Day Five (week 2): Last day & Art Show

So the morning was spent finishing the weavings, doing sand molds of our feet to represent our art journey and making an accordion books for our journal entries. Whew! We will all sleep well this weekend. Happy art making!

Day Four: Something's Fishy

Beginning with the idea of a journey and landmarks, the children focused again in yoga and creative writing to spur on their adventures.  Using local maps, collages were created as the base for their journey paintings; water colors and land marks were placed.

Day Two (week 2): Weaving

So, one thing that moving can guarantee is cardboard. Lots of it. Summer art camp has been such a great reason to break down and up cycle all of these brown boxes. Next up... cardboard looms! We created oversized cardboard looms to weave fabric strips that we donated from a variety of sources.

In creative writing Ms. Ali spoke about how storytelling is like weaving, that ideas move around and through one another creating a tight unit. We carried this into the art room. The idea is to get weaving and have the looms and materials available to weave with throughout the week.

Day One (week 2): Tie Dying

During our after lunch walk, we gathered sticks and stones to use for some tie-dying. The first layer of color was created by tying stones into the fabric, followed by a light colored dye bath.

 

Tomorrow we will tie the fabric around sticks and soak one half of the fabric to create a horizon line. These pieces of fabric will be the surface for some stinky printing to come!

Day Three: Batik Part II

Back to Batik! Letting our patterns and lines go, we painted with wax in a free flowing manner. We talked about making connections and creating movement. Now, with a second layer of wax, we dyed the muslin again, hoping to create some layers. And of course, back outside to let them dry!

We finished the pieces by hanging them with found sticks and branches. A brief discussion about how to extend the space using objects such as feathers, yarn and any other pieces of interest.

Day Two: Things are Heating Up!

So after spending a day getting to know all of the artists, we thought they were ready for hot wax! Again, using the molds and line drawings as reference we used thick strips of black construction paper to create simplified patterns to help guide our hot, waxy brushes.

 

Old soup cans with home-fashioned "cosies" made a great container for the wax. Each artist had her own to help prevent any accidents. Everyone was so careful and really embraced the challenge!

 

Some of the wax came through the muslin and created wonderful texture on the patterned pieces! This will surely be a great page in our art journals

 

Any good day at camp in Maine needs some outdoor time. The kids ran around while their batik's blew in the wind. 

Snowflake Quilt Progress Pics

The fifth graders finished the quilt pieces right before break. I spent a wonderful day sewing and quilting all of the pieces together into a beautifully adorned winter-inspired piece of art. The images that follow show the progress. Happy Snow Day!

Week Four (3 weeks of running stitches!)

Week Five: starting to add some embellishments...

Week 7: I began to sew on borders so that I could piece together as soon as they were finished with their designs.

Week 8: I started to piece together the squares...

And the finished product! (with cool glitter fabric on back!)

Story Quilts

First graders spent time talking about the different purposes of quilt-making. After creating a symmetric foundation of fabric, each quilter embellished his/her fabric with ribbons and buttons. During the subsequent classes, students discussed symbolism found in colors and shapes in the quilts. We looked as some examples from the Freedom Quilts of the underground railroad. After the quilt was finished, each student wrote a short story based on the symbols of his/her quilt.

Sweet Dreams

The second graders stepped up to the sewing challenge! Using burlap as the primary surface, the students attached yarn using the “couch” method of sewing to represent the first letter of their first names. Next, the students added “pizzazz” by sewing on buttons, beads and sequences. The real fun began when each student stuffed his/her pillow. The pieces were sewn together using the “running stitch”.  These beautiful pieces showcase determination and self-expression. Like snowflakes, no 2 pillows are alike! Sweet Dreams...

Winter Class Quilt

Our school district is holding a silent auction to raise money for the Relay for Life event to raise money and awareness for Cancer research. The art department has been asked to make artistic contributions with the students to include in the silent auction. The event is Wednesday, December 18th. YIKES!

My fifth grade class that I see twice a week has started making a snowflake themed tapestry/quilt. It is exciting as I am learning a few new things myself! I will keep posting the progress. Last week we went back to our primary days and cut snowflakes from paper to use as stencils. On Tuesday we battled the wind and a hide-and-seek sun to expose our light sensitive fabric. We are using Blueprints on Fabric (http://www.blueprintsonfabric.com/).  I rinsed them out and ta-dah! I can't wait to start embroidering these tomorrow!

Another Quilt Finished!

This past summer I spent a week as the resident artist at Kirkwood Camp in the Poconos. The campers worked on several projects to celebrate the "Joy of Creation". Using nature as our inspiration, each camper worked on a 12 inch square over the course of a couple of days.  Today I finally sewed on the sleeve so that it can be hung properly for all to enjoy. A few pictures follow that document the process and remind us of those warm sunny days!