Henna Hand Sculpture or Zen Tangle Hand Sculpture

Specific Objectives:

• Create a series of drawings that represent Henna body art of the hand or Zen Tangle Inspired.

• Demonstrate basic ceramics skills by using air dry or low fire cay.

• Define terms: CERAMICS, SCORE, SLIP, TEXTURE, & SPACE.

• Students will create a final composition in the style of Henna body art or Zen Tangle that is carved into the clay and painted to represent an original design.

Required Materials:

• Paper

• Ruler

• Pencil

• Air Dry Clay / Low Fire Clay

• Acrylic Paint.

• Clay tools.

• Bowls or cups.

• Air tight Bin to hold clay

Introduction/ Discussion: Anticipatory Set:

Henna body art is an ancient custom used by Muslim and India as a ceremonial style of symbol decoration on the hands and feet of women. Today this design is now done for both men and women and is drawn on the skin with special inks that last for 6 weeks. Very similar in appearance to a tattoo it is meant to bring good fortune to the wearers. Students will create original designs similar to the Henna but can be original. Students will pick the best design and will be instructed to create a ceramic sculpture of their hand. They will carve into the clay their design and finish it with a painted layer.

Step-By-Step Procedures:

1. Start the lesson by asking the students to define terms related to Ceramics.

• CERAMICS - Art made from clay to produce pottery or sculptures.

• KNEADING - is a step in preparing clay for shaping.

• SLIP - Small amount of clay mixed with water and used as a ‘glue’ to join pieces together

• SCORE - Scratching the surface of clay so that 2 pieces can be joined together.

• TEXTURE - The perceived surface quality of a work of art.

• SPACE - Is a two or three dimensional volume that can be either empty or filled with objects.

• POSITIVE SPACE - The shapes or forms that occupy two and three dimensional space.

• NEGATIVE SPACE - The empty space surrounding a two or three dimensional object.

2. Henna Body Art is a traditional practice of the people of India for ceremonies like weddings and is usually painted on a woman's hands and feet. Students will be then asked to think of a design or pattern that they would like to have “tattooed” onto their hand. The design can either be of a traditional nature like flowers or it can be something simple as a design that repeats itself. Students should trace their hand on a piece of paper to create the shape and then begin drawing the image onto the hand. At least 4 sketches should be done of varying designs and concepts. The best overall design will be turned into a ceramics sculpture.

3. To prevent the clay from drying out students need to bring in a plastic bag or zip lock back to keep the sculpture from drying out. Place the clay on wax paper and/or a damp paper towel on top of that. Place the sculpture into the bag and seal so as to keep air from the clay. This should keep the sculpture from day to until the project is carved.

Students should be given clay to knead into a shape roughly a pinky finger in thickness and wide enough to place their hand onto. Use a board of linoleum leather mat or piece of plastic covered material to roll out the clay. They should use the hand (that is not their writing hand) to trace onto the clay. Lightly trace around their hand with a sculpting tool or a pencil or plastic knife. Follow with a carving knife remove the hand from the cut out shape.. If there are and low areas or parts of the hand that are not thick enough students should use the excess clay to build up these areas.

4. Students will take their clay and begin carving into the clay their designs that they chose for the Henna design. Clay can be very forgiving and any missed lines or designs can be ‘erased’ by smoothing out the clay and applying more. Once the design has been completed the students should let the air dry clay dry overnight and should not put it in a bag or cover with a wet paper towel.

5. The final part of the project is to paint the hand. It is best to paint the carved areas out first with a dark color like black or blue because it is easier to do get into the small crevice before applying paint on the raise surface. One the paint has dried the students will then continue to paint the top surface of the hand completing the final look of the project.

Summary / Closure:

After completing the project students should have mastered a basic understanding clay and Henna Body Art.

The students will have a completed a series of drawings as well as developed a basic understandings of the historical importance of a famous sculptor.

A final piece of art will be completed depicting a student’s representation of their hand using body art to create a design. Using Ceramics students will have gained an understanding of space texture and shape, and form.

Evaluation: Assessment Based on Objectives:

The final grade will be based on the evaluation of the art piece, participation, effort, and quality of paper and art work.

• Students will earn a percentage for their Portfolio Review, both as presenter and as audience. An Artist statement will be completed and a Rubric filled out for this portion as well.

• Quality of the work done will be a large part of the grade based on how well they have demonstrated an understanding of the concepts and their depiction. Overall condition of the final pieces will also have a factor in the grading.

• Effort put into the project will be demonstrated by both the final images and the how well the student worked in class on each project. (Factors include: is the project completed, and does it look like the student worked on it and not other things?)

• The final drawing / painting / etc… as well as the several examples of different images will be combined to make up half of the project’s grade.

• A six week test on the vocabulary will also be used as a grade to determine the student understands of the subject matter.

• The Rubrics are made up of 5 categories: Project completion (30%), Participation (20%), Originality (20%), Quality of art work (20%), and Follows directions (10 %).

Henna Hand Sculpture

Objective: Concept / Topic to teach:

• Students will learn about the ancient traditional of Henna Body art while creating a ceramics sculpture of their hand.

• Student will be introduced to a famous artist in the field of ceramics.

• Students will define ceramics related terms.

• Students will create several images of Henna Hand Art or Zen Tangle inspired art.

• Create a designs they would like to see turned into a sculpture.