1. 3rd Grade Art Project West Mercer Elementary Art Enrichment Program
Calder Wire Portrait
Presentation modified and prepared by Alice Finch 2012
3rd Grade Art Project
West Mercer Elementary Art Enrichment Program

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3. Lesson Overview 1 Lesson: Shape, Form, Line Medium: Copper Wire
Time: 60 minutes
Curriculum Tie: Balance & Measurement—Calder Mobiles
Volunteers: It is recommended that you have 5-6 volunteers for this project.
 Project Overview/Skills
Students will learn about Alexander Calder and make a wire sculpture of a face similar to what Calder did prior to his famous mobiles. We will begin by discussing the principles of balance used in Calder’s artwork and then discuss the concept of continuous line in wire sculpture.
Use Video and Book from library for showing Calder’s artwork.
Vocabulary
Write these up on the board:
Balance—Weight and Visual
Continuous Line 
Display
Consider making a large classroom mobile out of all the wire face sculptures using wire hangers as forms. Another great display option is to hang the sculptures on a wall, putting each student’s final draft drawing behind the face sculpture so you can see how the sculpture compared to the final draft.
Ideas from

4. Calder Wire Portrait Materials Needed
Scratch paper
Pencils
4.5-5 foot lengths of copper wire
pre-cut prior to lesson
Name tags
Small pieces of smaller gauge wire cut for attaching to sculptures
You may also want to add beads, pipe cleaners, feathers or other decorative items to add color and personality to the sculptures, and if you do
it works well to pre-cut short lengths of the wire prior to the lesson

21. Alexander Calder
Self-portrait

22. Alexander Calder
 Throughout his life, Sandy liked to play with things and made thousands of objects. Games, toys, jewelry, sculptures, drawings, paintings, movie sets and costumes and of course, that for which he is most famous, his mobiles.
Alexander Calder was born July 22, 1898, in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, into a family of artists. In 1919, he received an engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken. Calder attended the Art Students League, New York, from 1923 to 1926, studying briefly with Thomas Hart Benton and John Sloan, among others.
Calder died November 11, 1976, in New York.

23. Circus Animals

24. Circus Animals
As a freelance artist for the National Police Gazette in 1925, he spent two weeks sketching at the circus; his fascination with the subject dates from this time. He also made his first sculpture in 1925; the following year he made several constructions of animals and figures with wire and wood.
Later that year, he went to Paris and attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1927 he began giving performances of his miniature circus. The first show of his wire animals and caricature portraits was held at the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in 1928.
That same year, he met Joan Miró , who became his lifelong friend.
Subsequently, Calder divided his time between France and the United States.

25. Mobiles What does the word balance mean?
What does it mean in a piece of art?

26. Mobiles
First, talk about balance as a noun—balance is equality between two things. What does it mean to have balance in artwork? A work of art is balanced if both sides of the piece have the same visual weight. How can you make something have the same visual weight? For example, if you had a painting with a large green tree on one side how could you balance it on the other side? Have the kids brainstorm some ideas. Maybe use an easel or white board to show some ideas…another tree, several small trees, a barn or house, something with really bright colors etc.
Second, talk about balance as a verb—to balance is to make two things equal in weight, value or importance. Use balancing your body as an example. Have a student come up and stand on their left leg. Have them lift their left arm in the air. Can they do it? They will have to raise their right arm to put equal weight on both sides of their body to remain balanced.
Alexander Calder used BOTH concepts of balance in his artwork. He is most famous for his large mobiles & sculptures that hang in museums all over the world. Have you learned about Calder in your studies about balance? Mr. Calder is also famous for creating other kinds of sculpture made out of wire.
There are basically three types of mobiles; those that hang from the ceiling, those that stand and those that are attached to a wall. The name "mobile" was coined by Sandy's friend, the artist Marcel Decamp.
Calder began to experiment with abstract sculpture at this time and in 1931 and 1932 introduced moving parts into his work. These moving sculptures were called “mobiles”; the stationary constructions were to be named “stabiles.”

27. Mobiles- from simple to complex

28. Portraits of Friends

29. Portraits of Friends
After he made his wire canimals for his circus, he started making portraits of people
He set up an entire exhibition with a gallery to display his portraits- when he showed up to set it up, all he had with him was a roll of wire. He sat down and did the portraits right there
What kinds of facial features is he able to show with the wire?
Nose, eyes, mouth, ears are the most obvious
Glasses, pupils, eyebrows, nostril flares, moustache, hat, type of hair, hair style
Frank Crowninshield (Circle base, mustache, pointy eyebrows)

30. Alexander Calder in action
Video of Calder
 Exhibit Showcases Different Side of US Artist – YouTube

31. Calder video
You can also show excerpts of the video in the art folder “Alexander Calder” showing Calder’s work and his famous wire sculptures.
The “Cirque du Calder” is a series of wire sculptures that the kids will be interested in. There is also a segment showing him making a “portrait” of a woman using wire. Here, the artist discusses the concept of wire being like continuous line. Preview the tape to learn more!!

32. Today’s Project
Alexander Calder
Continuous line wire portrait

33. Today’s Project
Any guesses about what we might be doing today? Today we’re are going to make wire sculptures like Calder made! We will use the principles of balance and symmetry and also begin to understand how to “draw” using a single, continuous line to help us make the sculptures.
Before an artist begins a sculpture, they make detailed drawings of what their sculpture might look like. He thinks about all the things we discussed, balance, symmetry, and line.
Please remember that we want to give the students the freedom to create any face that they can imagine; the lead should not facilitate the making of one uniform face. The best part about this project is the individual faces that the students create (it is the creative, expressive part of the lesson!).

34. Step 1- Continuous Line Art

35. Step 1
Pass out a piece of scratch paper so kids can learn about drawing with one continuous line.
First, use the board to talk about continuous line. Draw a straight line on the board. Talk about what you can do with it.
Talk about drawing with a continuous line, in other words, not picking up your pencil from the paper.
You can experiment by drawing different things.
Explain that we are going to make faces with continuous line. Turn the line into an oval…using only about 1/3 of the line. There might be “leftover line”.
Talk about what you can do with the leftover line. A hat, eyes, ears; where does that line want to go?
Finally make a drawing using the “whole line”, not lifting the pencil. Complete the eyes, nose, mouth etc.
Explain that it’s okay to have lines connecting the eyes, nose, mouth etc. since we are using continuous line.
Have them practice their drawings of faces on their paper. Emphasize that we don’t want them to lift their pencil. (Follow attached drawings as guideline)
It works well if you have the students do approximately two rough drafts of a continuous line drawing, followed by a final version upon which they can base their wire sculpture.
After they have a final version, then give instruction/demonstration on how to make the face, as follows.

36. Step 2- Wire Things to remember:
Wire gets kinked- bend it only where necessary
Your wire is long- be aware your wire is and your neighbors

37. Step 2
Second, demonstrate how to make the sculpture. They should think about and use their continuous line drawing as a guideline.
It might be easiest for you to walk through the entire process, then go back and demonstrate each step and have them follow along with their wire.
Precautions: Four foot lengths of wire can be a little unruly. Make sure students give each other enough space once they begin sculpting to avoid getting poked.

38. Step 2- Make a nose Bend the wire in half.
Make a loop around two fingers to make a balloon shape and twist the wire 2 times.
Point the balloon down and make it look like a nose

39. Step 3- Make an eye Separate the two wires.
Make a loop around 2 fingers
Wrap the wire around a 2nd time.
Pull the 2nd loop tighter to represent the pupil of the eye.

40. Step 4- Make an ear Make a long, flat loop to represent an ear.
Twist it 3 times.

41. Step 5- Make another eye and ear
Use the other wire to make another eye:
Make a loop around 2 fingers
Wrap the wire around a 2nd time.
Pull the 2nd loop tighter to represent the pupil of the eye.
And another ear:
Make a long, flat loop to represent an ear.
Twist it 3 times.

42. Step 6- Make some hair
Use the rest of the length of the wire from the second ear to make hair.
Curly hair
Parted hair
Spiky hair
Wrap the wire around the top of the first ear to tie it off.

43. Step 7- Make a chin
Use the rest of the wire from the first ear to make a chin or mouth.
Wrap the end of the wire around the bottom of the second ear to tie it off.

44. Step 8- Put your name on it
Write your name on a tag and attach it to your portrait.