FEELING LIKE AUTUMN

LEAF STITCHING

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

dried or fresh leaves, needle and perle cottons

Gee no!

Not here in the So.Cal.

99 degrees today if you can believe that?

Crazy weather.

So let me show off a little something to cool things down a bit,

these sweet leaf constructions that senior Helen Park created last school year.

Inspired by the work of Susanna Bauer,

Helen picked a few dried leaves I'd collected for her over the last year and went to town.

Funny, 

she made the most difficult one first

 after she saw the little box my son bought me for Xmas from U.K. mixed media artist

Alice Fox. 

She enjoyed the tedious process so much that she made several more.

The grouping above was bought by English teacher Donna Hall to be displayed in her classroom,

a great honor.

One of these days I need to photograph Donna's classroom.

Every year she spends a couple hundred dollars at Open House and fills her walls with student art.

The effect is incredible!

I would say she has close to 250 pieces carefully arranged.

I had Helen frame out her leaves in small box top lids for Open House display.

So delicate and lovely!

I admire your workmanship and stick-to-activeness Helen.

This was a very difficult assignment.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

WIRE QUILTS

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

wire & mixed media

This Intermediate group of kids ended their year with this Final,

 a new assignment inspired by the work of  British Textile Artist,

Manchester based Liz Cooksey.

I found her on Pinterest and loved each and every piece I could find of hers.

I also had the young ones check out her site to inspire them.

I asked the kids to use wire to build an interesting framework in which to include at least 7 sections.

I also asked them to hammer the wire for extra strength,

 but they told me it didn't work so well.

I also gave them a list of at least 13 different techniques we had used in the past two years,

like knitting, crochet, leaf stitching, metal work eco-dyeing, etc.,

to chose from for these 7 sections.

Of course to also make them visually pleasing together.

Let's see what they came up with and decide if I try it again next year.

I think out of all of them this one by senior Antoinette Jabat was the most appealing to my eye.

Working in a neutral palette,

 with the eco-dyed weavings,

 and of course that gorgeous stitched leaf was right up my alley.

Oh my!

The leaf up close.

Love how she suspended it.

The eco-dyed fabric.

Next we have this very feminine piece by senior Kristine Luong.

I thought her weaving she wove was especially pretty,

but it feels slightly unbalanced on the lower left side.

Needs one more flower I think.

Junior Shreya Sheth really got into this assignment and worked her heart out.

So many interesting & delightful surprises for the eye.

Also,

Shreya was the only one who actually re-read the requirement sheet 

and built the outside wire components like Liz Cooksey does.

I'm talking about those stars.

And notice those spray painted twigs?

And the clock paper that she also used inside her Mosaic Tile Box?

A really tremendous piece Shreya!

How clever senior Liana Chie was to build this to the subject of a hot air balloon.

Do you see the little man inside the woven basket?

Senior Hazel Cruz didn't get a chance to finish hers but we all sure liked her fabulous start.

And this last one by junior Jacqueline Yu came together so beautifully,

done in her favorite color scheme.

So these are my thoughts.

Next year if I have the kids do this assignment again,

I feel I should stress that each section has to be done in something they have made themselves,

 rather than a found object in those 7 sections. 

 But if they build more sections,

 then they can bring in other goodies like buttons and silk flowers and such.

I would love some feedback on this please.

WINDFALL

LEAF STITCHING

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

windfall, perle cottons & seed beads

For me this was the most exciting project that my students attempted this year.

It's a new assignment that was inspired by Mixed Media Artists Alice Fox and Susanna Bauer. 

I've been following both these U.K. gals for several years now, 

and incredibly own a piece from both to teach with.

Both collect windfall and do amazing 2 and 3 dimensional artworks with their leaves.

If you haven't had a chance to see their work,

I strongly recommend you take a gander.

My students were required to and here is what they came up with.

Senior William Kim chose 3 very different leaves and

 tied them together thru colored perle cottons and beads.

I apologize for the next pictures.  

I had framed them under glass for the District Art Show & Senior Awards Banquet Nite,

and didn't want to take them apart to shoot the pix.

So sadly there is glare.

This next one was done by junior Shreya Sheth.

I believe she chose a perle cotton that had rich looking multi-colored thread for a great contrast.

The kids had a choice to seal their leaves with Modge Podge or to just leave them natural.

Coating them made them much less likely to break.

Her are two more of Will's leaves.

I so love how he thought to incorporate the beads.

And I'm pretty sure that hole was already there in the bottom leaf.

This wasn't an easy assignment.  The kids broke many leaves before they got the hang of it.

All these leaves were collected with my dog on her walks both up at the cabin and down below.

Senior Amber Wu put together this gentle trio.

Love the asymmetry of it.

And lastly senior Hazel Cruz took a completely different and more difficult approach.

She strung threads between the breaks in one section.

You can see this in the close up below.

Spectacular work all of you!

Thank you for trying this project out for me,

and for creating such beauty from windfall.