One More Flat Felt Piece - Student Art

Had so much fun doing this assignment with my beginning 3-D students, cuz it involves getting messy. Heated up 3 large batches of hot soapy water and we went to town felting down all these gorgeous fibers. The kids start out by layering their raw wool fibers perpendicular to each other. We call this their foundation piece. Then they begin their designing by picking out colored fibers that they lay over top the foundation in the shapes they want to be felted in. The process itself involves a lot of agitation with hot soapy water over top this massive mound of fiber until it begins shrinking and tangling into self which in turn creates felt. I think the kids really like it cuz they get to work outside with a lot of soap suds flying everywhere. :) After they felt their fibers I take the pieces home and throw them in my washer to shrink and condense them even more. When dry the kids use their decorative sewing skills to embellish the design to make it pop. The students were inspired by the work of fiber artist Renee Harris. I will post a piece of hers tomorrow. She is listed in the artists I follow. Wait till you see what she can do with fiber!! The piece above belongs to senior Ivy Hu, and it was a class favorite, and was just turned in recently, so that's why it wasn't posted with the others from Jun 2.

Flat Feltmaking - Student Art

My sweet beginning 3 -D art kids just finished up their feltmaking unit. They work with raw dyed wool that comes from a couple of sources, Lori Lawson at Capistrano Fiber Arts, Joanna Gleason at Gleason's Fine Woolies in Colorado, and Morgaine Wilder at Carolina Homespun up in the Bay Area. All these women sell the most beautiful hand painted/hand dyed rovings at affordable prices. I have the students make a small dimensional piece first so they can be successful and get the whole felting process down, and then we move onto flat felting with recognizable designs and added pearl cotton embellishment. These kids are pro at embroidery now and feel very comfortable with a sewing needle in their hand. From top to bottom, left to right are: (top row) junior Jessica Lee, senior Emily Choh, 7th grader Andrew Veenstra, (second row) 8th grader Jenny Kouch, senior Shahnaz Khandoker, and senior Jenny Ham, (bottom row) 7th grader Aman Patel, junior Jullian Kho, and junior Hannah Chang


A close up of Shahnaz and Jenny Ham's pieces.


7th grader Linda Ly made this adorable bear and added her dimensional preliminary heart in the design. What a great idea Linda plus the text that you added really adds to the overall design.


And last but never least is a close up of Jullian's. She tried free motion quilting on top of hers and I love the results.

Hand Dyed/Hand Spun Knitwear - Student Art

What's really wonderful about being a teacher is when one of your students loves a project so much that it becomes a part of their lives. Take senior Rachel Rilloraza for example. I've been her art and craft instructor for the past six years here at Whitney and when we did the hand spinning unit in Beginning 3-D art she took to it like a duck to water. In the Intermediate class she was introduced to working on an actual spinning wheel (in first year they use a hanger hook to spin with) and enjoyed it so much that I allowed her to keep one of my extra wheels at her home over the summer so she could spin to her hearts content. She is now in the fourth level 3-D class and these are some of her current projects. She also orders her fibers from Capo Fiber Arts. In the first photo she has spun two different colorways and is knitting a baby sweater with my favorite no seams pattern, and in the second photo are baby socks she spun and knit at the beginning of the year. She is almost done now with the sweater so look for it to be posted in a couple more weeks.

More Hand dyed/Hand spun Knitwear

I'm re-posting these two photos for my craft beginners to see more hand dyed, handspun yarns being used in a project. The hat and booties were my own design and the sweater was from a pattern I use all the time that's super easy to knit up. It's a no seams sweater. Love that! All the fiber came from Lori Lawson at Capo Fiber Arts. Both the hat set and the sweater were knit from the samples that I spun up two years ago for my beginners. It was fun trying to get them to all come together in a pleasing way, and for the sweater to look somewhat symmetrical.

Knit & Crochet - Hand dyed/Handspun Yarns

I'm posting these pieces that I made for my Beginning 3-D art students to see. We are moving into a fiber arts unit where they will be learning to spin and dye their own yarns. Just wanted them to see some examples of finished work using these handmade yarns. In the baby hat, I spun the yarn (undyed blue faced Leister purchased from the dizzyewe.com) then dyed it with food coloring in the microwave. The yarns in the crocheted pillow top came from hand dyed roving that I get every year for this unit from my friend Lori Lawson (Capistrano Fiber Arts- see side bar). I spin up samples for the kids in all the different colorways that I purchase from her so they can see what the finished yarn looks like, and when the unit is over I like to make them into something special. I used a granny square pattern that I got from Lori to do the pillow. The sweater was done in beautiful, expensive fibers from Japan from a company called Noro. They are a silk/wool blend and look very much like handspun, hand dyed fibers. I made the sweater in a workshop that I took with Suzanne Bond, one of the most prolific knitters I've ever met, at Cozy Cottage Fabrics in Brea.

Handmade Felt LIned Bags - Student Art

So excited to share these gorgeous bags off. They were made completely from scratch by my 2nd year 3-D art students. The students began by making their own felt from handdyed rovings from Joanna Gleason's sheep farm in Lyons, Colorado (http://www.gfwsheep.com/) Then they embellished them with needlefelting, beads, pearle cottons, free motion machine stitching, knit handles, gem stones and buttons. Then each designed their own pattern for their bags and learned the art of lining a bag (yuck!) and finally sewed on a closure. The results are spectacular. So much handwork involved but totally worth it. From top to bottom: senior Caroline Ma, sophmore Breeana Johng, and then from top to bottom, left to right: senior Julie Kim, 8th grader Jhonna Coronel, junior Audrey Pulido, and senior Joanna Han. Way to go ladies!

Color Blending Workshop

I was invited 2 Saturdays ago to a Southcoast Weavers and Spinners handspinning workshop at Lori Lawson's home in San Juan Capistrano. Janel Laidman was the featured artist/teacher, and she was terrific. She is the master of the Spindilicity website and the author of "The Eclectic Sole". Learned so much about spinning handdyed/handpainted rovings in several different techniques. These are some of my finished products.

Hand Felted Bags

A little better visual of the two demo bags. The handmade beads on the bag on the right were a gift from Holland, Michigan mixed media artist Kelli Perkins (http://www.kelliperkins.blogspot.com/) after purchasing two of her art quilts. I sure lucked out. The remainder are going onto my demo. bag that I'm currently working on.

Felt Bags -Student/Teacher Work

These felt bags are examples of the assignment that my 2nd year 3-D art students are working on right now. The one on the left was made by senior Hannah Chung when I had her in the 9th grade, and the two on the right were made by me as demo. pieces. A close up will be in the next post. The students made their felt from scratch, from hand dyed wool rovings that came from Joanna Gleason's flock of Corriedale and Bond sheep in Lyons, Colorado (http://www.gfwsheep.com/) Then they needle felted additional design elements on top and embellished with beads. They were also required to line the insides with a fabric that would flow visually with the outside colors. And lastly they had to make a closure. These are very functional bags.

Baby Sweater Set #1

The first of 3 sweaters I made last year from a pattern that came from Cottage Creations. The yarn is from Capistrano Fiber Arts (http://www.paintspinknit.blogspot.com/) and was handdyed. It knits up like a dream. One of my fourth year 3-D art students, Rachel Rilloraza, is currently handspinning roving from CFA and is knitting up this same pattern. I'll post her progress in a couple of days.

Knitted Baby Sweater #3

Of all my baby sweaters this one is my favorite because I was able to build it from all my leftover handdyed, handspun yarns. I think my daughter Danie has dibs on it. Sorry Zach!

Knitted Baby Garments

Finished this set 2 years ago and they are my favorites. I handspun this handpainted roving (done by Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts www.paintspinknit.blogspot.com) into a two-ply yarn then made up the pattern as I knit.