End of the Year Magazine Bowls

At the end of the year things move quickly. With all the testing, field trips and graduation it's good to have some projects that students can pick up easily wherever they left off after field trips and such. The last project I did with my students at the end of the year was  a magazine bowl. Its great because the librarian usually gets rid of old magazines at the end of the year and I stock up for this project and other things for the next year. This is a good opportunity to introduce the students to recycled art and alternative media.

Materials:

• Magazines
• Elmer's glue in glue bottles
• Mod Podge and paint brushes

Procedures:

1. Before beginning the project I took the magazines and cut them up with a large paper cutter. I just cut the pages in half long ways and left stacks of magazines on each student's desk.
2. I took the students through the steps of folding the strips of paper first. Take a strip of paper and fold it in half hot dog style. Open the paper, and  fold each side into the middle so that the edges line up with the center line. Repeat that step again and then fold it in half. Now you'll have a neatly folded paper with an open end and a closed in, sort of like a tepee shape.
3. This webpage gives fairly descent photos. http://pradaforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/diy-fun-magazine-bowls/
4. To start the actual bowl you start with the base. The shape of the bowl is determined by the shape of the base. The simplest shape is a circle, but you can do almost any shape if you get creative enough. We managed to create heart shapes, circle, square, tear drop and star shape. If you do the star shape you might need paper clips to hold the paper in place while its drying.
5. If you are doing a simple round bowl the start by putting Elmer's glue along one side of a strip of folded paper. Then begin to tightly coil the paper around and around. It looks best to have the closed side of the paper pointing upward throughout the whole process.Once you get to the end of one piece just get another piece of magazine and continue where the last one ended.
6. Once you have your base created, its time to do the sides.  To create the walls of the bowl is the same as creating the base except you allow the paper to stick up just a little bit each time higher than before.
7. Lastly, once the bowl is complete, have your students do a coat of Mod Podge over the surface of the whole thing to harder it and make it sturdier.