Chesy art students create trees with found items

CHESAPEAKE — Those who visit Chesapeake High School until the new year will notice a display of unconventional Christmas trees made by the school’s Art 1 and 2 students in Robin Kimball’s art classes.

“We’ve been doing this project for the past 12 years, and we still get new ideas every year,” Kimball said. “It’s something I tell the students about at the beginning of the year. I don’t want them to have to spend money on something, but just to collect items that they have around the house and to think outside the box to make something unconventional.”

Some of this year’s trees included little rubber ducks, buttons, balloons, ice cream cones, candy, live goldfish and more.

“We have a total of 40 projects this year,” Kimball said.

Freshman Faith Flether made her tree out of burnt coffee filters, and said she really enjoyed it.

“I had to build the base, and then burn all of the coffee filters individually,” she said. “But it was fun and I just really enjoyed the whole project.”

Another freshman, Riley Nida, created her tree with ice cream cones and foam insulation as the ice cream after painting them.

“I just thought that ice cream cones would be a good idea for this project,” she said of why she chose the idea. “It was a fun project to do, and I really liked the engineering of it.”

Hailie Moore, a sophomore, created a different kind of tree, using Christmas tree ornaments dangling to represent the solar system.

“I got the idea from Pineterest,” she said. “I just wanted to be able to try something new.”

The trees will be on display at the main entrance until Jan. 1.