LOVE & EFFORT

Yesterday in the post about Woven Gift Card Journals,

I showed you this one given to me at the end of last school year by English teacher Donna Hall.

What I forgot to insert next was the love & effort she put inside the journal.

She had completely filled all her pages with a beautiful handwritten letter,

and in between the writing she had cut and pasted all these marvelous passages 

that meant so much to me.

I'd like to share them.

Thank you again Donna for this heartfelt gift of words,

both your musings and your passages.

You were a ray of sunshine on a daily basis.

Both the kids and I adored having you join and create with us.

We love you to the moon and back!!!

WOVEN GIFT CARD JOURNALS

WOVEN FABRIC GIFT CARD JOURNALS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

cotton fabric, indigo bucket, tye-dye buckets, solar printing fabric, cardstock in various colors,

multi-colored sewing threads, sewing notions,beads, buttons & other embellishments

Earlier in the year the kids learned how to create a journal with fabric & stitch,

so I thought it would be cool to have them make a whole new decorative piece of fabric

 to cut up and weave with for another journal.

This would be their cover,

and their would be revisiting a former assignment that I didn't have to re-teach

because we were running out of time as it was the end of the year

They had enjoyed the paper weaving so they were excited to give this a try as well..

OMG,

my art room was buzzing with energy as the kids got these journal covers underway.

Because this was their 4th Quarter Final,

I wanted them to revisit and reuse their favorite printing/dyeing or shibori technique

to create a very beautiful piece of fabric 

that was to be cut up and woven into their journal cover page.

The results were spectacular as you will see.

Junior Connie Wu created the most glorious piece of tye-dye to work with.

I brought in my own multi-colored quilting threads for the kids to use as warp string

which they threaded thru a sturdy piece of card stock.

You can really see those multi-colors in the close-up below.

Then they wove their cut weft pieces thru. 

The hardest part for many of them was carefully and exactly cutting 

an opening into another piece of card stock to frame out their weaving with.

This piece of paper was to be the front and back cover of the journals

with an extra flap that covered their knots on the backside of the cover.

Very complicated and had to be demoed many times.

Of course next came the handmade signature papers for their journal pages

which they strung in with waxed linen in a figure eight pattern.

I also required the embellishment of beads on the string ends.

Junior Margaret Yiu also came up with a spectacular piece.

She made 2 tye-dye pieces to work with and alternated them.

So very beautiful wsa this more subtle one by junior Rachel Kannampuzha.

Can you figure out her clever alternation pattern

which makes this look so terrific?

Senior Sarah Woo reused a practice piece that she had made for the Solar Dyed Pillow project.

I love that she chose to weave it with orange paper for more of a mixed media effect.

I also really liked her diagonal lines.

These next two belong to seniors Vicky Hur & Daphne Wang.

Let's see what they did.

I believe Daphne used 2 pieces that went into the indigo bucket.

One light the other more dips for a darker value.

And below is a close up of Vicky's.

Looks like she used a piece of her stitched Shibori fabric thru the center,

and a tye-dye strip on either end.

I really like that effect!

Makes a nice border around the special Shibori piece.

Also note that both Daphne and Vicky are warping on the horizontal rather then the vertical.

Nice!

Below is a close-up of the inside of Vicky's journal pages.

I like that she has used different colors and different sizes of paper 

for more interest.

Also note below on the cover backside

 that there is a flap of card stock that covers all the inside knots and strings.

We used a glue stick for that so it didn't warp the card stock paper.

This little cutie belongs to senior Julie Ahn.

Looks like she also alternated a couple different tye-dye fabrics.

And note that her journal cover opens on the horizontal rather then the vertical.

for that the beads flow over top.

Senior Saba Fatima also chose to have hers open horizontally.

I love her tye-dye fabric as well as how her beads hang thru the middle.

This next one was made by English Teacher Donna Hall,

and she wrote inside it and gave to me as a thank you card/journal at the end of the school year.

What you can't see real well in the photo 

is the tiny pair of scissors that hang with the beads,

 and the metal tag that says "Made with Love".

And let me show you the love and effort that she put inside this journal.

We all loved the effect that junior Lynette Lee got with this piece of paper towel 

that went into the tye-dye bath.

And when she wove with it,

notice the perfect alignment with itself.

So gorgeous!

8th grader James Lara turned out a super cool journal as well.

He dyed thicker cotton string then wove a difficult "Ying-Yang" symbol.

And the buttons looked great over top.

I also appreciated that he incorporated several of his Polymer bead creations from earlier in the year.

Oh my,

look at these pretties by juniors Britney Hong & Samantha Tan.

Both girls made new tye-dye pieces 

and it looks as if they both off set them rather then perfectly lining the strips up over top each other.

It gives both pieces a really op-art type of look.

And then we have 8th grader Yusra Azmi.

Always an outside of the box thinker,

she usually comes up with some very clever,

 never done before ideas.

We all really liked her design and how she wove it.

Instead of setting up he warp vertically or horizontally,

she warped in a circular way like we did on our dream catchers.

I believe she dyed some yarns in our tye-dye buckets,

but it's what she did with pen & ink on her cover that I really enjoy.

A bit of Zentangling.

Ok,

 are you ready for this one by 8th grader Dylan Lin?

It is an absolutely remarkable creation using the stitched Shibori method we learned.

But instead of going into the Indigo bucket,

he went into the black tye-dye bucket for a super cool effect.

Since the black bucket was loosing it's potency,

instead of showing up solid black,

Dylan manged to get lots of purpely grey values

 which made his stitched bug look even scarier.

We end with para-educator Couch Milan.

First he made a lovely piece of tye-dye cloth,

but it's what he did with the cover that we all respected.

Using an x-acto, 

he cut out a nighttime landscape.

What a great idea!! 

So what started with simple paper weaving 

turned into something incredible with these creative young minds.

Thanks all of you for a really wonderful year.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT ON PAPER

TYE DYE PRELIMS.

BEGINNING 3-D ART

paper towels, Rit dye, rubber bands, string, staples, clamps

This assignment is such a fun way to reinforce Color Theory for my 3-D kiddos.

They first learned their color wheel & mixtures for secondaries

 plus tinting & shading with the Polymer Clay Unit we saw a couple weeks ago.

In this Tye Dye practice unit they are also learning about Color Schemes.

The students were required to turn in 3 paper samplers,

each with a different design.

Their first one was to be dipped only in one color (Monochromatic)

the second one into 2 colors (Analogous) 

with a partial overlapping in one area to see how the two colors mixed.

The third one (Primary with Secondary Overlaps plus Neutrals) had to be dipped into 3 colors

 with partial overlaps as well.

The results were terrific.

Enjoy!

What I did was look at all three in each student's packet

 to find their most beautiful one to photograph.

Above are 8th graders Daisy Camacho & Dana Ahmad.

So yummy!

Next we have senior Julie Ahn & 8th grader Loren Kim.

Stunning :)

And here are 8th grader Leanne Alcoy & Senior Alexis Bilas-Imperial.

Very cool!

These next 3 were done by Senior Hannah Park,

& 8th graders Karen Hung &  James Lara.

James made an especially tricky one that turned out like snowflakes.

We end with seniors Crystal Lai-Ton-Nu & Rachel Kannampuzha

 as well as 8th grader Christina Ortiz.

Brilliant job all of you!!!!

A SNEAK PREVIEW...

TYE-DYE CLOTHS FOR QUILTED JOURNALS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

liquid Rit dye on cotton

of the pieces of tye-dye that my beginners made for the foundation 

of their Quilted Journals that are coming up in 3rd Quarter.

One will be used for the front/back and the other for the inside.

Junior Helen Park created these beauties to be used together,

and English teacher Deliana Park achieved these bold colorways 

that are gorgeous next to each other.

But it was 8th grader Carl Estrella's cloths that I was really drawn to.

Stay tuned to see how these turn out after they quilt them into a journal  :)

LAARNIE...IN HER OWN WORDS

NUNO FELTMAKING GARMENT CONSTRUCTION - PART 3

ADVANCED 3-D ART

silk, dye, wool roving, misc. fibery items to embedd, misc. fabrics, & misc. embellishments

Hello everyone! 

It's a pleasure to be able to post on Mrs. Sposa's blog again.

 Now... on to the dress!

 Just as a heads up, 

I had gone into the assignment not knowing what I was going to do.

 I had an idea of what color scheme I desired,

 but no design to work off of.

 So the dress itself is as spontaneous as the weather here in California! :) 

The main fabric pieces that have the interesting textures are silk fabrics that I first dyed using RIT dyes,

 and then I Nuno felted over top them. 

I later came back to the purple fabric and created a non-objective design using the free motion quilting technique I had learned in the stitch paper quilt assignment.

 I also tried to bring in blues into my color scheme

 as I had them in my Nuno felted fabrics, 

so I dyed a small piece of silk, 

Nuno felted it, 

and then used it as a dress strap that goes right around my neck. 

As I worked on the garment, 

I just knew that it needed something... more. 

So I went to several craft stores in search of embellishments 

that were elegant and in my color scheme. 

The beading,

 the flowers, 

 the buttons, 

and the main jewel on the garment's neckline had served their purpose well. 

I wanted to make the neckline the most extravagant part of my entire dress.. 

so I dyed a doily I had found in the blue RIT dye.

 Then I brought in several beads and flowers to frame the jewel piece I had sewn in. 

As Mrs. Sposa had mentioned in the previous post,

 I had found a lot of fabrics in the fabric bins that we have at school.

 I discovered a nice purple fabric that I had used in the skirt,

 and also this  flowing, 

sheer, 

 maroon-y fabric with butterflies on it that I really liked.

For the back,

 I had no idea how I'd go about the closure. 

Originally, 

I had wanted to do a nice corset lacing, 

but the fabric wasn't strong enough to support that backing. 

So I talked with Mrs. Sposa,

 and we came up with the miraculous closure that you see here. 

I lined the buttons up across from each other 

(although when worn, it gets a little funky!)

 and a suede cord wraps around them to create a pleasing design,

 and an effective garment closure.

 Along the edges of the buttons are some of the beads that I had mentioned before. 

On the sides of the dress, 

I have attached this wonderful silk that I had dyed in the blue RIT.

 It brings the color all around the dress. 

I have also embellished the sewn areas with some flowers and beading. 

As for the petticoat portion of the dress, 

I came to the conclusion that having the petticoat fabric show wasn't attractive at all. 

It looked bunched, 

weird,

 and a little obnoxious... 

so I added a bit of beading to bring in some elegance,

and tie it visually to the other colors in the dress. 

A fun little fact about the petticoat fabric 

is that all of it had been used to Nuno felt with!

 Some of this netting was used when I felted my fabrics for this assignment

 while the other pieces had been used by the Intermediate 3-D art students to felt their vessels.

 They had all sweetly given me them to me to use in my assignment, 

which is also one of the reasons why the dress itself ended up being really, 

really poofy! 

Thank you for reading!  :)