Design with Adinkra Symbols

A foil relief/print using Adinkra symbols 

One of the first items on my list to teach the first 6 weeks of school is design.  The elements and principles of art. I call them our "checklist for success".  I have found that more open ended projects help with this.  The students become the decision makers and the elements and the principles become their guide.  I just facilitate this by giving them a few things to begin with.  Namely, a subject, and for my Art I students, a medium.  How they put it together is on them.  Sometimes, this isn't so easy as many at the middle school level are in art for the first time and are hesitant to make the decisions on their own.
Once I get them going though and get them to thinking about how to apply the elements and principles, I find that these projects are the most successful. We did  one using a foil relief/print.

For this particular design project, we used Adinkra symbols for the subject. The project itself is a fun one with any subject, and we were able to discuss two different methods...relief sculpture and printmaking as well as design. There are a couple of different ways to do this.


 One way, is to make a glue print.  Have the students draw their subject on poster board or cardboard, apply glue to the lines, let dry, then print it. I used sax washable printing ink. You can't make too many prints I found as the glue will soften.  One or two will do though.  After printing and before the ink dries, you apply heavy duty/freezer aluminum foil over the top (shiny side up) with about an inch overhang. The wet ink will hold the foil.   Press the foil onto the glue lines.  I have the students use a wad of paper towels for this process so they don't rip the foil in the process.  You can buy art foil for this, but heavy duty aluminum foil from Wally World will work just fine and it is cheaper.  I like that.  Once the foil has been pushed down, the overhang is glued to the back. The students will then use a dull pencil to go around both sides of their lines. Then comes the fun! With their dull pencil again, they will create textures by drawing lines and patterns in their spaces. The lines will make an impression on the foil. Once finished, we paint the entire thing with black ink (aprons, please), then let it dry. With a damp cloth or paper towel, rub the ink off in a circular motion.  Do not press too hard or you will rub the textures away. The ink should remain in the low areas creating an antiqued effect and bringing the image to life. We usually use more than one paper towel.

The other way to create a foil relief is simply to use cardboard or poster board to create the image on the printing plate.  The rest of the process remains the same.  I have found though that the higher the relief, the easier it is to rip the foil.  BUT, if the foil rips just a little or they poke their pencil through, it can easily be hid once the ink has been applied. No fear....easy shmeasy!

For the Adinkra symbol project, the principles of repetition, unity, variety, emphasis, and balance were stressed.  The relief /print was extended further by turning it into a wall hanging. The students had to unify the hanging with the foil relief by pulling shapes, patterns, etc...from the relief and applying it to the hanging.  Some had extensions like string, cardboard shapes, and beads.  Some were more like mobiles and then some just hung on the wall.  How it was presented was up to each student.

All in all, this was a successful project that stopped many in the halls to take a closer look. That's what art is about, isn't it?   This project can be used for a design lesson, a sculpture or printmaking lesson, or a multicultural lesson.  To see some Adinkra symbols, you can start here. For a brief history of their origin and meaning, go here, and for a handy dandy PowerPoint, you can go here. Let me know how it works and if you have any ideas to go with this. Most of all...have fun!