 Welcome, everyone.
My name is Barbara Ellmann,
and I'm from Lincoln Center.
Today we'll be turning
paper into sculpture
by transforming flat shapes
into three-dimensional forms.
For today's activity,
you will need
these supplies-- a shopping
bag, scissors, and tape.
We will start by cutting
four geometric shapes
from an open shopping bag.
I've already opened my bag up.
And the shapes I'm
thinking of are
the shapes that are hanging
above my head on the wall--
a square, a rectangle,
a triangle, a circle.
And then I'm going to ask
you to cut one extra shape.
Now, I've already
cut my shapes out,
and I want to show
you what I did.
Here's my square, my rectangle,
my triangle, my circle.
And I'm using the handle of
my bag as my extra shape,
so it's kind of oval.
And those are my five
shapes ready to go.
To make flat shapes into
three-dimensional forms that
have height, width, and depth--
that forward back dimension--
we will need to transform them.
And I have three techniques--
fold, pleat, and roll--
that will make our shapes
into three-dimensional forms.
I want to show you how
easy that is to do,
and the result is that
the shapes will stand up
by themselves.
So here's an example of fold,
a larger example of pleat,
and here is a roll--
all standing up on their own.
So using the three
techniques, I'm
now going to take my shapes.
I'm going to fold this triangle.
I'm going to pleat this square.
And pleating is really
the repetition of folding.
It goes back and forth.
You can make it
very regular or you
can make the pleats irregular,
meaning different distances
apart.
And pleating is really
the repetition of folding.
It goes back and forth.
You can make it
very regular or you
could make the pleats irregular,
meaning different distances
apart.
OK, so I'm going to
take my rectangle
and I'm going to
roll my rectangle.
So there's my tube, my roll.
And I'm going to fold
this handle shape.
Now, I'm using
white tape because I
want you to be able
to see me, but you'll
want to use clear tape.
It's not as stable as
some of my other shapes.
I'm going to roll this, but
I'm not going to tape it,
and I'm going to see what
that's like, because I
think that it will be a kind
of nice soft, curvy shape.
Some people might call it a
curl, as opposed to a roll--
like this.
And I know that this one's not
going to stand up by itself,
but it still is
three-dimensional.
It has height, it has
width, and it has depth.
So those are the shapes
I'm going to use,
and now I need to
put them together.
So as I bring the
shapes together,
I have to make sure that
my sculpture continues
to balance and stand on its
own, and one of the ways
to do that is to let a shape
that's not quite so stable
come and join a shape
that is very stable.
So I'm going to use
the white tape as I go
to attach one shape to another.
As I work, I'm also going to
be turning my sculpture around
so I can see it from
a variety of angles.
So there's no front and
no back to my sculpture.
You want to be able to find
it interesting from all sides,
from all angles.
That's what makes sculpture
a pleasure to see.
It's funny-- I thought it was
going to balance my triangle.
It's really balancing
on my paper bag handle.
But they're holding together.
It's pretty secure.
You've got to try a
few things and see
which suits you best, because
the shapes can go together
in a variety of ways.
It's got a lot of
different possibilities.
Looks like it's got a sun hat--
you can try this sculpture
making project again.
I've done it three times
using the same five shapes--
the four on the wall behind
me and the handle of my bag.
In this one, I
used colored marker
and I drew on the flat shapes
before I began assembling it.
And you might want
to try that too
as a way of integrating
whatever is on your shopping bag
into your final project.
Thanks for joining me.
I really enjoyed making
sculpture with you.
I'm Barbara Ellmann
from Lincoln Center.
Keep making things.
