Scarab Beetle Sculptures

These scarab beetles were made by grade 6 students who were studying Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians worshipped scarab beetles as an embodiment of the god Khepri. Pendants made to resemble Scarab beetles were often worn by the pharoahs as a symbol of their wealth and power. 

Students created a small clay body for the beetle after viewing photographs of scarab beetles. Three ridges were made on the underside of the body. After firing and glazing, the legs, made from short pieces of wire covered in masking tape were glued into these ridges with a hot glue gun. Students also added small glass beads as the eyes. Similar beetles were created by a group of grade one students a few years ago. They can be seen here.

Egyptian Cat Mummies

 

These simple little sculptures are my variation on the cardboard tube owls that have been floating around on blogs and on Pinterest for a while now. Who originally created them? I don't know, but here's one example of the owls at 'Qlturka'. They are so simple to make. Squash in the top of a cardboard tube (NOT a toilet roll as we are not allowed to use them for craft projects for hygiene reasons so we have to buy them unused) to make ears and then cover in paper or papier mache or in our case, masking tape.

As these grade 6 students are learning about Ancient Egypt, they appreciated the feeling of wrapping their cats in tape as if mummifying them! We looked at a few pictures of cat mummies before painting the sculptures and drawing on features and patterns in black marker.

Tutankhamun Masks

My grade 6 classes are exploring the art of Ancient Egypt this term. They made these masks in Art for a class assembly item, which were inspired by photographs of King Tutankhamun's famous gold death mask. Students used cardboard, gold paint and textas. They made a cardboard head band attached to the back to hold the masks on. Thanks to Ms Evans for finishing them off in class and a huge thanks to Anna Pietrolungo (my fellow Aussie) from 'Imagine Explore Create' for the idea - it was exactly what I needed!

 

Ancient Egyptian Style Carved Tablets

Grade 7 students created these Ancient Egyptian inspired carved tablets from plaster.

After studying the designs used in artefacts and heiroglyphics, each student drew a design on paper. We made a plaster block by mixing up plaster in the bottom of an icecream container. Once set, the plaster was popped out of the container, the edges were sanded and the students drew their designs onto their block in pencil. Carving tools were used to carve out their design and finished blocks were painted to look aged.