Printmaking with styrofoam

from: artteacheradventures.blogspot.com

Yesterday I made a post about Art-In-Tents Artapalooza. I left a comment on the Adventures of an Art Teacher blog and Katie, the art teacher blogger, was kind enough to reply.

My comment was a question asking how the prints (shown in the photo from her site) were done. Continue reading for her how-to. I think this would make a great make and take or ART Attack project!
She replied:
"I'm not sure if the high school Art teachers ordered Styrofoam or exactly where they got it. I remember doing the project when I was in 5th grade- my teacher got some styrofoam trays (the kind used for meat) from the grocery store. We drew designs into them with pencil. The pencil makes enough of an impression that the line will show when it's printed. They told the students to just make designs with lines and shapes since they had very limited time and those were the more successful prints. Of course, it could be done with any sort of image as long as the artist keeps in mind that it will print in reverse. After the design was done, they just inked the plate using a brayer and made three prints so they could pick the best one."

 See more designs that the sixth grade students made on Katie's blog. The designs kind of remind me of zentangles. (More on those in another future post)

Here's what we'd need to do this project:

• Styrofoam trays (think someone could ask Stater Bros or one of the local grocery stores to give us some?)
• Pencils (we can ask each student to bring their own pencil)
• Brayers (there might be easy ways to DIY these)
• Acrylic paints (Walmart has lots of color for under $1 each bottle)
• Paper - a thicker drawing paper would be good.
• Someone artistic to show the kids how to do the designs and types of marks/designs to try...and have some examples displayed

I'm not sure how long of a time frame would be optimum for this - would there be enough time if we did this project in the morning before school?

Any thoughts from my readers? Anyone artistic who can make some examples and help lead this activity? Step right up...

As always, thank you for reading and please consider volunteering to help out during the ART Attacks! Thanks!