Appliquilt Journals - Part I - Student Work

Dearest Jude Hill, Morna Crites Moore, Lori Lawson, Chad Alice Hagen, Jane LaFazio, Jamie Fingal, India Flint, Jackie Cardy, Alisa Burke, Judy Coates Perez, Kelli Nina Perkins, Kristin La Flamme, Mary Stanley, Melody Johnson, Renee Harris, Susan Hinckley and Terri Stegmiller, and all of you amazingly talented stitchers out there, I dedicate this batch of stitched journals to you.  For all of you have inspired me to share your work with my students, in fact I demand it, the kids have to visit your blogsites as homework so they can see quality professional works.  I am so proud to share these student pieces with all of you.

I want to start with one of my favorites done by junior Phoebe Liu.  Phoebe, you work so hard to please me. Know that you do, I adore everything that you make.  Phoebe's theme is "Life is a Journey of Faith".  So true.

Junior Emily Yang is another who strives each and everyday to be the best she can be.  It is reflected in her spectacular journal with the Abbey Road album cover theme..  You can see the Long Stitch Binding that most of the students chose to use.  There are some wonderful tutorials on YouTube that I had the students watch before they undertook the binding.

The kids went thru a couple of units to build these pieces from.  We started off with a tye-dye unit to make the foundation cloths.  They also participated in a Polymer Clay Unit, and many of them have incorporated their beads and buttons either on their journals or in their book markers

Here is junior Lydia Ko's gorgeous piece.  You might be able to see that she has put a piece of netting over top her tye-dye foundation to give it a bit of texture.

This assignment was originally inspired by Andrea Stern's article in Quilting Arts Magazine.  As was showcased 3 week ago on my blog titled "Felt Pouches", I also took the kids thru an embroidery unit in which they  learned all the stitches you are seeing on their journals.

Here we have senior Shivanti Kariyawasam who always pours on the steam at home, ad manages to find extra time to make all her pieces very special.  Just look at all those french knots she put down.  Unbeleieveable!

And then she took shaving cream and food color and marbleized her paper.  Can't wait to give this a try for next year's kids.  That should be fun and having us smell oh so good.  :)

Senior Sunny Cheon is another one who always gives me her everything in all her assignments.  What a lovely delicate piece this is.

And look at that sweet pocket she built on the side cover. 

Lily Lin, junior, moves to the dark side in her work.  Love how she incorporated laces, netting, ribbons, and chains in her work.  Clever girl!  I especially like her tab closure that she embroidered on 

She even put her name on the inside cover, a really nice touch that I will have all the kids do next year.  These young ones are so full of great ideas and inspire me everyday.

And today's piece that I'll end with was made by junior Edgar Aquilar.  He found a piece of dyed cheesecloth that worked beautifully with his foundation cloth.  Just look at all the embroidery and beading Edgar has put into his work.  These kids are amazing and I love sharing their work with all of you.  Stay turned for part II tomorrow, probably with a bit of extra credit to go with it. 

More New 7th Graders

These are their charcoal cones they just finished after doing the graphite sphere.  I let them try their hand at 4 different kinds of charcoal; twigs, sticks, pencils and conte.  Using their favorite(s) they then created their compositions.

Above we have young artist John Cho with his very sophisticated composition, and below is Seul Eileen Lee.  I think Eileen may have used all 4 charcoal types in her piece, just look closely at all the different shades of grey-black she's getting.  I love that!   

The one above was created by Nicole Lee who has used beautiful craftsmanship in building her piece as has Millie Zhang's twin Olivia, below. 

Look at the variety of textures Olivia was able to achieve.  Cool pieces young ones!

Meet My New Third Quarter 7th Graders

Let me start with Willam Wei.  One of the first assignments I do with the 7th graders after they complete their  value scales is to do a graphite sphere.  And of course I love it when the kids turn the sphere into something more as Will did with this basketball composition.

Be There Or Be Square...

this Saturday nite at Main Street Restaurant in Yorba Linda.   Jim's band "The Rockits with the Highlites" will be singing up a storm from 7:00 till 10:00.  Music from the 40's, 50's 60's and 70's.  So let's dance!!

And come up on stage and sing with the band (that's my boy)...

or have your mother make you go up on stage and make faces at her (that's my girl)...

or just sit there, look good, pose for pix and enjoy the music.

My girl with the new boy in her life, Steven.

A Peek Inside My Studio

For Xmas my husband bought me India Flint's book on Eco Dyeing, so I have been very busy collecting various plants to make natural dyes with.  I'm letting all these blossoms, stems and barks dry out then in they go to my freezer to await summer break when I will begin my experiments.  I'm so excited to get started.  Everywhere I look there are plants to collect for their dye properties.  I'm constantly on the lookout, and my freezer is filling quickly.

Many of the plants I've collected are from my little garden patio, but Jim and I went on a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood over Xmas break to get many of the ones you see on these two trays.

More From Ceramics II

Recently I had the kids do a unit on clay inlay called Mishima, and another surface design unit on Sgraffito.    A couple weeks ago I posted their gorgeous Mishima vase forms for you to see. Well I also had them handbuild some molded bowl forms that they were required to do a bit of both techniques in.  So here are a few of the finished pieces.

Here we have senior Alyssa Olea with her beautiful flowered bowl/plate.  She has done the Mishima technique in the center area, and on the petals a bit of sgraffito.  She used cobalt carbonate oxide to color her clay with and a transparent glaze over top.  Look at the sensitivity of her inlay below.  

Next we have senior Tiffany Liu with her adorable "late as usual" inlay" and sgraffito for the clock hands.

And lastly we have senior Hanna Woo with her cute little face bowls.  This was a lot of work you guys.  You all did a great job!  Way to hang in there.

My Ceramic II Babies

Just wanted to give a shout out to my 2nd year ceramics kids who have been working so very hard for me learning how to throw on the potter's wheel.  Don't give up, it's a global skill.  It's supposed to be hard!!!

I also wanted you to see how much fun these kids are having with the clay.  Senior Melissa Garcia has her arms locked around her nude figure sculpture that she has just completed by using a coil building technique.

Above senior Hanna Woo chose for her figure sculpture a sumo wrestler/budda as she calls it.  And below senior David Hyun is just finishing up the chest of his male figure. 

And these last 2 goofballs below are seniors Alyssa Olea and Tiffany Liu.  Both of them are halfway done with their female figures.  The students were allowed to expose their coils and let them show like Tiffany's or they could elect to smooth them over like the other 4 did.  For me it was the joy of working with the clay that I wanted you to see on their faces.  Clay does that to a person, it's extremely tactile and just the act of rolling it around in your hands sends you into right hemisphere, a delightful place to be.  LOL 

Missing You Sam

It's been one whole week since you  left us for the big school in the sky, Gahr High School.  And we miss you so much.  Especially me, Jaimee, Cindy, and Sara.  So we just wanted you to know that we are thinking of you and wishing you the best in Ms. Giger's accellerated art classes.  Make us proud woman!!

Perspective Final - Student Work

These stunning works belong to my 2nd year 2-d kids.  These were the culmination of the 1 and 2-point perspective units.  Their assignment was to choose a location from either the inside or outside of the school, and then draw it in either 1 or 2-point.  

Senior Jessica Liu above choose to sit outside in the wind and rain to draw this fabulous depiction of the front of our school.  The students were required to use artistic lisence to bring in a surreal element.  Jessica's gorilla's captured everyone's attention including the superintentant of our district.  It now hangs in his office.  You didn't know that did you Jessica??  Surprise! 

Senior Michelle Lee brought in some very cool textural elements, her signature style, in the area behind the band room.  Michelle placed the bird's head where they are currently building our new multipurpose theater/computer lab building.  We got to meet the lovely Grace Hu today who donated much of the funds that are going into this new complex.  She was given a piece of art, a monoprint, done by alumni Hyun Yoo.  I'm pretty sure Hyun graduated in 2001.  I hope you like it Mrs. Hu.

Check out these close-ups of all Michelle's sweet details including bringing in a bit of watercolor below.

Senior Crislyn Ogawa brings us her diagonal horizon with her sensitive watercolor backdrop.  And senior Michael Chen gives us his favorite subject, video gaming, in his interior hallway.

It is a pleasure to display your artwork.  You young ones make me so proud!

Slab Footed Bowls - Student Work

Aren't these spectacular???  These belong to my beginning ceramics kids and were done in the 1st quarter of school.  It's a slab technique using a mold to drape the slab over.  The students had to add a foot to elevate the piece, and also had to include at least 2 surface design techniques in the plastic or leatherhard clay.

I love how this first one turned out after glazing.  It was made by senior Jaimee Chirico and she used a couple different glazes as well as various oxides to achieve this multicolored piece.

This gorgeous pot above was created by senior Kelsey Chang...

and this cool piece was done by senior Tim Chai.

And then we have senior Alice Cho who created this very complex and amazing work.

I also threw in this fun extra credit piece below by Kelsey.  She does at least 3 pieces in the time it takes the other kids to complete their first one.  She's really something!