In BCS arts classes, students learn new methods of creative expression and make connections to history, culture, and science!
Earlier this month, with the help of a Buncombe County Schools Foundation grant, Sand Hill-Venable Elementary School visual arts specialist Elise Reed showed her students how to make their own paper. Earlier in the year the students learned about the famous Japanese woodblock print, “The Great Wave,” and its handmade paper medium. Ms. Reed’s paper-making project was part lesson in creative expression and part hands-on way to bring classroom instruction to life.
“I enjoyed the kids’ recognition and recall of something they'd been introduced to months ago,” she said. “They had a lot of fun learning how to make something we often take for granted. And they loved getting their hands dirty in the process.”
To get the kids started, Ms. Reed shredded scrap paper, soaked it in water, then put it in a blender to make pulp. Students skimmed pulp out of large tubs and used hand moulds and deckles to press the paper into shape and transfer it to a special couching (pronounced “cooching”) sheet. The BCSF grant paid for the blender, moulds, deckles, and couching sheets.
“Thanks to the Foundation for providing the funding to help my students go on a paper-making adventure,” Ms. Reed said.