Using Glue to Enhance the Art Room (Ep. 357)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

Today I want to introduce you to Mariana VanDerMolen and our teacher in the Dominican Republic that has been working with us at AOEU for the past few months. You’ve likely read her articles on the website. You may have seen her presenting at the NOW Conference as part of the round table on our teacher empowerment. She was a wonderful part of that discussion, and people definitely wanted to hear more from her after that. So I’m excited to bring her on the podcast today. We’re going to do just a fun, quick episode on all the things you can do with glue in the art room. Mariana wrote a wonderful article all about mixing both new and old ideas of what you can do with all different types of glue with your students. So I want to talk about that article and a few other things with her here today. So let me bring her on now. All right, Mariana VanDerMolen is with me now. Mariana, how are you?

Hi, Tim. I’m doing really well. Thank you.

Awesome. Glad to hear it. I’m glad you’re finally joining us on the podcast. We saw an awesome… Not really a presentation, a round table discussion with you at the NOW conference, and I know people really kind of want to hear more from you, so I’m glad you’re here today. But I guess to start with, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you’re from, your work for AOEU, what you’ve done with teaching, just anything else you want to share?

Yeah. I am from the Dominican Republic. I lived here throughout my childhood and then went to school in the states and came back. I taught in states for a little bit in Indianapolis at the middle school and K-5 levels. And now most recently have been teaching here in the Dominican Republic, K-5. I started working with AOEU, I guess it was this summer, I started on the writing team, but have been tapping into AOEU resources for probably around since my second year of teaching, and just loving what you guys have put out and super excited to be on the other side, and helping to add to the content that you guys are putting out. So yeah, I’m excited to be here.

Oh, that’s awesome. And I have just so many great things that I’ve seen from you with articles with YouTube, the now presentation I mentioned, but I wanted to chat about a couple of articles today, especially with glue. Which seems weird to do a podcast based around glue, but I’m excited about it. But before we get there, I want to talk about an article you wrote at the beginning of the year. You published one on setting goals for the new year and how to set goals that are achievable. So I need to ask, we’re six weeks in to the new year, do you want to share any goals that you set for yourself, and maybe just kind of talk about how things are going for you so far this year?

Yes, I’m a really big goal setter. I love goals. I love setting them, and I love obviously achieving them, although I don’t always do that. I guess I always divide my goals too, because I’m just that kind of person. But in the personal goal category, my goal for this year is to read more physical books. I love reading and I do a lot of reading, but recently, especially since living overseas, there’s no libraries here. So a lot of the reading that I do is either via audiobook or it is through Kindle or things like that. So very digital, but there’s just nothing like having an actual book in your hands. So my goal this year is to read at least 12 physical books, so one per month. That’s the general gist. I don’t think that that’s how it’s going down, but so far it’s a little behind. I’ve only… I’m in probably a hundred pages from finishing my first book of the year, so we’ll see.

Okay. Is it a good one? I’m always looking for recommendations.

Yes.

What are you reading right now?

It’s very good. It came very highly recommended by a lot of friends who do a lot of reading. It’s called Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. It’s this book all about video gaming, which sounds kind of weird and definitely not something I’m really into, but it’s all about the creation and the art sort of behind video gaming. And then tied to this story of these two video game creators who are friends for a long time. And then I can’t really tell if it’s a love story, or if it’s about gaming, or what the end is going to be, but it’s really well written and super interesting. So definitely recommend.

Okay. I’m fascinated by that. I will probably end up checking that one out. I need to tell you, I just started a new book, it’s called The Last Mona Lisa, and yeah, it’s all about, I don’t know, like a thriller type thing. It’s a historical heist written about Mona Lisa and just having it been stolen, and I’m not sure exactly where it’s going, but so far really suspenseful, just a good art mystery, which I’m really enjoying. So anyway, I’ll put that recommendation out there.

Yeah, I got to write down that too, because I’m definitely also on a little bit of a thriller kick. The book that I’m reading now is outside that, but that sounds great.

Okay. Well, I don’t know, don’t know if I should be recommending yet because I haven’t finished it, but so far it’s really good. Cool. All right, anything else about goals? We kind of got sidetracked there.

Yes, sorry about that. And professionally, I’m just into sort of streamlining my workflow, so I got to go back and read my article again and set up, I guess probably a SMART goal around that. ‘Cause I haven’t figured out exactly what that particular goal is, but we’re going to work on it.

No, that’s good. It’s gives you something to work for. We like having our long-term goals as well that take a little bit to get to. So I think that’s cool. All right. So let’s chat about glue though, because you published an article a little while back on all kinds of things you can do with glue in the art room. I was fascinated by it. I thought there were a lot of really cool things that I hadn’t seen before, which we can chat about in a bit. But I was just curious, I guess were all of the ideas in that article where those things that you’ve done before, used before in the classroom, or were you researching a few different sources to put everything together?

Thank you. It’s a little bit of both, I would say for sure. Some tried and true things that I have done in my own art room, like the hot glue and taping situation that I talked about. And then also just sealing art with glue, and making texture plates, and there’s a couple different art projects in there as well that I have tried myself. But one that I haven’t tried that I was super interested in was hot glue casting. And then there’s also a stained-glass art in there. And those are not projects that I’ve done in my class personally, but I saw pictures when I was researching and thought that they were super interesting. So yeah.

For sure. I was intrigued by the hot glue casting because I don’t know, I always enjoy figuring out how to cast things with different materials. Kids are always excited by that, and I never thought to do it with hot glue before. So yeah, I think that would be a cool one.

Yeah, it seems super inexpensive, as well, affordable.

All right. Now, like you said, there are a couple new things that I was interested in and your article helped me, like I said, learn about a new item I have not used before, a repositionable glue stick. And maybe everybody else is familiar with it, but I’m not sure. But can you tell people just kind of what that is and all the different things you can use it for?

Yeah, so I had also never heard of this before when I was writing my article.

Okay, good. That makes me feel a little bit better.

No, I don’t think it’s this common knowledge thing that everyone knows about. But when I found this random 30 second YouTube clip that talked about this repositionable gluestick, and I was like, “What? I have to figure out what that is.” So I did some research, obviously in the DR, you can’t find that, but my dad was in the states at the time and I was like, “You have to go to the store. You need to see if you can find this for me.” And so I literally researched it online and I actually found it on, I can’t remember if it was Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. I found it and I was like, “I am ordering this. I need you to go pick it up for me.” So he did, and then he brought it and I tried it out and I was like, “Wow, this actually works.” And it’s basically just this glue stick that it looks like a little normal glue stick, but it’s not as sticky, I guess, as regular glue, like a regular glue stick. So it’s really great for… You can basically turn any piece of paper into a sticky note essentially.

So I envision using it for class critiques or discussions where you need to hang artwork, but not permanently hang it, just sort of put it up for people to go around and look at and things like that. Or just to temporarily hang more things on your wall in the art room. I don’t know. I thought it was really cool.

Yeah, no, there’s a lot of possibilities there. I think that’s something that is really cool. So I’m kind of curious. I kind of want to find one and check that out too. Okay. So out of all these ideas though, out of everything that you shared, do you have a favorite idea or a favorite hack from the article?

Probably the hot glue texture plates. That’s something that I talk about in the article. I just think I’m always looking for ways to make things in the art room more affordable. And that particular trick to use hot glue and cardboard to make texture plates just really hits all of those for me. And it’s super adaptable. You can use hot glue on a flat surface to, you can write words, you can make different patterns, kind of just customize it however you want. Or I’ve also seen it put on the outside of toilet paper rolls to make sort of a rolling hot glue texture plate. So both of those are just ways to make things more affordable in the art room and super easy.

Yeah, I think those are cool. Kids are fascinated by texture plates. There’s so much, like you said, ceramics is cool printmaking, it works for those. And I’ve done it before and it took us a long time to get this right. You mentioned the toilet paper rolls, but I had a couple old brayers that you use for printmaking that were just not great to use. We’re like, “Oh, let’s try for this.” And so we tried putting hot glue on those to use that as the roller, and it was a cool idea. It did not work out so well. ‘Cause we didn’t plan all that. And so the patterns were all messed up. But I think if I had a couple more extra brayers, we could have gotten it right. So it was just another thing that that’s out there that I think you could try.

I think, oh, and it’s one of those things that it’s the use for texture plates is so specific, if you will. You buy texture plates to use as texture plates, you can’t really do very much else with them. So to buy those single use materials, I’m just kind of always like, can I do this a different way? Is there… Do I really need to spend money on this or can I figure out something for myself?

Yeah, it’s like, do you want to spend X number of dollars per texture plate or can that money go to something else?

Right.

Yeah, I know exactly where you’re coming from there. Okay. Final glue question. Maybe the most important one. Are you a glue bottle person, a glue stick person, or a hot glue person, which is your favorite? What do you use the most?

Well, I appreciate you getting down to the heart of the issue and just asking the hard questions. I am definitely going to have to say that I am a hot glue person through and through. I just know that they can be dangerous, but there are ways to get around that, and I can’t get over how quickly it dries, you know? Can’t really beat that. It saves me so much time and hassle to have that quick drying action.

Yeah, I love it. I love hot glue also. I’ve done hot glue sculptures with my high schoolers before where, I mean, it’s expensive and you go through a lot, but you can create really cool little sculptures with hot glue and just, yeah, the versatility is great. And I used to have a really, I don’t know, just some disdain for glue sticks. I never used them. But then Eric Scott from Journal Fodder Junkies came on my podcast and really just had a passionate defense of glue sticks. He turned me, he convinced me that glue sticks are worthwhile. And so now, yeah, I love all of the above. They’re so many things you can do with all of them.

Yeah. Well, and now if you try the repositionable glue stick, then that might just add to your love of glue sticks.

Yeah, for sure. For sure. There’s so much, yeah, so much out there that can be done, so. Well, hey, before we go, can you tell us about anything coming up, anything that you’re excited to share, whether it’s articles, videos, anything else we can keep an eye out for or any older things that are maybe worth revisiting?

Yeah, so I wrote an article back in the fall about 50 fresh call and responses to use in your art classroom today, and they’re very tailored to art teachers. So they’re definitely for art class and they’re super fun. So I had a lot of fun putting them together, and if you go back and check that out, you can probably find something that will fit for you. I also wrote 21 Fabulous Tips and Tricks to Match Your Art Room Organization Style. So if you’re looking for organization tips, kind of along with my whole goal setting type A side of me. There’s some nice tricks in there for you for organization. And then coming up in this month and next month, well, I guess March and April. You can look for Seven Ways to Process Artistic Growth With Your Elementary Students. So thinking towards the end of the school year time, reflecting back on the year with your students and ways to do that. And then also 15 Revolutionary Art Show Tips to Put on a Remarkable Art Show This Year. So as you’re looking to plan for that, you can look for that article coming out.

Awesome. Those sound great. So we’ll make sure we link to the old ones and everybody can keep an eye out for the upcoming ones and I think we’ll be good. So Mariana, thank you so much for chatting me with me today. It was a really fun discussion and hopefully we can have you back on again soon.

Of course. Thank you so much for having me, Tim.

Thank you to Mariana for the discussion and for putting all of those ideas together in the article. We will link to that article of course, if you want to check that out and do some other things that Mariana has done in case you were interested in seeing more from her. I especially liked her Day In The Life episode on YouTube. I think that one is for sure worth watching. But as far as this podcast, I think that will do it for us. As I said in the beginning, that’d be a good week for just a fun, quick episode, and I hope you enjoyed it, whether you are a glue stick, glue bottle, or a hot glue person. Thanks for listening.

Art Ed Radio is produced by the Art of Education University with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. I appreciate everybody tuning in, and we’ll talk to you again next week.