Oh the Things You Can Find in an Old Art Room

A painted teacher smock.

I have been teaching for three years now and have had two different art rooms, one for each of the districts I've taught in.  I have worked closely with other art teachers in my district and viewed their storage rooms and stock piles from previous art teachers. It always amazes me at the types of treasures that can be found. 

As art teachers, I feel like we tend to suffer from hoarding.  I know I am guilty of this.  Anytime Ben is about to recycle or throw something away such as yogurt containers, cereal boxes, and egg cartons, he always comes to me first and asks if I need it.  This makes me both happy and sad at the same time.  I'm ecstatic that Ben has realized that as an artist and art teacher, I see potential from typical garbage and have a desire to give it a new purpose.  But at the same time, I'm saddened by this because sometimes I collect things for months and won't use them for a few more months or even years if at all.  So all the things I collect get stored until my brilliant ideas become a reality and I can use them in or to teach a lesson. The storage facility is either my garage, which leads to unhappy Ben, or the limited space of my shared art room. I have an art teacher friend who made a pledge for herself to not collect garbage and spend the money for actual paint palettes and water cups so there was a uniformed and cleanly look to her room.  I have started to try and be more purposeful in my collections but am still working on it. My collections don't just stop at potential waste products.  I accept donations from parents and businesses such as five cases of old school printing paper with the little tearaway edges and perforated page breaks as well as fabric samples, yarn, toys, and the list goes on and on.

Urine Specimen Kits and FedEx shipping bags.

I continue to accept freebie items because I'm always worried about my budget.  Drawing paper is expensive, paint is expensive, Sharpie markers are expensive and if there is anything I can do to stretch my budget a little farther, I'm all for it, hence the significant amount of donated and collected items.  The fear of running out of supplies for a project is very real for me.  At my previous school district I had very little wiggle room in my budget; try getting enough art supplies for 200 students for a full year of art for $250. It was extremely difficult to manage but I had alternative material lessons and my students got a strong understanding of mixed media as we tried to stretch our supplies as far as they could go.

In addition to holding on to a collection of non-traditional art supplies, I, as well as many of my colleagues, have a tight grip on supplies the previous art teacher purchased even if they're from the 1950's.  After I graduated high school, one of my dear friends who was years ahead of me took the position of our old art teacher, who had just retired.  I remember hearing the horror stories of the products she found such as powdered paint mixes, glazes with lead, and adhesives that were quite questionable.  She informed me, for my future art room cleanings, that she had to call and have a lot of the materials properly disposed of as to not contaminate the classroom or landfills.  Some of the pictures she shared of these products made me sad to throw them out.  The containers and typography were gorgeous as long as you forgot about the carcinogenic poison inside. 

I still have no understanding of this thing's purpose.

I have not experienced the same caliber of inherited ancient art supplies like my friend, but I have found some pretty cool things, as well as tools that I have no idea what they were ever used for.  For example, a new kindergarten teacher was hired in my old school district the year before I left and she gave me a bunch of stuff that was from the arts and craft center.  Smiling and being overly gracious I took it all, all the boxes of sponge stamps, cheap brushes, scraps of paper, and stencils to my room for sorting.  I always figure if it is free and I can't find a use for it, I'll pitching it or donating it after I look through it.  It's no skin off my back to help another person find their treasure from my trash, especially if I find something for my room.  Inside one of the many boxes I took were tons of these weird plastic, rubber lid things.  I have Google'd this item and have yet to find something remotely similar, so I have no idea what it's purpose is.  But these strange four inch circles  housed a two inch tall rubber cone that sat inside the lid.  At the top of this cone was an opening, much like that of the tips for a pipping bag in a bakery.  The only thing I could come up with was it was actually a lid that fit very specific size of paint jars that were being used; the opening in the cone helped keep brushes from getting lost in the jar.  If anyone has an answer to this, I would greatly appreciate knowing the function of this tool. I found a whole another box in my new school's storage room and am still perplexed everyday that I walk by them.

My second find was a beautiful tempra paint bottle from Binney and Smith, the company that made Crayola Crayons.  This was so beautiful that I took it and it lives in my studio. Every time I look at it, it reminds me that there was a time where the care in presentation and packaging coincided with function. The curves on this rubbery, plastic paint bottle and the nozzle for releasing paint are absolutely perfect. I wish I had a set to use in the classroom, it would make paint dispensing much easier. 

Tempra paint bottle and Friendly Plastic.

Another find that I had to share with an old ceramic professor of mine was the Friendly Plastic by Amaco.  This thing is absolutely insane.  No matter what I did or how closely I followed the directions, I just couldn't get this stuff to work. In case you don't know what Friendly Plastic is, it is a bunch of 3"x 1" sticks of colored plastic that you are supposed to be able to melt to a mold-able consistency with warm water. Judging by the jewelry and fashion styles in this instructional pamphlet that came in the container this jar was produced somewhere between the mid 80s to early 90s.  Amaco still makes Friendly Plastic in stick and pellet forms.  I have not tried the newer stuff, which I imagine work better than the 25 year old plastic I have but I couldn't resist trying my free old stuff.  My favorite part of the instructions is the caution statement; it reads "Caution: Friendly Plastic will soften or melt at approximately 100*F (38*C).  DO NOT expose sticks or finished pieces to direct sunlight or areas of concentrated heat such as in a closed car."  Reading this always makes me smile as I wonder how many people actually lost their jewelry to a sunny day at the beach or in the cup holder of their car.  After trying this at home, I definitely decided I couldn't use this with my middle school art students and that there was no use keeping it in my classroom.  It soon after fell into my collection of ancient art materials.

The tabletop printing press & my silly trial.

The most recent of my finds was in my new classroom.  I've been teaching in my new district for about five months as we're about half way through the school year. I moved a box while cleaning out a small section of my storage room and behind that box was a small collection of silk screens.  For an elementary art room, I was super stoked to have these.  The high school art rooms that I had been at previous didn't have screens for printing.  As I was coming off my giddy art teacher high from my new discovery, I realized that the box I made moved was a table top printing press.  I had to stop what I was doing and print something right then.  It works but needs a little bit of help getting the bed to run through smoothly, but I definitely think it will make printmaking more exciting for my students.  Not only a I super stoked for the press, but the box still had the original instructions and a small container of questionable, crystallized amber contents.  This has just become one of my new toys to play with on summer vacation.  

All in all, I think being an art teacher is a great job! Budget's and questionable materials at aside, what other job lets you feel like Indiana Jones?  I mean, you collect ancient supplies, dangerously dig under piles of stuff in your storage room (those rolling stone balls are not just hidden in primitive caves, they exist in your art storage so beware), and all the kids swoon over your cool demeanor. As long as I teach, I will continue to be a bit of a supply hoarder and I will still keep a collection of weird, old materials, nothing will change that.  However, I do promise to keep it under control as much as possible. 

Happy dabbling.