The Artists Bag

An interesting sculptural project that was undertaken by my grade 11 students was to create ‘an artist bag’. This would not be a functional bag, but a creative and expressive bag that would be influenced by specific culture in which the artist had a personal connection. Of course, with such a project there was plenty of discussion and pre-planning, but once the final concept had been arrived upon it was down to getting on with the construction. Each student was given a standard file box as a starting point (this meant that the scale and format would be consistent), which could be cut with a knife or details added using hot glue. It was terrific that the students went bold and adventurous with this task adding materials such as plaster bandage, rocks, metal, fabric and paper mache. The most difficult was generally the strap of the bag, but as it wasn’t a functional bag and didn’t need to take any weight there remained plenty of creative options available. Set with the challenge of creating an open ended sculptural form, the students were able to achieve some brilliant results.