HAMMER AWAY

ECO DYED GARMENT EMBELLISHMENT

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

thrifted garments, windfall, perle cottons & DMC floss

and lots of hammers!!

To extract more color from the plants and flowers,

 I had the kids hammer them into the fabrics first

 before we started the steaming process.

And man oh  man, 

was there a racket going on in my classroom  LOL

The teacher next door actually came over to tell us we were making too much noise.

Oops  :)

But the kids were sure having fun!

We only had one causality.

One of Hazel's thrifted shirts was so old that when she hammered it 

little did she know that it would leave holes.

It was such a shame because the shirt came out so beautifully.

And there were so many rips and holes that it was beyond repair.

But before I let them loose,

they first had to pre-soak their garments in soymilk.

Sadly,

because it was Friday when they put the pieces in the milk,

they sat in it over the weekend,

and it was a bit disgusting fishing them out and wringing out the excess.

But this group are studs,

they didn't let the cheesy smell get to them.

Here are some of the garments before the kids rolled them up.

Seniors William Kim above 

and Amber Wu below.

Seniors Hazel Cruz,

and Antoniette Jabat.

I believe the one above was another that Hazel did,

 and below is junior Shreya Seth below.

Now the kids are ready to roll them up.

We've got Hazel above and Jacqueline Yu with Will below.

Because Hazel made several,

 she attached all her bundles together above.

And this big ham-hock looking thing below belongs to senior Liana Chi. 

Reminded me of one of my Xmas hams

ha ha

Here's sweet Hazel opening up one of her bundles.

This is the first time I've given them cochineal bugs to work with to get red.

I bought a small bagful from Griffin Dyeworks at a weaving conference I attended recently.

The owner suggested we grind them up into smaller pieces with a coffee grinder,

but I didn't have one to use,

so we used them whole.

They worked great as you can see below.

And here are the opened garments.

What a wide range of results these kids were able to achieve.

The next time we see them will be with their altered and embellished  designs.