Exploring joining techniques for sculpture

Key Stage 1

Art and design

Sculpture

﻿Hello, everyone. It's Mrs. Tong here again for Lesson 2 of your Sculpture Unit. I'm really excited today because we're going to start some joining techniques ready for our sculpture. For this lesson you're going to need cardboard scraps, scissors, a pen or pencil, some tape. But if you don't have tape, you can use little strips of paper with some glue. Any type of tape will do as well. If you do have them, then it's really good to try and use either paper fasteners and paper clips, if you have them. A stapler and a hole punch. Now in this picture, I've got a one hole punch, but any hole punch would be fine. Now the items along the bottom row, you don't have to have and you don't need for the lesson, but if you do have them, then that's great. Please be aware that there is some equipment here this week, the hole punch, the stapler, and the scissors, that you may need a little bit of adult supervision with. So in the lesson today, we're going to think about the different materials that sculptors use. We're going to explore a range of joining techniques, and we're going to review which techniques are the most suitable for the material that we're using and the sized work that we're making. Can you remember in Lesson 1, that I explained that material, when we're talking about making artwork, means what we're making it from. So it could be wood or in this case, cardboard. I have some star words today. Will you say them with me? sculpture. 3 dimensional, or 3D. assemblage. Can you remember, that's the type of sculpture we're going to be making? It means that it's being made by joining pieces together or assembling them. relief. You might remember that, that's a type of sculpture which isn't freestanding. It doesn't stand alone in a space. It is often joined to a wall, or maybe laid on the floor. scale. Can you see that there's a new word today? Can you see which one it is? That's right. It's scale. Now, when we talk about scale with artwork, we're talking about the size of it, how large or small it is. scale. Let's have a look at some joining techniques that sculptors use. Don't worry though, we won't be using these today. First one is welding or joining metal. I mentioned that in the previous lesson, so the metal is made very hot. Can you see that it's so hot and bright that the man is wearing a mask and is using some special equipment, which makes lots of heat and sparks? The metal is melted at the joins, so that the two pieces stick together. It's like a strange molten metal glue, really. The next one is assemblage. That is the joining technique that we're going to use for our sculpture, but we won't be using woods like in the picture. We'll be using cardboard. Weaving, sewing, or joining fabrics and plastics. Often sculptors weave different materials together. Sometimes weaving can form part of an assemblage sculpture too. Modelling. This is often a process that uses a soft material. In this picture, I've got clay, but it could be other materials that we can make softer, that we can change the shape of, like maybe sand or certain types of plastic that we can heat and then pour. But modelling is starting with something that is soft and we can move it around, and using hands and tools to make it into the shapes that we want to for our sculpture. There are some sculptures on the left of the screen, and the processes again, just like we've just looked at, on the right. Shall we see if we can match them up? Let's talk about them. How do you think they were made? The one at the top, the one that looks a bit like a dragon's head is sticking out of the wall, isn't it? Now it's made of stone. How do you think that was made? Is it assembled? No, I don't think we can stick stone together. We definitely can't weld stone together, 'cause that's just for metal. It's not woven, and it's not modelled. So this sculpture has been carved out of a piece of stone. Can you see the technique at the bottom with the blue tool? That is an electric stone carving tool. Let's look at the red sculpture now, with the swirls and the twisty shapes in it. It's one of my favourites. It's made of metal. So how do you think it was joined? That's right. It was welded. So the metal was made hot before it was joined together. Let's have a look at the lion. I hope you like that one. I think that, that one has been assembled with wood. Do you agree? Have a close look. Yeah, I think we're definitely right. I think that's definitely been assembled. Let's have a look at the colourful one at the bottom with the colourful patterns on it. Now that could have been modelled first, before it was made into a very strong material for outdoors. And then the final one, if you look very closely, can you see what it's made off? That's right. It's made of different thread, different types of thread, different colours. It has greys and golds and browns, doesn't it? Now those threads have been woven together, and maybe they've been bound around each other as well. So they've been woven. Let's have a think about which joining techniques we're going to explore today. I'm going to show you a few different techniques, and you can use what you have at home to try as many of them as you can. And then you'll be able to decide which ones were the most effective for you, which ones worked best. So your first task, the first joining technique is slotting the cardboard together. With all of the techniques I'm going to show you, I suggest that you start just with two squares of cardboard. You can use other shapes if you want to, but squares will do for now. We're just practising attaching them together. So I've drawn two squares in the picture and cut them out, and then I'm going to slot them together. Each time I show you a technique, I have a little video of how I did it. So we're going to show you how to slot the cardboard together, first of all. You need two squares for this, your pen or pencil, and your scissors. Okay, so the first thing we need to do is to draw a line on each of the pieces of cardboard that is about halfway up, maybe just less than halfway up. It doesn't matter too much. Okay? Then we're going to cut along those lines on each piece and then those open pieces, we'll slot together with a little bit of wiggling. They'll go together, you may have to straighten them out, and it makes a very strong shape which will stand up by itself. It will become a 3D shape. Have a go at slotting two of your squares of cardboard together. Okay, pause the video now and see if you can have a go at slotting together two pieces of cardboard. Your next joining technique is joining two pieces of cardboard together using paper fasteners, sometimes called split pins or paper clips. Then try having a go using a stapler. Again, my film will help you. Okay, we're going to try joining two pieces of cardboard together now with either split pins and or paper clips, whatever you have at home. Don't worry if you don't have one of these things. There's plenty of joining techniques that you can use. But we're having a go if we have the equipment at home. So in order to use these split pins, which you've probably used at school, we're going to need to make some holes. So I've got a one-hole punch here, but you might have one that makes two holes. That's absolutely fine. It doesn't really matter. So I need to make a hole in each of my pieces of cardboard. And then I put my holes together so that they match up. I take my paper fastener and I need to push it through and then turn over my pieces of cardboard and separate the two little metal sort of arms on the back. It also means that your cardboard can move, which might be useful when you're putting together more than one piece. You might need to move things around a little bit in order to slot them together. Okay. So then if I wanted to attach another piece using a paper clip, I think the easiest way is to simply overlap them and press the paper clip on. And you can sort of squish and bend the paper clip to make it a secure join. You could also put another one in another direction. I'm using fancy coloured paper clips, but you don't need colour at all. It's simply so that you can see what I'm doing more clearly. So there we go. That's quite a strong join with two paper clips. And I also have a join here, that I can move about if I need to. But also if I squish it hard from the back and the front, it makes it a secure join that doesn't move. So have a go at those two joining techniques as well, if you have those materials at home. Okay, I'm going to show you the next way to join your cardboard with something else you may have at home, a stapler. So you need to be careful when you're using these pieces of equipment, but you're absolutely safe if you use them the way that I'm going to show you. So to use the stapler to join your pieces of cardboard together, you need to overlap the edges a little bit like this. Okay, and then we line it up so that the staple will go across the two different pieces of cardboard. And the safest way to use your stapler is by leaving it on your desk or your table and just pressing down on it with your whole hand. So then your fingers go nowhere near where the staple is. I'm going to turn around my piece of cardboard. And again, only pressing down on my stapler, not with my fingers anywhere near this bit here. So put my whole hand on the top of the stapler, tuck my thumb in so it's nice and safe, and press down. Okay. Now that shot out two staples. There, we don't need that one. But that really nice secure join. Pause the video again, while you have a go at these two techniques if you have the equipment. Use paper fasteners and a stapler. Okay. The third joining technique is joining two pieces of card together by taping them together. Now you might think that this sounds like the easiest way, but it isn't always, because sometimes the cardboard won't stay at an angle together. So when you tape things, they often go flat. So you need to be careful today and see if you can make a fold in your piece of tape before you put it into the corner of your two pieces of cardboard, so that they all fit together. If you don't have tape, or you may want to try this anyway. I found this to be actually more effective than tape. You can use some paper strips that glue your pieces together. Because the paper is a little bit less flexible than tape, it seems to be stronger. So have a look at my video and have a go. Remember that my top tip is to fold your piece of tape or paper first. Then you can fit it into the join. Okay, the next way of joining two pieces of cardboard together is by taping or using a sort of paper joint. And I'll show you what I mean. So if you have a piece of tape, I've got green tape here so that you can see it clearly on the video, but you can use cello tape or masking tape, or any type of tape that you have. You can simply tape both of the pieces together. So push them together securely, and then tape nice and press it down nice and tightly. Okay. So that makes a flexible joint. You could also put a piece of tape on the other side to make that. That makes it a stronger joint, but is still flexible if you need it to be. Okay, the other way you can do that, if you don't have any tape at home is just by using some glue, either PVA glue or a glue stick and a little strip of paper. So if you glue your strip of paper, you can use it like a piece of tape, and you can press it on really securely. And it will work just the same way as a piece of tape. In fact, it might even be stronger, because it's less flexible than the tape. Now, my top tip here is if you have your strip of paper, if you give it a little fold, first of all, that fold will push into the join of the two pieces of cardboard, and that will be a really secure joint then. Okay, so we're folding our paper and then pressing it securely into the joint of the cardboard, before we glue it down on both sides. Like that, and that makes a really strong, if your glue is dry, join in your cardboard. Pause the video again to have a go at joining technique 3 using tape and, or paper strips. All right, let's review our work today. Which of those joining techniques gave you a really strong structure? Which of them helped you to join your pieces of cardboard together at different angles? When we come to make our sculpture in the next lesson, we're going to be thinking about which angles to put our pieces of cardboard together. Which of those joining techniques did you find the most tricky today? I've got to say that I found stapling them together a little bit tricky, and sometimes using tape. Although it was easy to put the tape on, it wasn't as strong as using a paper strip with glue. What did you find out? Okay, now you have a task. I'd like you to draw six shapes onto a piece of card. It doesn't matter what shapes you draw. You can you draw any shapes, six squares, six different shapes. You might even want to remember some of the shapes that we drew in the previous lesson. Cut your shapes out carefully. You may need to ask an adult to help you, because sometimes the cardboard can be quite tricky to cut if it's quite thick. Step 2 of your task is to join the shapes together. You've tried lots of different joining techniques now, so see how many different ones you can use. This isn't making a proper sculpture yet. We're just exploring the joining techniques. So don't worry what it looks like at this stage. Although of course, if you end up with a sculpture that you're quite happy with, that's great, isn't it? Pause the video to join your shapes together. Well, these were my joining experiments. What do you think? Can you see the joining techniques that I've used? So on the picture on the left, I've slotted the shapes together and used split pins. In the picture in the middle, I've used green tape so that you can see it really clearly, and I've used white paper strips. You can actually see that the paper strips are much stronger than the tape, because the tape is starting to loosen off at the top. So next time I needed to tape something, I'd definitely use glue and paper strips like a special type of tape. And then the piece on the right is also slotting pieces together. You can see that I joined four or five or six pieces of cardboard together lots of times in different ways. I had really good fun making these experiments. So I carried on doing it, and I hope you will as well. Your review task today. We can't have a sketchbook task, because you won't be able to put these in your sketchbook because they're not flat. So you have a review task instead, and your review task today is to present your joining experiments to someone at home. So this time, you're not just going to be sculptors, you're also going to be teachers. It would be really great if you could show somebody else at home how to use one of the joining techniques. You might teach them something they hadn't thought of before. It's really important that we learn things by doing them, and then by showing how we did them. I've learned a lot by making these videos for you. And so I will use some of the techniques for my future artwork. That means, that because I'm a teacher, I'm also a learner, and you're going to be both today as well. Okay. Sculptors, please pause the video and be ready to become sculptors and teachers. Show someone at home your work and how you've made it, how you joined the pieces together. Well done, everyone. What a fun lesson. Let's have a recap. What joining techniques did we learn today? Well, we learned using paper fasteners and paper clips, or maybe all paper clips. We used using a stapler. We used slotting the cardboard together. And we used taping the cardboard together, or using paper strips and glue instead of tape. That's at least five techniques that we used today. I hope you managed to try lots of them. What do you think of your piece of work? Which do you think worked best out of all of the techniques? I really enjoyed slotting together the cardboard, and then making it really secure with small paper and glue strips. I think that was my favourite joining technique today, and maybe one of the easier ones too. It also only needed scissors, which we all will have at home, so everybody was able to try that one. Do you agree with me? Yeah. I think it was a really good one, wasn't it? And it joined the cardboard together effectively, which is the most important thing. If you'd like to share your work today, the details are on the screen. But please always ask for an adult's help to do this. I've really enjoyed the lesson today. Thank you so much for joining me. Join me for the next lesson where we'll be making our sculpture. Bye-bye.

Exploring joining techniques for sculpture

Exploring joining techniques for sculpture

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UnitArt and design / Sculpture

Art and design