artnuts.berlin – Art classes in Berlin

Wired sculptures

This was such a fun project, an open art play. Children were very busy and they wouldn’t stop really. So much concentration and patience. Great work!

As an upgrade to the previous project, Inside and outside of the houses, we talked about ourselves and our inner self. How do we look and what is happening in our minds, what are our favourite things, what do we like to do most, what we don’t like doing, maybe our favourable memory. Our inspiration…

I have a book that I find pretty amazing. It’s called Woran denkst du?. I wished to do a project on the subject but since it’s quite abstract I decided to start with a similar project only instead of drawing our mind we drew houses. Houses are easy. We all have one, live in one, have…

This was such a cool project. I had an excuse for buying beautiful big old jars that we used for drawing. Children had to observe the form, jar’s opening and jar’s bottom. When the form was in place we spoke about the most valuable memory the children could think of. This project was an inspiration…

This was a very nice activitiy inspired by Small Hands Big Art’s amazing blog. I love the black paper we used and the credit cards are extra fun for all of us as we don’t do this so often. Special usage of cards as brushes is reall fun to try, how and where to press…

As the year draws to an end I feel deeply grateful to all the parents for the trust, enthusiasm and support for Artnuts over the years. Artnuts wouldn’t be what it is today without you and your wonderful children!As a little thank you we had a few lovely Christmas Family Workshops at the studio. Together we made seasonal…

These beautiful rainbow crowns turned out really royal. Princes and princesses of far countries, scent of myrrh, secret of buried treasures in vast lands of dunes, camels, tanzanit blue skies, golden orange abandoned cities dancing in the heath and rhythm of sintir. Just imagine!

Christmas wreaths

This was the loveliest activity ever. Four hours of sitting, listening to music and working. And not a single little artist wanted to get up until it was time for hot glue station (me in charge – big burn to show off!). Well we did force the children to have a break and everything that goes…

It was still nicer and warmer outside when we did this workshop. Beautiful autumn offers so many opportunities to use lovely natural materials. A little walk outside that do us all good and a bit of exploration which we all have in blood… First we read a sweet book The little gardener then children were offered…

I had no idea children will enjoy this activity so much. It is a very easy one to understand but since everything is so small and rounded and quickly also very sticky, it is not that easy to make. They did love it though and they would probably make just as many as they did…

We spoke about Mark Rothko a little bit but more than that the children were into mixing colours and trying how they match together and what sort of impression do the combinations provoke. Is it OOO, is it AAA, is it UAAA or YOOHOOO or maybe a MMMMMM… and what do all those interjections mean….

We read a book Mog’s Christmas and we’ve made some Christmas decorations. Children were using natural materials, wire, beads and buttons. They created some lovely mobiles.

Still Life of an old Camera and a coffee grinder

Two hours of observational drawing. Observed were the old cameras and old coffee grinder. It was quite a lot of fun. The group was very excited and tried all sorts of drawing: drawing with mouth, with left hand for right handed and opposite, drawing without looking, drawing in one line and even drawing with the…

Some more printing moments captured in this post. Styrofoam prints this time. Printing is fun!!

Mini Puppets

This was such a sweet little project. We read an African book in which a friendship between various animals is challenged. The variation of the animals helped children decide between three different animals they should have blend into one. The cocktail was delicious!

Pipe cleaners and beads

I find pipe cleaners and plastic pony beads somehow off-putting. I could include some other stuff here like googly eyes or colour-ins for example. I think with me anything to do with easy crafts goes in that brain field. But I do know all these things are also really unbeatable. If you want to work…

The magic of 11.11 and the beautiful city of little lights and songs singed by tiny voices. We were ready! We made the pretty lanterns with crayons, water colours and inks. We used aquarell paper and thicker drawing paper, both were fine. When the paintings were dried I oiled them with normal kitchen oil, children beaded the wires and wrapped the…

Still life, fruits, plates and old stories. Well we went there and enjoyed the process a lot. Children drew and cut out the fruits and then made different structures with various tools. They made some plates, some juice glasses and straws. A background. And then assembling. Voila!

Printing Elmer

We read a book Elmer the Elephant in the Mini class and we did some sponge dipping for the patchwork elephants and some brush painting for the carnival elephants. Of course you have to read the book if you want to understand that! It was fun!

Observational drawing

We had a lovely class of observational drawing of insects. I printed out different insects and children mostly decided for a bee. They observed, compared, counted and did all of that fur in a certain direction. Just as it grows. The wings were great too. If they drew them too hard and thick, pressing their…

There are projects on internet so perfect, I can not only not avoid trying them out but I can’t even make myself change a slightest thing!! This original creation is by Artbar and it blew my mind! It was a busy hour with a group of 3-6 year olds. Children had a blast with these squeezing paints that…

These beautiful autumn days have been high in a printing spirit. Full of experimenting and anticipation, some disappointments, some surprises but mainly excitement. Printmaking just is like that!

It’s time to fly away!

These beautities were made at Minis, parent-child classes. There was some work and a lot of inventiveness on the mothers’ sides. Children did the deco, all the important buttons and helmets too of course. I know they will have A LOT of good time inside of them. Everyone needs a rocket once in a while….

Mini classes had a chance to play around with clay. I find children always skeptic about it at first, not knowing what to do and not wanting to damage anything they’ve made but as they get familiar with it, realizing they can fix just about anything that seems they’ve messed up, it becomes such fun. It’s…

Our first summer camp at Raumerstrasse turned out wonderful. Our project was full of fun and joy and colour. Children would gladly prolong it until Friday and we could probably really be working for another week to make it all perfect and satisfy all the ideas and wishes. Development of our project was really in…

This fun activity is so much about learning. Children have lots of fun using the pipettes, sucking the liquid in and out, leaving traces of paint on paper. By slowly adding another colour to the paper children can see how colours mix and change. They are offered to blow on their papers a lot. It´s…

We read There is a bird on your head by Elephant&Piggie. The book is really funny and my mini course group had much lough. After the reading we spoke about the nests, what is in them, who is in them, what are they made of. The children then each got a paper and were challenged to make…

Finally again a female artist! Pfeeeew this feels me up with relief really! I would prefer to show off female artists more often but it just doesn’t happen. No real good reason for it, just a desire to study a certain artist with children at certain time, just a simple logical sequence, nothing more. I’m not…

We did these heads so long ago the children probably already forgot about them. Well they are in for a nice surprise this Saturday because the heads are finally burned and ready to take home. None broke and all of them are fantastic.

Wooden towers

The mini class was gluing, building and painting. Ah, you lovely realxing art!

Studying Eric Carle’s illustrations

This project was done in one of my mini classes with 3-6 years old children. We read one of many Eric Carle’s books and had a little discussion about what illustrations are, who is an illustrator and what is his job. Then we looked carefully at Carle’s work and we tried to do some ourselves. Sleeves up and works began! Children…

For last two months and a half our work was dedicated to portrait, self-portrait and mixing of colours. We’ve made large self-portraits on cardboard, portraits of children’s mothers on wood, painted in expressionist style, we’ve made clay heads which are currently in the process of burning, a post soon to be published. And since we’ve…

An amazing few hours we had, making these beautiful paintings. We really took our time and that was fine. Children enjoyed the project with ease. We went into this project just after the one in which children learned how to mix primary colours so this seemed and turned out as the most logical step forward….

Thinking, imagining, associating, planning, transforming it from imagination to paper, from paper to wood and then staying in the frame of fauvist and expressionist colours. The children did fantastic work guided by their desire to give a wrapped gift to their dear dear mothers on Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day!

Animal masks

After reading a book Masks in the forest children made animal masks. They were working their finger muscles by gluing little pieces of paper on not such small surface. Quite some patience and focus were demanded and they did it really well.

Studying Marc Chagall

Every year there is at least once time for Marc Chagall and his magic. Here the masterpieces of 2018. A week later these children went for an exhibition with their class and by some space/planet/univers-al coincident they were shown works of you know who and they all started to shout: “Marc Chagall! We know him!…

The children here only got primary colours and black and white. They were mixing and mixing and mixing and I bet they would still be mixing if I didn’t take paints away.

Giant ice creams

Ice creams are a thing, you can’t ever go wrong there. And if you make them giant you are double well off. This is a lovely spring/summer art project. Easy and tasty. Inspired by lovely artbar.

Ice cream sundaes

We’ve made some beautiful ice cream sundaes with my 3-6 year olds after reading a book from Mo Willems, Should I share my ice cream. We’ve made them before with my now older children. You can search for that post if you are interested in the process. They are an on going inspiration by artbar.

Easter wreaths

This is a lovely project all made from egg cartons. It needs a bit of preparation but children enjoy it a lot because it involves all the good things: painting, assembling, gluing. Two hours of joy!

Giant cardboard self-portraits

I did this project last month with my 5 and 6 year olds but as these works are turning out so amazing I am posting the works of my 7 and 8 year olds now. Somehow I was never a Depeche mode fan but I guess there comes a time for I just can’t get…

I am most proud of my 5 and 6 year old artists! We had a tiny chat about self portraits in the history, we had a good laugh about a few of them and we were shocked about some others. Some were pretty, some surprising. Quite very interesting! And this here is how my children…

We had an amazing fun building a city in a collaborative art project. Whole thing turned into a great game. We had a factory and a store of different shapes and colours. We had a production, a selling departmant, costumers and an assembling departmant. It was so joyful, I need to do more collaborative projects…

This is again an inspiration from many time mentioned artbar. To make these lovely marionettes there are many steps to achive but none is very complicated. If you will be making them withmore children at once do bare in mind there are many knots to do. My children couldn’t do them especially not the double…

It’s time for carnival! And we love animals! And we love to look crazy! So do not bother guessing… //Es ist Karnevalszeit! Und wir lieben Tiere! Und wir lieben es, verrückt auszusehen! Also keine Mühe mit dem Raten…

Animal puppets

My fine motor skills class worked on animal cardboard puppets. They were building their finger muscles whille fighting through thick cardboard and their brain muscle when building this thing together. Look at these beauties please! DE Meine Feinmotorik-Klasse arbeitete an Puppen aus Tierpappe. Beim Zusammenbauen dieser Dinger bauten sie ihre Fingermuskeln und kämpften sich durch…

We made a beautiful project on harvest. I came across an art project on Maria Strocchi by Art Camp that I loved and Maria’s simple childlike beautiful forms made me thinking of my children. I learned she is painting landscapes of her homeland Australia. She has this natural raw touch of warm colours and backgrounds. We…

We were learning how to mix colours. Children enjoyed this very much. I only gave them blue, red, yellow, white and black and they made such pretty shades of all possible colours. They were first painting on cardboard and then on canvas. We tryed to frame the paintings with embroidery hoops but I think they…

We spoke about arhitecture and the lovely Hundertwasser. And we said: “Ooooooh, if only more houses were of him. Slides everywhere! Trees on the roofs! And those windows! I want round windows from ever! I want gas stations with trees and the flowers! I want a round room on the top of the tower. I’d…

Our famous artists workshop was this time really ancient. We peeked into the world of Greek mythology. We used a fabulous book about mythological monsters. We were swimming in various materials. Of course we had much fun and we also learned. With our exhibition we are now teaching others .

Magical globe fairies

So we are back after long and good holidays, yooopeee!! And for a starter my children did these beauties! I am so very proud of them!! The inspiration came from my dear friend Tina who is an expert on fairies. Many of fairies made by her lives all over our apartment, in special corners, hidden somewhere between jam glasses…

We had a very interesting time talking about Oskar Schlemmer and the basic forms. Children were busy drawing the forms, some also used rulers, then there was lots of cutting. And after – the pleasure of painting!

Mixed animal collages

My children assembled these pretty mixed animal collages that are now shining in our school’s hallway. Each creature is made out of two or three animals. Pretty cool aren’t they!

Louise Bourgeois with kids

This time we worked on madame Louise Bourgeois. We browsed through a really nice book, Lied für Louise , and we talked about her life quite a bit. You can’t avoid it when discussing such a prominent lady. The children did the spiders (one made an octopus) out of wire that they’ve taped over to reach some more…

This time we had a little lesson on Jean Dubuffet and then we did a lot of work. Children had such a good time. There was nothing to think about, nothing to be careful about, they could even walk and lay down anywhere on the piece they were creating. Really cool!! And now look at…

Beautiful aquarel paintings by my 5 and 6 year olds. We spoke about Marc Chagall, we looked at some of his work and the children talked abaut what they’ve noticed. I drew their observations on the black board because they don’t read yet: Eiffel tower, a goat, a violin, a rooster, houses, flying people… The…

Tempting ice cream sundaes made today. Again inspiration by an amazing blogger and art workshop runner artbar that I greatly admire for her creativity. She published a book Art Workshop for children and I like to open it often. My girls could spek only about biting in their papier-mâché scoops and I do understand! I bet they all…

The amazing assemblages with found objects. One could do them all the time. They are so special and unique! For this project children brought their own items because that way they really conect to their piece. They are involved from the begining. First finding items, then finding them interesting enough to use them, keeping them,…

I am happy to show off this lovely circus tents, inspired by artbar. I have to say it was A LOT to prepare having two classes of 10 children but it payed off because the children really looked forward to finish this project making it as pretty as possible. I had no time to take…

20 small fingers and 10 clever heads were working hard to make this beautiful statues. We talked about Giacometti and we tried various techniques for this project. Also the clay, if only to learn we don’t come third as high as Giacometti’s figures are. This surfers are made out of wire, which the children taped…

For this project I only had sticks that I picked up in forest. Each child took one. The idea was to observe a stick and decide which animal to make out of it. Stick had to be a part of the animal, apart from that children could do as they pleased. When they decided which…

Artnuts really went nuts with Yayoi Kusama and we loved it!! It was such a fabulous project, with a lot of singing: “Alles gets, alles gets, NO excuse me!!… alles gelb, ALLES GELB!!!”, Wireing, sculpturing, painting, dotting, talking, talking, talking.It took us a while but it was simply the best! And we learned a thing…

My preschoolers did some fantastic works again. We were discovering Paul Klee and these are the fruits of our work. How great are they!

Collages with Matisse

We worked on Matisse. We read a nice book about his life and his scissors. Man in his bed and wheelchair cutting up everything that came under his fingers. The children really enjoyed the project. It was easy and not hard too connect to. I am happy to show these works they’ve made. I love…

The children made each their own little creature out of recycling materials and materials taken from nature. It took us a little longer to finish this project but it was cheerfull. Children also made homes for their little fellows and voilà!

Joan Miró’s mobiles

Today we spoke about Miró’s lovely colours, elements and creations. The children did these amazing mobiles.

Laurent Moreau’s Masks

The new school year`s workshops have kicked off and we are having wonderful time of creating, cutting, measuing, cleaning, painting bits and bobs, gluing, chit chating… Here are the results of our first workshop. We did masks inspired by Laurent Moreau. Wonderful book too!

Painting with natural materials

Hello spring! It’s time for little walks with baskets. There is so much to collect, to try and to make. We love it!

Wooden mini sculptures

Natural wooden beads always come in handy and it’s good to have them around. At our house was today their day! We decided to glue them into… whatever. With some extra paint! There was no precise goal or plan except having fun and relaxing after a hard day at kindergarten We lasted hours!