I do this activity with grade 5 students.  I have used it successfully with grade 4, and think that older students would enjoy it as well.  In this project we learn and practice some basic skills used to carve soap.  Many students come to class wanting to carve a bear or a cat, but this time we will be creating Non-Objective sculptures.  Non-Objective works of art do not look like any real thing.  The artist is interested in making a sculpture that is interesting to see from all sides.   To help us do this, we will be thinking about the Elements of Art / Design: Line, Shape / Form, Space, Color / Value, and Texture.  The students each bring a bath-sized bar of Ivory Soap.  The only other things needed are craft sticks and newspaper, and perhaps small plastic bags.  In the Art Room, this project takes two class periods.

In soap carving, it's important to keep the soap bits off of the floor, as they are slippery to walk on!   We work on two or three layers of newspaper.  Every so often, we will fold our newspaper up like a small package and throw it away.  Then we have the newspaper underneath to work on.  Keep your craft sticks clean by scrapping two together over the newspaper.  AND remember that even Ivory Soap can sting your eyes, so don't touch your face or nose unless you wash your hands first.  And don't blow the soap bits!   If the Art Room begins to smell like soap, Mrs. Rose opens the window to bring in some fresh air.  After the first class period, we put our soap and craft sticks in a plastic bag with a nametag so we can pass them back quickly the next time.

This print of a bunny has the Elements of Art / Design too, and we'll use it from time to time to help us understand how they work.

In the print of a bunny, the space is the area around the bunny.  We can see background space behind the bunny, foreground space below the bunny, and the middle ground space where the bunny is sitting.  In our soap sculpture we will have real space because the soap is 3-D not flat (2-D) like the print. 

In soap carving it's very important to cradle the soap in you hand to cushion it.  Then hold the craft stick like the photo above and drill a hole right through the soap.  This will give you the space of the hole.  But a hole is not too interesting.

Hold the craft stick as in the picture above and drag it along one edge of the hole to scrape away some of the soap.  Keep turning your soap over in your hand as you do this.  You will enlarge some areas of the hole, but not other areas.

See how the hole now looks a little like a funnel from the side.

SHAPE / FORM

In the bunny print the shapes we see are the natural organic shapes of the bunny.  In a 3-D work of art we will be working with form.   The form of the soap when we begin is a slab.  Hold the craft stick like the pictures below and carefully whittle away areas to change the slab form with straight edges to a form with rounded edges and indentations

Remember to cushion you soap in you hand and go slowly.  Don't try to whack off too large of a piece at a time or you may break your soap.  AND remember to leave one side of your soap flat as a base.  Your sculpture may be sideways or tall, but it must have a bottom!

In the bunny print, line is used to show the edges and texture of the bunny.  Our soap sculptures will use line to makes us want to see all sides of our artwork.  You can already see lines if you look at the edges of the forms that were made by carving.  Hold the craft stick like a pencil and make these lines deeper.

Try to have the line travel all around the sculpture like a path in the woods.  And just as a path in the woods is more interesting if it wanders around instead of being straight, and if there are wide places and thin places, the lines of the sculpture should do this as well.

To make the sculpture smooth, take a few minutes and simply smooth it with your fingers. Then use the craft stick or a pencil or any sharp tool to add different kinds of lines and dots to make rough texture.  Just as our lines went all around the sculpture, you will want to have the texture wrap around as well.

CRITIQUE

When we critique a work of art, that means we take some time and really LOOK at it.  Turn it around and around in your hand.  Place it on the table and look from different angles.  Is it interesting from all sides?  Is there anything you can do to make it more interesting?  Now is a good time to put your name on the bottom.  You might also notice that although your sculpture is Non-Objective, it does remind you of something... perhaps a "Day at the Beach".  In the Art Room, we display our sculptures on papers that may have the title written on the side

Now that you have learned some carving skills, you may want to make that bear or kitty.    The Elements of Art / Design will help you to do this as well!

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