NIGHT NITE

SOLAR PRINTED PILLOWS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

solar printing fabric, perle cottons, stuffing & beading accents

A super fun way to end the school year is to make solar pillows with my Beginning 3-D kids.

I order the photosensitive fabric from Dharma Trading and the kids do wonders with it.

It's expensive and I buy enough so that each child gets to do a preliminary piece first, 

testing out at least 5 different things to print.

For instance,

 feathers, leaves, buttons, jewelry, paper clips, doilies, snowflake cut outs,

 the list is long. 

Whatever they pick,

 it must sit flat against the ground.

We use t-pins to help hold things in place so the wind doesn't blow them off.

I adore what junior Insha Khan thought to do.

She cut up both her prelim and good one,

 and stitched them patchwork style back together again using a whip stitch and perle cotton.

Next we have English teacher Deliana Park.

Hers again was one of the class favorites.

I had forgotten how crazy amazing it was until I pulled it up last nite to work on this post.

Incredible design Deliana.

Man oh man, 

do I miss you girlie.

(Ms. Park transferred to Troy High School in the Fullerton District 

to be on the same break schedule as her children)

Senior Elias Rodriquez did quite get to finish his,

but it was so extraordinary that I needed to post it as  inspiration for this next school year.

I love that he thought to do a self-portrait,

and the pine needles he used as resist in the photo process makes a wonderful boarder.

Sweet 8th grader Micah Yim,

another of my favorites who is gone this year

(transferred to Cerritos High)

created this glorious design.

Wow,

well thought out Micah.

Great contrasts between the play of lights & darks.

Another outstanding 8th grader,

Elliana Lee,

made this super clean & tight origami design.

Her craftsmanship is extraordinary for one so young.

And then there is 8th grader Sydney Eng.

The energy & effort she gives me in every piece is truly remarkable.

And senior Iris Xu

(don't let Sriram near this)

so touching & lovely,

the beads the perfect accompaniment.

I sure miss you & your gentle way.

We end with Eileen Wang and her bouquet of flowers.

Wonderful pops of whites against the blue ground.

With her tiniest of stitches here and there.

Perfect way to end the year.

Thanks you 3-d kiddos for giving me so much of yourselves!

And thank you Deliana for joining us and really raising the bar,

and making us laugh.  

You are one funny lady!

Helen told me to tell you hello.

xoxooxox

A Stitchpaper Quilt - Student Work

STITCHPAPER QUILTING 

ala Kelli Nina Perkins

Advanced 3-D Art

This year is lonely for 3-D art student Karisma Dev.  She's the only student who could fit the Advanced 3-D class into her schedule.  But boy oh boy, she isn't letting that hold her back,  she is going to town.  She has just finished this exceptional piece in which she learned to work paper and fabric together, and to free motion quilt., then to turn it into an Art Quilt.  Plus she has brought in a really strong message.  Karisma has titled this piece "Co-Exist"  Look below a the close-up to see her intense visual, as well as all her stitching.  Also notice above the sweet little silver embellishments she had dangled from the bottom of the quilt.  

Fabulous Work Karisma!

Felt Pouches - Student Work

Jude, these are for you, our future stitchers  :)  These are my Beginning 3-d students and this project was their 1st Quarter Final.  They had to jump thru many hoops to come up with an original design, and then to use their most beautiful craftsmanship to embroider and stitch up these pouches with.  They also learned how to put in a drawstring.  Some great life skills!

Above and below we have junior Julia Chanco, her adorable front and back side.  

These kids put lots of effort and thought into their pieces.  We have senior Daniel Ho.  Look closely at how gorgeous his stitches are!  Oftentimes the boys craftsmanship is better then the girls.  Right Daniel??  :)

And below we have junior Hannah Park who also is one of my talented drawing students.  What an extraordinary piece she has come up with.

This very friendly octopus belongs to senior Isabel Chua.  And below the sweet little lion was created by junior Angela Wan whom I'm hoping is going to be coming back to me next year for the Intermediate class  :)

Below is the very gifted junior Alice Zhang, who always turns in exceptional work.

And then there are juniors Emily Yang and Sheila San Agustin, who are such hard workers, great designers and who absorb every morsel you put out there for them.  The back sides of their pieces are below.   

So, for EXTRA CREDIT, on any color piece of paper, cut out two rectangles and turn them into a paper pouch thru gluing, stapling, stitching, whatever works for you.  Decorate the front with whatever you'd like, the more you do the more extra credit points you earn!  On the backside put your name, period, and the name of the person's pouch from above that you liked the most.  Hand to me when you walk in the door tomorrow.

5 Day Quilt Challenge - Professional & Student Work

After seeing Leilani Pierson's February/March 2010 article in Quilting Arts Magazine titled "A 5-Day Quilt Challenge, Creating Art on A Whim", I knew I wanted to try out this project with my Advanced 3-d students.  I contacted Leilani and actually bought her piece (above & below) so that I could have an amazing example to share with my students.  I also purchased another gorgeous piece by fiber artist Melissa Cornish which I will be showcasing tomorrow. 

I also got in contact with a fiber artist who participated in the challenge and had her piece published alongside Leilani's, Wanda Stivison (above and below).  I adore both Wanda and Leilani's work, the attention to detail is truly amazing.

On more challenging projects such as this I always like to try them out first, either myself over the summer or one of my 4th year very advanced students.  So I gave this challenge to senior Ashley Morris 2 years ago to see what she could do with it and off she went.

Above and below are Day 1 and Day 2, first applying color to the fabric piece, then quilting the colored fabric to felt or batting.  Unfortunately this is as far as Ashley got because she accidentally lost her work.

So skip to this last year where I presented the assignment to my 3rd year Advanced 3-D girls.  The photo above represents day 3 where you cut your quilt piece into at least 6 separate pieces.  Above we have senior Angeline Tran's work and below is senior Olivia Hill.  You can see how Angeline made mostly diagonal cuts whereas Olivia cut curves and diagonals.  And then Olivia shows Day 4 where you sew the cut pieces back up again is a different configuration, and then begin adding lots of hand and machine embellishments.

This is Day 5 and Angeline's finished work.  On Day 5 you fold, bend, tuck, and mold the piece into a 3-d vessel.  The coolest part was that I never showed the girls the entire finished pieces, only little parts of them at a time, so they really didn't know where I was taking them till day 5.  What a fun adventure it was.  Definitely worth repeating this year.

Here is Olivia's finished piece, check out all her fine details.

And lastly we have senior Breeana Johng's vessel.  So delicate and beautiful, just like Breeana.

EXTRA CREDIT: on a multi colored piece of paper (yes you can make the paper multi colored by using crayons, markers, collage and such) cut out an asymmetrical geometric or organic shape.  Yes, it must be asymmetrical!  Then fold, tuck, wrap, bend and mold the piece of paper into a 3-d vessel like the girls did above.  When you have a pleasing form glue, or stitch (or however you can think of) to hold the vessel's  form.  The most creative, interesting solution will win 5 extra credit points.  For participating you will earn 2 extra credit points.  You have until Monday at the beginning of class to turn this in.  Have fun!