Exploring The Met
Some of the world’s great museums have made their collections available for art lovers to explore online. I recently discovered MetKids, which has an interactive map that lets you explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Met has art from many different times and cultures. I had so much fun exploring this website. You should take a look for yourself!
Pectoral with Face
One work of art that I discovered was this chest decoration from the Yocoto community in Colombia. It was made sometime between the 1st–7th centuries. If you look closely, you will see two holes at the top of the head. Rulers would have strung a cord through these holes and worn it around their neck. It would have been worn with many other gold ornaments that adorned the torso, head, neck, and almost entirely covering the face ( take a look at the face and you will see what I mean).
Pectoral with Face, Gold, 1st-7th Century, Yocoto Artist, Columbia
MetKids asks us this question:
“Ancient Colombia was known as the land of gold, but the precious metal could only be worn or owned by rulers. What do you wear when you want to feel powerful?”
For me, knowing that I can make something myself makes me feel strong and powerful. Therefore, I decided to make some jewelry inspired by the Yocoto chest ornament.
Foil Jewelry
Materials:
cereal box
aluminum foil
yarn
glue
paper towel or toilet paper tube
q-tip
scissors
Instructions:
1. Cut a shape out of your cereal box. I did a half circle, but you can do any shape.
2. With your glue bottle, draw simple lines on your shape.
3. Cut pieces of yarn and carefully place them on top of your glue lines. Trim the extra.
4. Put glue in all the spaces between the yarn. Spread it around with a q-tip.
5. Place a piece of foil on top of your shape.
6. Gently rub the foil so that it sticks to the places where you spread the glue.
7. Cut around your shape, leaving a little bit of extra foil to wrap around to the back.
8. Wrap the extra foil around to the back of your shape.
Make as many of these shapes as you want! I connected mine with some foil loops. You could also use some of your yarn to connect them. Tape comes in very handy at this stage!
You can wrap more shapes in foil and add decorations made out of scrunched up foil. I made these cuffs with toilet paper tubes.
Here are more places to look at art online:
Tate Modern- https://www.tate.org.uk/kids
SFMOMA - https://www.sfmoma.org/artists-artworks/
Asian Art Museum http://searchcollection.asianart.org/