Re-Fab

Oldie but goodie wool skirt...

(Re) fab-u-lous!



                    Emroidery Floss + Needle+ Felt Polka Dots.

yarn weavings

Inspired by traditional Navajo weavings, the third graders created their own weaving on a cardboard loom. As students finished their weaving the chose to mount their weaving on tag board, hang it from a natural branch, bead the ends, or leave it flat like a blanket with finished ends.  Next year, I would probably do this earlier or later in the year and bring the class outdoors to work in the sun :)

Mola inspired

Threading the needle!

World Arts Month brought construction paper motifs inspired by traditional Mola designs of the Kuna women of Central America. Materials: layered construction paper, background pieces of construction paper 18 x 18, yarn, tape, hole punch, glue, scissors.  Plan for about 5-6 class periods (third grade) These brighten our hallways during these gloomy January days.

Felted Wool

A little bit of what about what I've been up to outside of the classroom... felting sweaters! Now that the weather has become typical Wisconsin autumn weather, it's time to get out the wool sweaters and knitted hats. I was going through my closet and thought I could really use some more warm sweaters, and I've always wanted to try felting wool, so I went for it! This sweater was originally an XL 100% wool sweater from a thrift shop, I shrunk in down using the hot washer/dryer approach. I was amazed by how much it shrunk, it was just about the right length for me. I cut the neckline into a boat neck style, the sleeves to 3/4 length bells sleeves, added an asymmetrical cut and buttons to turn it into a cardigan. To finish it off, I added a blanket stitch with embroidery floss around all of the raw edges. I've already gone back to the thrift shop to dig through the racks to find more 100% wool men's sweaters to try another style, new addiction.. possibly!

Circle Weaving

Our inspiration, Kandinsky.

The Fourth Grader's are in the process of finishing their weavings based on Kandinsky's "Circle" Painting. One of the standards for our Fourth Grader's here at Swallow is to develop an understanding of fiber arts. Our artist for the month of September was Kandinsky. I had seen the circle weaving concept somewhere, sometime.. and have always wanted to try it! It's super simple, from the supplies to the process. We used paper plates as our looms and a large amount of colored yarn. The best and more popular type amongst the students was the thick and chunky yarn that gave a their weaving a great texture. The students mounted their weavings on contrasting colored squares of tag board to be hung together in a collaborative format to simulate a large scale version of Kandinsky's Circles. This project really bumped up their fine motor (KNOTTING) skills, thank goodness we are nearing the end of this unit, no more knots! I will upload a final image of the collaborative piece once it's hung!