COMMUNITY LOOM UPDATE

I'm excited to unveil our Whitney High School Community Loom's 4th piece,

a vertical succulent garden.

It began like this:

In 4th quarter of last school year,

seniors  Shreya and Jac re-warped this loom they built,

and put out lots of windfall branches and twigs for passersby to weave with,

plus I told them to throw in some succulent branches that were taking over Alumni Josh's Garden.

I would say that 3/4 of the piece was woven by the end of the school year.

I had to bring in the loom for the summer break so I put it in my dark and hot kiln room.

At the end of August I returned to school and pulled it back outside the door

 and gave it a real good cleaning with lots of water spray from a hose.

Again, 

more twigs and succulent branches were put out,

and staff and students finished it up in a week or two.

But what also started to happen were those old succulent branches 

started to put out their petals.

That one watering got them started again!

I was thrilled and thought how perfect to turn this into a vertical garden.

So I asked senior Ylia Madayag ,

one of my top Ceramics students this year,

and also a helper (T.A.) that I share with another teacher

 a couple of mornings a week,

to give it a bit of water and see if it would continue to grow.

And it did,

so I suggested to Ylia to go to Josh's Succulent Garden 

and get little starts of other plants to poke between the branches.

And she told me she was thinking the same thing.

Ylia continued to water and plant it but we noticed it was drying out way too quickly,

so I bought her some moss that she began sticking in between the branches.

But even this was not enough.

So  I recycled a piece of plastic grid,

lined it with tons of moss,

sewed the moss down to the net with tough string,

then wired that big moss grid to the back of the weaving.

And wella!

Happy wet plants.

Ylia attached the top section to a twig and braided the warp strings along the bottom edge

In the meantime,

everytime our Principal Mr. B walked by the garden weaving as Ylia was working on it,

he would comment how much his wife would love it in their backyard,

so Ylia and I decided it would be his Xmas present this year.

But I almost changed my mind and gave it to Ylia since it had become her baby,

but in the end Ylia and I carried it to the office to give to Mr. B.

Both of us were a bit sad to see it go.

Here she is below with her pride and joy!

Thank you Ylia for your hard work on this piece of living art.

It's so very beautiful just like you! 

ANOTHER EARTH LOOM CREATION

COMMUNITY EARTH LOOM

The last time we saw this loom,

the Whitney Community had just finished weaving this first Earth Loom piece

(here)

The second piece to have come off at the end of last school year was this piece,

made with donated chenille yarns from my former weaving teacher,

 Elizabeth Serbel,

a high school science teacher in Whittier ,Ca.

Sadly she is no longer with us,

but many wonderful memories remain. 

Elizabeth,

I dedicate this piece to you.

There are so many ways to finish off a tapestry.

Seniors Shreya Sheth and Jacqueline Yu came up with bunching up and tying off the warps

around a found twig,

and bunching and knotting them along the bottom.

THE BIG REVEAL - PART THREE

EARTH LOOM

ADVANCED 3-D ART

part three

I think I have mentioned before that we have a class that does a LIVE Broadcast

 every day for all our students and community.

Mr. Z (Rod Ziolkowski) teaches this class called Multimedia Communications period 2,

but the students are responsible for the entire show

 from production to direction to editing, writing, camera, grips, set design,

the list is long.

All our students look forward to this daily LIVE broadcast 

that goes at 9:00 a.m. during their homeroom classes.

It showcases our students & staffs many talents & personalities,

introduces new staff members,

goes on location around the city to interview & show off people, new places & eateries.

At anytime you could go online and pull it up to watch each day's video

at Whitney High School Live.

Well Mr. Z,

who walks by my classroom several times a day, 

was fascinated watching the kids weaving on the loom.

He asked if his LIVE show could feature seniors Shreya Sheth & Jacqueline Yu.

Of course I was thrilled for them,

and said Yes!

They were excited when I told them but a bit apprehensive & anxious.

Understandable.

So they took the finished weaving off  the loom and placed it on display in the office,

re-warped the loom,

chose a different weft (chenille yarns),

 and wove a bit to get this new one started before going on the live show,

and of course picked matching outfits

because they are a team!

They went LIVE on camera where they were interviewed by the moderator,

and demonstrated the weaving process.

Here you can see the new weft yarns and landscape design.

Shreya wove while Jac described what she was doing 

so that hopefully all our students & staff will take a turn on this loom.

I'm so terribly proud of these two girls,

not only have they impacted the Arts here at Whitney, 

but they have touched all the students & staff with their creation

here in the Whitney Community.

They will be back again to show you how this current weaving turns out.

THE BIG REVEAL - PART TWO

EARTH LOOM

ADVANCED 3-D ART

part two

The Earth Looms first trip outside to see the light of day with it's creators,

seniors Shreya Sheth and Jacqueline Yu.

Warped up and ready to weave, 

and a close up below.

Of course there was signage.

All dressed up with Jac & Shreya having started the first bit of weaving along the bottom.

Because there was so much windfall around the school,

the girls decided the weavers (weft) would be plant based. 

So every morning before school and during snack the girls and I would forage for windfall,

and place it in the basket outside with the loom,

as you can see below.

Did we (I) purposely cut any plants?

Maybe I did a little,

like the day lilies.

I wanted some colorful blooms in there of course!

Also posted were directions for the passers by to be able to learn to weave.

I honestly was surprised and saddened to find out that not many of our students 

were never given the opportunity to weave in Elementary School or at home.

:(

And they came,

tentatively at first,

so that it wove up slowly.

But the delight showed on their sweet faces.

And the passers by were intrigued.

Then they started slipping in from the P.E. field for a quick fix,

hee hee

and it really started to grow,

until they were lining up to take their turns.

YES!!!

Even our new Principal wanted a turn at it.

And then it was done.

TAA DUHH!!!

But there is more so stay tuned  :)

THE BIG REVEAL - PART ONE

EARTH LOOM

ADVANCED 3-D ART

reclaimed wood, drill, hammer, sanding equipment, nails, dowels, 

wood glue, brackets, wood burning tool & acrylic paint 

Ever since school started this year,

I've been so excited to show you what my babies,

seniors Shreya Sheth & Jacqueline Yu have been creating.

A community Earth Loom.

I saw the idea this summer on Pinterest

 and shared it with the girls to see if they might be interested in trying to pull this off.

They were super enthusiastic about it because last year in the Intermediate class 

they loved the Weaving Unit on the frame Looms.

So starting with the first week of school 

they researched and drew out designs,

and found pieces of old wood that I'd dumpster dived for that they thought might work.

Second week of school they started construction.

I brought in my husband's table circular saw and off they went.

Shreya above with a satisfied smile on her face,

Jac below holding her breath and wishing for the best.

ha ha

Both girls learned how to use this saw in their first year of 3-D art when we made the Wood Angles.

Next was sanding the wood pieces.

They started off using sandpaper and doing it by hand.

Nope,

that was way too time consuming and would have taken them half the year.

So I brought in the hubby's electric sander and off they went again.

Here's Jac below taking a photo while I'm taking a pix of the two of them.

Jac just looked too adorable in this neckerchief. 

Next they decided to stain the wood with acrylic paint, 

something that we had tons of thanks to Alumni Anne & Emily Allen's mother

and her generous donation.

The nailing and gluing together was next,

but the wood was hard for these little cuties to go thru

so they pre-drilled many of the holes.

I love this picture of Shreya up on the table sitting in the middle of the loom with drill in hand.

One of the things I was most impressed with during this whole process 

was the fact that these two worked so well together.

Every move they made was discussed first then they did each step together.

Talk about teamwork!

I sent the kids to Home Depot with $40 to buy casters 

so went could roll the loom in and out the door.

That's what Jac is working on here.

While at Home Depot 

they also asked for help with how to strengthen the pieces of wood they glued together

 to add height to the loom.

They came back with these metal brackets above with spikes that they nailed over the joins.

Plus they brought me back change!

Yes!

 Oh, oh, oh,

and one last touch.

The girls wood burned their names onto the feet of their loom.

Pefect!

Before these dolls rolled the loom outside 

which we will see in Part two,

I added a neckpiece I had made in the 1980's for good luck.

The necklace has a special feather from the duck my son used to feed 

at my mother's mobile home park she lived in when he was a baby.

And then the girls found another feather to add as well

and bound the whole thing onto the top mid part of the loom.

This whole shebang took these little ones only 17 days 

and I'm so proud to have been able to show off their process.

I look forward to showing you Part Two so you can see what happened next.