If you are a detective what do you usually look for? Clues. This lesson's projects all have to do with clues. What are somethings you would look for at a crime scene? Fingerprints? Footprints?
One of our projects for this lesson involves making fingerprint and footprint jewelry.
We pinched a small piece of clay, rolled it in a ball, and pressed our finger in it or stepped on it, or found another object to leave a mark. Don't forget to poke a hole at the top big enough to thread a string for a necklace. We then set them on 3X5 cards labeled with each child's name and cut a piece of string the size each child wanted and set it on the card. I also used dot stickers with each name folded over the string to help keep everyone's straight. After class I spray painted the charms with copper or silver spray paint.
Warning- keeping everyone's straight when spray painting can be a bit tricky so make sure you have your system down- I first tried leaving them on the card, but of course the spray paint paints over the name. The clay is also very light weight, almost like paper, so sometimes the spray paint force blew the charms off of the card. I lined each up and made a list of the order and just did a few at a time inside a box so I could do my best to remember whose were whose. I still ended up with one no one claimed.
To display the jewelry I had clean 3X5 cards that I cut two short slits on one edge and at the end of those slits I hole punched a hole for the necklace string to rest. I threaded the string through the hole of the charms. I put the string in the slits of the cards and then rolled the extra length of string on the back of the card and taped it down. I didn't tie the ends because I figured the kids would want to when they take it home and want to wear it.
Let's pretend you are an art forger. An art forger is someone who makes art that looks like a famous artist might have made it and then tries to sell it saying it is that artist's work. If we were going to do this we would need to make our art look old. One thing that makes art age is the sun.
We picked two different colors of paper and cut a shape out of one. we taped it to the other. We hung them in my window for a day to see what happened.
Another aging technique we used was on metal. We put a penny or piece of copper in a jar, a brass hook, a nut and screw in a jar. We poured enough vinegar to cover the metal and then added salt. I let the kids our in however much they wanted. The next day the students came to class we checked on them. They didn't look much different until we poured out the salt and vinegar and put the pieces of metal back in the jar. once the air got to them they changed a lot. (Hydrogen peroxide seemed to work fairly well to clean them off if you don't want to keep them rusty looking. We kept ours rusty for the art show).
Now, if you worked in a museum and someone tried to sell you something they forged or made to look like a famous artist's work what could you do to tell the difference? (listen to suggestions- some might be to look at the signature or to test the paint or compare styles of painting or brush strokes- all excellent answers). Let's pretend we are museum directors and we are thinking about this piece of art. We need to establish provenance. Provenance is the origin or source. It is the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature. To do this we are going to look at the back of a painting. The back of a painting is just as important as the front. Do the edges of the canvas look worn or freshly cut? Is there a date or name stamped on the back? Any labels? Why might the brand and date of manufacture of the canvas be important? Is it a brand the artist used? Is it the same time period as the artist was living? The back of a painting is a good place to look for clues.
We put together cardboard picture frames. On the back we wrote a secret message or picture with a black light pen. On the front we drew decoration around the edges with glue. Once they were dry after class I spray painted them all with gold paint. We used regular white glue and it dried mostly flat, so if I were to do this again and had a much smaller class of only older children who can handle a glue gun that would probably work better if you want a more prominent texture. At the art show we had a black light flashlight hanging next to the frames so people could look at the back for "clues" as to who the artist is of the frame.
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