Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Aluminum Tooled Illuminated Letters

The first project of the Middle Ages Unit for the 7th Grade is an Illuminated Letter created by tooling an aluminum plate to create a relief sculpture of a letter. To scaffold the skills of this process, we study calligraphy both digitally and by hand. We also immerse ourselves into the middle ages by studying medieval scribes and the laborious methods by which manuscripts were created. The students create a calligraphy letter final draft by hand,  including a personal symbol and stylized line designs.  They identify areas within their sketch that are to be convex, concave or neutral through light and dark shading. After to tooling process students then create a geometric border, color with marker, and outline with sharpie. This is a rich project that connects students with themes of history, old and new technologies and simple and complex art methods. The results are simply stunning!

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