Woven Softie Dolls

How cute are these?
These softie dolls were created by fifth and sixth graders at
McKelvie Intermediate School, Bedford, NH. They are woven
on a super simple loom--a piece of cardboard.

Once students created the loom, they learned to warp it and also learned:
counter soumak stitch
plain weave
how to braid arms
ghiordes knots

It's important to beat the weft. That means
packing the weft tightly, pushing it toward the bottom of the loom.
You can use your fingers or a plastic comb or fork.

Braided arms.

The hair took a bit of time to weave in, but it was lot's of fun.

Art teacher, Mr. Flint usually chooses black and pink yarn
for our weaving projects, his wife's favorite colors.
Check out that multi-pink hair!

Here are some really full locks!

It was fun getting creative with hairstyles and accessories.

If you would like to weave your own softie doll. E-mail me
and I will send you a link for a .pdf tutorial.

Fabulous Famous Americans

Harriet Tubman, Sacajawea, and George Washington striking poses.

Eleanor Roosevelt looking chic.

Second graders at Peter Woodbury School in Bedford, NH were studying famous Americans. I spent three weeks as an artist in residence helping them interpret their discoveries via papier-mâché.


Week one they made an armature and covered it with papier-mâché. Like this:

Week two they painted. (If you want to try this project, use acrylic. Tempera tends to crack.)

Me talking about paint.


Busy hands loving the painting part.

Week three was the week for final touches:

Adding hair.



...and clothes. That's Laura Ingalls Wilder...




...and Davy Crockett.



Amelia Earhart in progress.




Sojourner Truth and one of the Wright brothers.




Jackie Robinson, Paul Revere, and Rosa Parks.




Walt Disney in primary colors.




Another interpretation of Harriet Tubman.

All the second graders' sculptures were displayed in the school's spring art show, celebrating these young artists and historical figures--reminders that our nation breeds courage, perseverance, and innovation.

Marvelous Monsters

As a visiting artist, my challenge was to come up with a 3D project for first graders using felt. The students at Peter Woodbury School loved making these soft sculpture monsters!

First, we talked about images of monsters in art history, mythology, and popular culture, exploring ideas about the creation of monsters and monster personalities.

Next, students cut out the front and back shapes and glued arms, legs, antennae, horns, etc. to the inside of their shape "sandwich."



Facial features were glued on to the front.



Pom-poms, rick-rack, fabric scraps, and yarn were available for fun details.




Parent helpers hot glued the front and back shapes together like a pocket with an opening. The children then stuffed them with a polyester filling. Hot glue was used again to close the shapes.




Do the clothes make the monster?
Many of the monsters bore an interesting relationship to their creator's attire.






Here are a few more monsters just for fun.

BOO!!!

Book Buddies and Pouches

I recently finished two weaving workshops with students at McKelvie Intermediate School, Bedford, NH. It was great fun working with these creative fifth and sixth graders and their very nice art teacher, Mr. Flint!

Students learned weaving techniques that included:

• warping a loom
• shag weave
• plain weave
• chaining
• soumak
• making slits
• making twisted cord

I wasn't able to take as many photos as I would have liked due to time constraints, but I did get a sampling that should illustrate the activity fairly well.


Workshop 1
The students made woven bookmarks during the first workshop. But these bookmarks had personality. They were book buddies!

Engaged in the process.

These were done on cardboard looms warped with eight threads.

Here we have a finished one - a simplified version.

This was inspired by Erin Hunter's book series Warriors.

Workshop 2

During the second workshop, students created little pouches. This project was a bit more complex, but they did beautiful work nonetheless!

Pouches in progress show slits added to weave cord through.




A close-up. Almost finished!




Making the twisted cord.

Finished!

Art Show

Last week I went to see an art show put together by my friend and fellow teacher/illustrator, Anne Lederhos. She teaches art in Bedford, NH to grades 1-4. I had so much fun looking at all of the beautiful work, I thought I'd post some pictures.

The children spent several weeks learning about Native Americans and their art. The end result was a themed exhibit complete with a drum performance (which I, unfortunately, couldn't stick around for) and tables where exhibit goers could create their own Native American art .



Above is one of several amazing Native American portraits on display. These were done by fourth graders.

Here are more:

A quilt-like mural was hanging on the stage where the drummers performed:

This was crafted by Anne's Art Club students. Each student drew on a seperate piece of paper. Then all of the squares were combined to create a stunning mural. (That is a microphone stand in front to give you an idea of it's size.)

These are some charming Hopi Kachina dolls done by second graders.




Check out the colorful clay turtles by first graders:

I bet they had fun with those textures!

Below are examples of third grade storytellers.

So cute!

And lastly more fourth grade fabulousness:

Finely rendered little clay animals.

All the students in grades 1-4 had work in the exhibit, so there were many more wonderful pieces to see. Congratulations to all the students and Mrs. Lederhos!