wednesday weird day.

My Wednesdays on weeks that I meet with kinders and 3rd graders is always packed. Now, with our teachers doing breakfast in the classroom, it is even more so. Not a big deal, I just need to adapt. I have one kinder class first, and then I see two 3rd grade classes after that. I used to have 5-10 minutes in between them all, but now I have none.

The kinders were finishing up with their Lu Summers inspired prints, so I decided to do the same project with the 3rd grade classes, with a couple new twists. This allowed me to keep the same materials out for students to use when I switched grade levels.

I shared Lu's work with the classes and we talked about what a textile designer like her does. I talked about she makes quilts and she also makes patterns that are silk screened onto fabric so others can use these patterns to decorate curtains, pillows, shirts, dresses, etc. We identified her use of shape, color, and line to make her patterns.

I explained that we would neither make a silk screen or a quilt, but we WOULD make a print that looked like a small quilt:)

The students and I drew the basic composition out together, however, they had choices of placement for each horizontal or vertical they included in their design. When they added patterns, we used similar ones, but again, they chose where to use the patterns in their arrangement. Some students added smaller patterns in the bigger ones.

Just like the kinder project, color choice was up to them. I did suggest that they could use all the colors or they could limit them. For example, they could use just warm or cool colors, just 2 or 3 that they liked, just primary or analogous colors, etc.

We printed these the same way the kinders did, but then we also printed them again, immediately after the first print while the paper was still wet to transfer a ghost image. When we did this, I asked students if they wanted to print the plate in the same direction of the first or in a different direction. The ghost image was always a bit lighter than the first, but students then added more marker color directly to their print to balance out the color saturation in their design.

Printing patina.

Despite the time crunch, all the students were able to make their prints and touch them up as needed.
The kids and I were both "impressed" by the quality of their prints:)