TAH DAH!!!

I finished something.

YES!

A demo. piece that I made alongside my Intermediate 3-D students.

When I teach this Liberated method I like to be one day ahead of my students, which forces me to actually finish something.

Sorry this second pix is so drained of color.

I demonstrated piecing, 

hand quilting, 

machine quilting and hand tying so the kids had choices in the finishing of their piece.

I also showed them a Log Cabin,

Star,

Strip Piecing, 

Bordering and Binding.

Again, 

many choices.

The backside,

complete with label.

I

I posted the students finished quilts last week.

Scroll down or click here to see their finished pieces.

FIRST TULIP OF THE SEASON

Planted in the fall up at the cabin, 

it bloomed last weekend and is magnificent!

Pinks, reds, yellows and a touch of green.

Wish the camera could have captured it a little better.

THE POWER OF LOVE

Recently I was able to help out the teachers at Leal Elementary School 

with a quilt they wanted to put together for one of their teachers who is fighting her battle with cancer.

Forty decorated squares came to me to be strip pieced together.

In a joint effort with

our new Dean of Discipline,

Craig Spratt,

who came to us from Leal as it's Assistant Principal,

and my T.A., 

Tushara Govind,

we put this labor of love together.

Then we sent it off to our Drama teacher's father,

Dean Lund,

to machine quilt and bind together.

Here is the finished quilt being presented to it's recipient, 

elementary school teacher,

Min Kim.

She was overwhelmed and thrilled to receive this gift of love and hope.

BABY STEPS

It's only taken me 2 years to get this far,

(maybe because I have 50 other projects in the works at the same time)

  LOL,

but I'm ready to give a sneak peek at one of my favorite pieces 

that I'm currently working on up at the cabin.

The hand dyed rovings that I spun these yarns from were a gift from my dear friend Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts. 

Every year she donates a few of her hand dyed rovings to my Beginning 3-D students for their Hand Spinning Unit.  

During the summer before school starts,

I spin up a small sample from each of the colorways so that the kids can see what choices they have.

As soon as the unit is over I begin a new fiber piece with these samples.

I usually make baby garments or pillow tops with the samples.

Well last school year I whipped up these granny squares and stitched them together.

Then over this last summer I spun up some of my hand dyed rovings to border the squares with.

And now with the leftover hand spuns,

 I'm building more squares in a slightly different pattern with a circular center.

I will sew these together for my next border.

I'm hoping that in a couple more years this might actually be a lap blanket/throw for over the couch.

What I'm secretly hoping for is that I will finish it in time for my son's wedding present.

Not that he's getting married anytime soon or has popped the question  LOL

But I know how long these things take me and I want to be prepared  :)

Did I mention that I adore his girlfriend Nicole??

CHECK OUT THE NEW TALENT

GRADE VALUE SCALES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER

graphite on paper with colored pencil

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to my new 7th graders.

The are a talented artsy fartsy bunch,

and so very sweet.

These are their first assignment,

value scales.

The colored pencil was brought in as extra credit.

I'd like to start with Kayla Kim,

and her sweet and sensitive drawing.

Then Joyce Park packs a punch with her design above.

Angela Cooley draws us something very special for when we reach the top of her stairs,

then balances that out with crackling below.

Elliana Lee is very clever is giving us a value scale on either side of her feather.

One in graphite and one in color.

Fabulous critical thinking kiddo!

Carl Estrella is coming to me with big time drawing skills already in place above.

And the same goes for Brittney Wu.

I hope you'll stay with me to see more of their work.

A COUPLE MORE

PORCELAIN SLAB WRAPS

CERAMICS II

clay, glaze, oxides

If you remember this post from a couple of months back,

I'd shown off these delicate porcelain wraps.

Well two more recently came out of the glaze firing and I wanted to show them off.

Senior Erin Hsaio has rolled a lovely pattern over top her clay

 then let the piece break and crack as she folded it over for a super cool look.

And senior Cindy Ryoo has let her clay buckle over itself as she put it together.

You can see these pieces as well as so much more

 at our Open House show that is coming up in April.

More details to come.

WHAT'S BREWING NOW?

STUFF, STEEP & STORE

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

silk scarf blanks, vintage & new cottons, glass jars, windfall, rusty objects, copper pennies & pipes

India Flint published a new book this last summer sharing more of her Eco-printing tips so I thought I'd give it a whirl with my 3-D girls,

just for fun.

The results were really interesting but I felt like we didn't quite do something right to get the results India shows off in her book.

But we were still pleased  :)

After bundling the fabrics and with various windfall and metals,

we steamed them,

 then set them outside for a couple of months to do their thing.

Here are the results below.

Senior Daphne Chiang bundled a vintage silk blouse and her silk scarf blank

for very pretty results.

Notice the hint of red she got in her scarf?

Very cool!

And I love the patterning that resulted on her blouse.

 Senior Bianca Tolentino achieved some very rich dark greens in her pieces.

She is working with a piece of vintage linen tablecloth, her silk blank and misc. pieces of cotton.

Lovely marks!

And Senior Kaili Hamada worked with a vintage embroidered hankie,

and her silk scarf blank.

Love the blues that came up.

My guess is that Kaili  (who loves Rit dyes)

may have dipped her scarf into a turquoise bath first before bundling.

Clever girl  :)

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SUBJECTS

3/4 VIEW CHARCOAL PORTRAITS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

charcoal on paper

First the kids had to find great 3/4 views to work from,

 which they did.

Then they had to smear charcoal over the entire piece of paper,

 before erasing in their subject.

I feel like they really enjoyed this experience 

Really love the photo that senior Nathan Chong choose to work from.

He worked from the photograghs in Harry Lapow's Coney Island Beach People.

Our older generations have so much life in their faces and are wonderful subjects.

And Nathan's skill level makes this a really spectacular piece!

I'm getting so much pain and angst off of junior Elias Rodriguez's charcoal portrait.

I love when the kids take the time to find really great subjects to work from.

And then there is this amazing piece by junior Jonathon Hsu. 

Wherever do these kids find these pictures??    LOL

I'm so thrilled to show off these wonderful works by my boys in 2nd period.

TWO MORE BOWLS

SLAB FOOTED BOWLS

CERAMICS I

clay & glaze

These two beauties were left out of a post from earlier in the year.

They had to be re-fired in the glaze kiln.

Sometimes that happens when a glaze doesn't adhere properly to the clay's surface, 

or perhaps if the child has not applied a glaze correctly.

What we do is heat up the piece with a blow dryer (so that the glaze will stick to a glass surface)

then re-apply the glaze. 

Not an easy thing to do, 

and sometimes doesn't work.

but we always give it a try.

This top piece with the very elegant foot is the work of junior Christina Hur,

 and below I like the organic lip that senior Elijah Ramos has put around the top of his bowl.

Notice that both have great patterning going on their surfaces. 

These were stamped into the clay before they shaped their bowls with the Bisqued Stamps and Cylinders they made at the beginning of the school year.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

Mr. Artisun recently hired our good friend and neighbor,

 Chris Love,

from up on the mountain,

 to come down and stay with us to put in our new stairway.

It turned out  so beautifully.

Chris is the one who built all the insides of my studio up at the cabin.

His design skills and craftsmanship are impeccable.

Then my husband was able to match the stain color on the under part of the stairs

 to the new flooring he installed last year.

Between the two of them we now have a gorgeous new floor and stairway.

(notice the sweet little table that Jim made from a slice of tree trunk we garage saled two years ago)

FROM TRASH TO TREASURES

Every year when I teach my Beginning 3-D class to spin their own yarn,

there are always bits and pieces of roving that fall to the floor,

or that the kids mess up on and give back to me.

So I collect these little bits and at the end of the spinning unit...

I drum card them into a big batt of fibery goodness.

Then I spin it up on my spinning wheel.

The ball above was spun and plied on itself,

but below I wanted to try to ply it up with another fiber,

so I chose a nubby speckled cotton.

Here is the skein off the bobbin in all it's glory...

ready to be knit, 

woven or crocheted into something fun.

QUESTIONS

I had several emails

 after featuring my 2nd Semester Art Wheel students 

and their Color Embossments,

 asking about how they printed their pieces.

So I came across these pix recently that might answer a few of the questions.

We use this Dick Blick printing press that I purchased about 25 years ago for the Art Dept. 

for about $500.  

It's a really great size, 

13 inches wide,

large enough to accommodate an 12" by 16"" plate.

The press came with the thick felt printing blankets.

I bought blotter papers and 100% cotton printmaking papers 

so that we get a very professional result 

(also from Dick Blick)

In the pix above assistant and alumni Josh Berger is watching over the students as they print 

to make sure they are following directions.

The students are initially intimidated by the press until after they give it a try.

After the print dries out (a couple minutes), 

the kids bring in whatever media they have learned to use during the 8 weeks of class.

Several of the students did mixed media this year which delighted me.

Above we see 7th grader Cameron Szendzial carefully watercoloring in his art piece.

Isn't he a cutie???

:)

And I don't think I ever showed you the whole 2nd Quarter Art Wheel Group.

Here they are in all their glory  LOL

Having too much FUN!!!

LIFE IS GOOD...

when your child is happy.

Dani and Garrett

FREE FALLING

LIBERATED QUILTMAKING

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

cotton fabrics, sewing machines, matt & cutters, sewing supplies

Making a Liberated Quilt involves the use of a sewing machine, 

so we send a week learning how to use one.

Then we lottery off recycled bags of donated fabrics and get started.

However this year,

senior Kaili Hamada choose to rust dye all her fabrics which has totally inspired me for next years group of kids.

What that means is that she has gotten white cotton fabric from me, 

cut it into pieces,

wrapped rusty objects inside and bound it together, 

then dyed it with Rit Dyes.

Here is beautiful, athletic and graceful Kaili 

 pin basting her front, back and batting together.

And below is her finished quilt.

She has based her design on a Log Cabin pattern and used the Liberated Method I learned from Gwen Marston years ago for a more improvisational look.

Liberated constitutes not necessarily cutting straight lines or sewing perfect seams. 

So that no two quilts done with the same pattern will look the same.

Which is what I strive for with my students.

Below is Kaili's label on the back side of her piece.

Clever title  :)

Next we have the sweetest of all hearts,

 senior Daphne Chiang.

Daphne has chosen the most adorable bag of fabrics with kitties and yarn balls, bubbles, flowers,

and all the things she loves.

If you look super close you will see that Daphne has embroidered the letters D-R-E-A-M in the centers of each of her Log Cabin blocks.

Love it!

And below her label.

And our last beauty belongs to the charming, witty, and entertaining senior Bianca Tolentino.

Notice that each of these young women have interpreted the Log Cabin pattern in a completely unique way.

Also notice the beautiful machine quilted lines running thru their designs 

locking all three layers together.

Also check out the the thin binding edges.

These took hours of invisible stitching by hand to get them in place.

Remarkable quilts ladies,

I'm so proud to show off your work!

Shout Out...

to YooBin Han.

Hope you don't mind me lifting this pix from your FB profile  :)

It was wonderful to see you yesterday.

I almost didn't recognize you with your grown out blue-violet hair and your preppy skirt.

Adorable!!!!

It's thrilling to know you will be keeping art in your life with your double major at 

Kenyon College in Ohio.

Thank you for thinking of me and stopping by for a visit,.

You are in my heart forever.

Love you!