughout 20 years teaching K-12 Art and now full-time studio work, I have had many student teachers shadow my day and even more students ask to interview me over lunch as a topic for an upcoming term paper. One question that never fails to come up is pretty standard, but my answer might not be. "What is one piece of advise your would give to a future teacher?" Believe it or not, for an out-of-the-box creative thinker, I go straight to the textbook and quote educational thinker, Jack Mezzirow, who was a champion of creating atmospheres and experiences to learn within. "That which is memorable will be that which  is transformative."

This Activity will be memorable. 

Another day coloring with crayons will be forgotten. The day Mom or Dad cracked open an egg and placed it in the palm of their hand will not be soon forgotten. Neither will the discussion that surrounds this egg. The "yucky-but-cool" of the egg will ingrain the wholistic experience into your child's schemata.

I'm not going to draw you a road map on this one. If you want to talk to your kids about something important, get out a full-sensory experience to do at the same time. They. Will. Not. Forget. It. Choose your topic. Maximize this activity. It's about more than mixing paints like a historic limner (early artist).

Here we go. You will need:

SUPPLIES:

4 egg yolks (we made lemon meringue pie later in order to use up the whites)

1 recycled cereal box with the front and back cut off at the folds

black or dark markers

bowls to collect and separate the whites from the yolks

toothpicks, popsicle sticks, or plastic forks/spoons for stirring

newspapers, paper towels, or napkins to protect tabletops and clean up drips

food coloring (I used gel tubes but any will work. If you don't have food colors, a little tempera, acrylic or latex will work)

paint brushes

water cup

small plastic cups (or cut to size) big enough for yolks

Carefully crack open your eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. The yolks need to be perfect and unbroken. I saved my egg whites and made lemon meringue pie  in between getting out supplies and actually doing the project. This activity has some serious food science behind it.

Have your tiny containers ready. Each yolk will need to go in its own compartment for each color.

Place a yolk in your hand, and in your child's hand. Advise in advance to keep fingers closed and hands cupped so the yolk won't slip through. Though the yolk is liquid, it will remain in a very round shape because there is a light membrane encasing it (science).

Carefully snag the membrane and let the yellow yolk drip into the cup. This part is very important for the science of the paint. In the same way that meringue will not fluff up if even a tiny bit of yolk gets mixed into the egg white, the chemical make-up of the paint will change if this membrane or the white of the egg remains in the paint. This may take a couple messy tries, but that's okay. 

Add red, blue, and green food coloring to the different compartments. This may sound strange, but add orange or yellow to one cup of yellow yolk. The pigment in a natural egg yolk is very weak.

It takes quite a bit of stirring, but there is nothing more fun or calming than blending colors!

Color Theory: The blue will actually create a darker green because blue + yellow = ? You now have a limited color "palette". The word, palette is an art VOCAB word meaning, "both the surface that paint is placed on as well as describing a selection of colors to use in a painting." No joke, this question was on Jeopardy this past week! All three contestants got it wrong. I  got it right!

The color palette is perfect for painting Cousin Justin's Tractor!  We drew the tractor's outline first with black Sharpie marker. Here's my version...

These paints are translucent and look like glass. This is how paints were created for 100's of years. This is how portraits were created for 100's of years. Limner artists traveled across the country from town to town painting portraits and mixing their paints from egg yolks and natural pigments. Flowers, roots, and vegetation were dried, crushed, and stored in tiny satchels to use as pigment for their colors. Do you know which colors were the hardest to find? Blue and purple. *Stories in future posts.

See how it shines? This paint is DRY, not WET.

When we were done painting, we celebrated with a hot slice of lemon meringue pie!*

Have Fun and Stay Creative!

--Mrs. Z

Note: Earlier this week, we focussed on a mouse's-view game of close-up photography. Example: Guess what this is:

To prep for the activity, I asked several photographers I know, "What one piece of advise would you give to a young budding child photographer?"

The responses I received went way beyond young or budding. My heart was pumped full of inspiring thoughts! So, I asked a few more and a few more photographers. Their answers completely intrigued my imagination. As it turns out, "one" piece of advise is so very versatile across the arts...and across life lessons in general. I have 3 pages of compiled notes from photographers aimed for children, but targeted for everyone with creative vision. I will be working on a series of supplemental blogs as this stuff is too good to keep to myself! Be on the look-out.

And, there is one more detail about this photo you should know. What does the little sign say above the stove?