Mondrian Christmas Ornaments
The kids and I have always loved exploring great artists and looking at their artwork. One of the first famous artists we explored when they were toddlers was Mondrian, the primary colours, lines, rectangles and squares of his later work were ideal to look at with them when they were young. As we explored the artists we discovered a fantastic book inspired by his work and life Coppernickel Goes Mondrian by Wouter van Reek. Using the book and our knowledge of Mondrian’s Art Work for this year’s 10 Days of Kid Made Ornaments Inspired by Books we’ve created a couple of Mondrian Inspired Christmas Ornaments for the tree that you can make too.
Coppernickel Goes Mondrian
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Finding books on great artists for kids that are age appropriate can sometimes be a challenge, but Coppernick Goes Mondrian by Wouter van Reek is ideal. When the kids were very young we looked at the fun cartoon style images and compared the way the lines were used to the work on Mondrian. As they have got older we’ve read the book which is inspired by Mondrian’s vision of looking forward to the future.
Mondrian Christmas Ornaments
Inspired by Mondrian’s later work and the way that Wouter van Reek has used this to inspire the backgrounds of the illustrations in the book we’ve used these simple primary colours, straight lines and rectangles and squares to create a Christmas Decoration inspired by this famous Artist.
Materials Needed for your Mondrian Christmas Ornament
Black Glass Paint or Black Outliner
Colourful Glass Paint Collection
Optional – Gold or Silver Outliner for an Inspired by Mondrian version of the Christmas Tree Decoration (Silver glass paint or gold glass paint could also be used)
NOTE – The difference between using the outliners and the glass paints is one will produce a raised effect for the lines and the other will be flat and is less fiddly and can look better with a steadier hand. The black outlined bauble uses glass paint and the gold an outliner
How to make your Mondrian Christmas Ornament with Kids
- Separate out the bauble into the two halves.
- With your black (or optional gold or silver) draw down in straight lines from the bauble “hook” to the bottom.
- Now add in lines at right angles to this to form a collection of squares and rectangles.
- Repeat on the other half of the bauble.
- Leave to dry a little (around 1/2 an hour with the paint we used check the paint you have for instructions).
- Then fill in the squares and rectangles with different colours. Try not to have two of the same touching as Mondrian tried to avoid this.
Use primary colours as we did on the black bauble for an authentic Mondrian looking Bauble or why not have an inspired by Mondrian Bauble like we did with the Gold bauble my daughter created.
Kid Made Ornaments Inspired by Books
We love combining books and crafts and activities and for the last few years have enjoyed sharing this love with other through joining in with the 10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas. Today we are joined by the following blogs sharing a kid-made ornament based on a children’s book as part of this annual series.
Mondrian Christmas Ornament based on Coppernickel Goes Mondrian by Wouter van Reek – Here at Rainy Day Mum
Fairies on Cherries Christmas Ornament based on Goodnight Unicorn by Karla Oceanak – Over on My Bright Firefly
Christmas STEM Ornament based on – Over on Preschool Powol Packets
Scrabble Tile Name Christmas Ornaments based on Santa’s Book of Names – Over on Happy Brown House
Golden Snitch based on the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling – Over on Castle View Academy
DIY Stamped Clay Ornaments based on Christmas in the Big Woods – Over on The Life of Jennifer Dawn
DIY Grinch Christmas Ornaments based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas – Over on The Mama Workshop
– Over on Creative World of Varya
So beautiful! I want to do these with the kids ASAP!
Oooh, I LOVE the raised outlines!! So cool!!
They are cool. We now have a full set for the tree as well as my daughter has been making them like crazy.
These are absolutely GORGEOUS! Love, love, love them.
Thank you – they are so pretty. I love how even though there is no “green” because it’s glass paints when the light is right you also get a rectangle of green show up as well.