The Renaissance - Continues

Here are some pictures from our bas-relief project, here we are putting the latex onto the clay forms that we previously prepared. There will end up being about 10 layers of the latex when we are all finished. The latex is quite thick, thicker than I expected it to be, and it has a very strong smell. It is hard to get a light even coat of it, and I think we'll have some goopy areas. It is pretty fun to spread around, though.

Putting latex on the clay forms, layer 1.

More latex.

This stuff is really stinky, by the way. Do it with the windows open.

Messy!

Baby + Bathroom + Toilet = Messy!

Palin for President

This is Genius!!

The Renaissance - Days 3, 4, & 5

I suppose you want to know how the unit is going. The Book of Days project was wonderful. Check out the pictures!



We've read about Ghiberti and the Doors of Paradise in Learning Through History magazine, and are looking at bronze bas relief. Then following the instructions here, we are making our own plaster bas reliefs. First we are making the forms out of modeling clay. This week we will be making the casts out of latex, and then making the plaster casts. I'll try to keep photos to show our progression.

This week we also are going to be learning a bit more about Gutenberg and his printing press. I've got a few books on Gutenberg, and also have read some from the Famous Inventors book over at Baldwin Project.

A Blast from the Past

If this doesn't bring back memories - the good kind, and the scary kind, what does??

The Sweater Song.

The Renaissance - Day 2

The second day of the Renaissance. This day is pretty light, considering.

Yesterday we began the "Book of Days" project. We continued with them today. Ace is finished, Deuce and Three are still working on theirs. Jack is just coloring the outlines.

Today's subject is Dante. Van Loon's Story of Mankind has a nice introduction of who Dante was. After such introduction, we cut his portrait out and put it in our timeline notebook. Our timeline is a large sketchbook with a black line across the top of it, each page representing 100 years. We put Dante in at 1300 for writing his poem, The Inferno. We've been working on this timeline for several years now. It is something we add to whenever we feel that something "needs" to go into it.

Here are some directions to make your own timeline notebook.
From KnowlegeQuest
From Donna Young
From Sqidoo

Some links to Dante.
Here is the portrait we used.
A pretty neat explanation of the poem.
A pretty easy translation.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure?

The Renaissance - Day 1

We are going to study the Renaissance for the next little bit.

Day 1 reading: Story of Mankind by van Loon, section on The Renaissance, end today at the section just before the introduction of Dante.

Label a map of the Renaissance: Italian Renaissance States, Italian Renaissance Cities
Blank Map of Italy

Art Project: Limbourg Brothers Book of Days, from Discovering Great Artists book
Some samples: http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art27.htm
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/limbourg/index.html

Stay tuned for how this went, and also for Day 2's adventure!!