Corinne Okada Design - Free Bird Workshop

Free Bird - November 20, 2007

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Mixed Media Wire Lesson
Lesson plan by Corinne Okada Takara
Step by step artists: Cassie & Cole (seven year olds)
Project duration: Three 45 minute sessions.
Grades: can be modified for higher elementary to high school

The subject of this project is a free bird just let out of its cage. If you were this bird, would you sit and sing? Fly away quick? Dance? Do a flip? What can a free bird be a metaphor for? Can you think of anything in the current news or in history that it might be a metaphor for? Think about this as you design your bird and your cage. Have photocopy images of different bird cages and birds on each table. It should be a sampling of whimsical and simple cages and a sampling of various birds from sparrow to exotic.

Materials:
Background: Large Matt board pieces (one per student) and tissue paper
Sketching: One piece of 8/12/ x11 paper per child and pencil
Bird: 20-26 gauge 18” long floral wire. (4 or 5 per student)
Scarp paper (newspaper, tissue paper, candy wrappers, comics, etc…)
Cage: 20-26 gauge 18” long floral wire. (15 per student)
or 12” long craft pipe cleaners. (16 per student).
Needle nose pliers (with cutting edge)
White glue
Scissors
Tape
Matt knife (to cut slits in matt board for sticking wire in)
Floral leaves from craft store, bells, beads and produce netting (optional)

BEGIN HERE:

1. Fold sketch paper in half. Sketch the outline form of a bird cage on one half of paper. Using simple line to draw…think of a cookie cutter form.

2. On the other half of the paper draw the shape of the floor (top view looking down) of the cage. This is a simple form like a circle, oval, square, or rectangle.

3. Give each student the same size length of wire. Ask them to make a loop with it and make a fixed circle with the wire by twisting the ends.

This is then formed to the shape of the base sketch.

4. Add upright line of cage by twisting new pieces of long wire around base. First take two pieces of wire and overlap them by half an inch. Twist this overlap area together to form a longer wire.

5. Make a “U” with the long wire. Make a bend towards the bottom of curve on each side of “U”. Flatten the length between the bends. The width of the distance between these bends should be just a tad wider that the width of the base wire form.

Twist wire ends of long wire around base at each bend. This will create first vertical wires.

6. Twist vertical wires at top to create top edge of cage. Do not to worry if the form is floppy. It will get stiffer as more horizontal and vertical bracing is added. Be creative with the form. Details like curly wires can be added.

7. When the cage is complete, students can attach one long wire at top so that it looks like is it hanging. This wire will later attach to the matt board. Students can also create wire door for cage. They can add a swing or perch to cage. (optional) If there is extra wire, students can also make branches, window ledges…etc.

8. Bird sketch. Sketch the outline of a bird that would roughly fit in the cage. Be sure to emphasize line in the sketch work.

Remember that this is a just freed bird. What is it doing? How can this be shown in the outline sketch?

9. Make the bird with the floral wire. Twist ends of two wires together to make one long wire. Place the wire on the sketch. Bend the wire to follow their pencil sketch. Tape down wires in a few places as to help keep the form.

10. Take off tape and try to give a bit of volume to the bird by adding a few wires that cross the structure and bow out forward. This will pillow out the form.

11. Paper the bird in a few places. Make paper sections bigger than area to be covered. Add glue. Lay paper on top of wire and cut tabs to fold over wire. If you use newspaper, try to pick text that might be relevant to the idea of freedom. (i.e.: freedom of expression, freedom from oppression, freedom from fear…)

12. Composition of elements on matt board. Think about expressing motion in composition. Asymmetrical composition would work well. Diagonal balance may be best. Students can even have bird flying off the edge of the matt board. Take time deciding on this. Do not attach cage or bird yet.

13. Behind spot for cage and bird, add torn colored tissue paper with glue.

14. Attach cage by long wire at top of matt board. Make a small hole with matt knife in board and loop the wire through it. (One can also attach cage at bottom edge to matt board by poking two holes through matt board and stitching bottom edge of cage down.)

15. Attach the bird to the board. First add a four inch length of wire out the back of the bird. Poke a hole with matt knife in the spot the bird will extend out from. Pole wire through and kink on back side and tape in place. This will make the bird look like it is hovering on the front side.

*Tip for twisting wire: Make sure that with all the twisting the twists are tight and close together, like a boa constrictor winding around its prey (my son, Cole’s metaphor). Then be sure to kink the wire so that it bends in the direction you want from that joint.

Also, do not let children make long wires longer that two pipe cleaners long as that would makes the chances of poking someone in the eye greater. Be sure the students have plenty of space to work. Remind them to be aware of the ends of their wires. Be careful of eyes. If you have them, shop goggle would be great.

Practice: Have students practice making a loop by taking a small length of wire (maybe five inches) and make a circle. Connect the circle by slightly kinking the ends then wrapping them around the other end. This will make a clean loop. For a perpendicular joint, take two small pieces of wire. Make a hook on one piece of wire and with pliers wrap it around the middle of the other wire.

For high school grades, I recommend larger matt board for experimenting with composition. Have the students design a monochromatic background wallpaper pattern on the matt board. Use acrylic or watercolor. Do this by first creating a light stencil pattern in pencil on a diagonal grid. Students research wallpaper patterns. Make the pattern relevant to subject matter of freedom. (i.e. if student’s free bird piece alludes to issues of freedom of speech in Russian media, simple elements such as silhouettes of Russian nesting doll can be used). Instead of tissue paper behind the wire forms, have them add a soft glow of pastels (tint of background color or light analogous color of background). Bird and cage should be mostly the complimentary or split complimentary color of the background pattern. This extended project will span four or five 45 minute classes.

I don’t recommend this project for below 4th grade unless you have a very small group of children and are able to assist them with some of the wire twisting.

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