Elementary Studio Lesson
Creative
COPPER CRESTS
32 December 2011 SchoolArts
Iwanted to create an art activity that would link the computer- created business cards of my fourth-grade students with an
upcoming school-wide medieval event.
Creating family crests from copper
foil would be a great connection, since
they, like business cards, are an
individual’s way to
identify themselves
to others.
The initial step
was to show that
the family crest was
a way of identifying
oneself in medieval
times in much the
same way as people today do with
business cards. I introduced students
to the idea of symbolism and how
symbols could represent them. We
looked at religious, national, zodiacal,
and cultural symbols for inclusion on
the crest.
Thomas Knab
Criteria
Students could not use symbols to rep-
resent items just because they “liked”
them or were their “favorite”; in some
way the symbols had to show who
they were. Additional criteria required
students to include one plant symbol,
four symbols already mentioned, the
student’s surname, and some embel-
lishment of design or pattern. I also
encouraged them to include a date
that was important to them (birth
date, the year the crest was created,
etc.).
I wanted to create an art
activity that would link
the computer-created
business cards of my
fourth-grade students
with an upcoming school-
wide medieval event.
Drawing a Design
Students first created plans for their
crests on tracing paper. Inspiration
for the images came from clip art collections, library books, and anything
students could find on their own.
The final design had to include the
Working with Copper
After the design was complete, the
tracing paper drawing was taped
around a piece of 8 x 6" ( 20 x 15 cm)
30 gauge copper foil. The paper-cov-ered foil was then placed on a piece of
foam or other soft surface to ensure
that the drawing would transfer well.
The entire drawing was traced over
with a pencil or stylus, using enough
pressure to transfer the drawing to
the copper. The drawing was then
removed. The lines on the copper were
made deeper and more defined by
using a liner, a spatula, and a modeler.
The copper could be worked from both
sides, depending on the desired effect.
