shine like a diamond.

We are off and running at Zamo!

As usual, I am starting the school year off with a collaborative project that is low stress and high impact. a little background- during the first week I meet with classes for 30 minute mini lessons. This allows me to review art room rules and procedures and to get students creating right away. Kids end up creating for about 20 minutes.

This lesson always emphasizes unity and variety in both art and our school community and beyond. I make a point of introducing textile artists, fabric designers, and quiltmakers with these lessons due to the modular nature of the designs and because I feel that they are often neglected in art education and the art world.

This year, I discovered the work of Tula Pink through instagram and her "TriDazzler" quilt jumped out at me from her feed. I love the repetition of the diamonds and triangles and how the colors repeat in a looser visual way. The main adjustment we made in our approach to Tula's quilt design, was that the center line of the diamond could be rotated either horizontally or vertically.

The prep for this project is pretty simple compared to some others that I have done (looking at you Libs Elliott project and the Latifah Saafir/Sylvia Sutters project;)

I precut a bunch of 6x6" squares that covered the spectrum of colors, plus any tints and shades of those I had available. I then cut a bunch of those squares in half.

Before each class comes in, I place a square & triangle at each seat. As classes move through, I progress through the collection of colors I have to create a loose gradient across the install. I don't have a formula to the progression, it's more of a feel when having colors enter and exit, and re-enter the overall arrangement.

Students glue the triangle onto their diamond.
Students rotate their diamond, so the center line is horizontal.
Students add lines from the top and bottom of the diamond to the center line. They need at least 2.
Students add any colors like like to their smaller triangles, leaving at least one piece the color of the paper on top and bottom.
Students put glue on the back of their diamond.
Students bring their piece to the larger paper quilt and place it on, making the decision to have the center line vertical or horizontal, repsonding to the diamonds already in place.

end of day 1.

end of day 2.

I still have 2 days to go. I am out of space to assemble the full install on my tile floor. There are 14 classes that will take part in this over the next two days. My plan is to add one more section of length to make it 22' long and one more section of height along the whole thing to make it 9' tall. The final install will go on the back wall of our auditorium, so that we have have a dynamic piece of art up by the second week of school.

I can't wait to see this whole piece assembled on the wall. It's always interesting to see these come together and it's particularly cool to see it in different ways- the diamonds up close during the activity, on an angle while up on a ladder above my floor, to the finished piece to take in while standing back from it.

Our kids are always stoked to participate and watch it grow, too. Depending on the size of your school, you could have everyone take part. 

If you're an art teacher and want to try this- go for it! Just be kind and cite your sources:)

a colorful beginning.

How's everybody doing?

I can't believe (but really I can) that I haven't posted for almost 2 months! That is, by far, the longest break I have taken since I started blogging 5 years ago. I'm recharged and ready to see what fab things my kiddos will explore and create this year.

We are off and running at Zamo and this week I have meet with all of our 3rd-5th classes (23 in all). The first week of school is different for me because my art rotation partner starts a week later than I do, so I modify my schedule. I meet with classes for only 30 minutes and during this time I review my classroom rules and expectations and have the students participate in a collaborative art project that gets installed in our auditorium at the end of the first week of school. This is the 5th year that I have structured my first week like this... and I love it! These projects are low stress for the kids and have a big visual impact on our physical environment on our school site.

With these projects I emphasize unity and variety in art and the school community. I recently wrote about last year's project for Arts and Activities and presented it at the winter AOE conference with Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse. My curriculum centers on living artists, so I introduce students to a new artist with these lessons who has a strong sense of visual pattern in their work.

This year, I used the quilts of Libs Elliott as the inspiration for the project. Her work is amazing! I came across her work on instagram early last year and I knew her work would lend itself so well to my opening week theme. All of the artists I've used previously have repeated a circular element and this year I wanted to break out of that and share an artist who plays with different shapes. In Lib's case, it's all about the triangle. Her design approach is quite interesting.

 She explains it way better than I ever could on her website-
"All the quilts are randomly designed using a programming language called Processing. The project began in 2012 as a collaboration with designer and technologist, Joshua Davis (joshuadavis.com), who provided the original code framework. Using Processing allows me to quickly edit the code and generate random compositions from simple geometric and traditional quilt block shapes."

 I don't have those programming capabilities, but my kids ARE the random generators! They have parameters to follow, but each student does things differently and will place their shapes in different spots on their quilt square and then they will put their quilt squares on the larger sheet in a random way too:)

30 minutes. That's all each class has. 10 minutes for my classroom rundown, 5 minutes to introduce
unity, variety, and Lib's work- how it's a great example of both of those concepts, and 15 to fold, cut, and glue. Boom. It's a hectic week, but it's so cool to see the kids variations on the theme and to see the collaborative piece grow and grow.

 in a nutshell...

1. At each seat I have a 6x6 square, pre-cut large triangle, and 2 3x3 squares. The colors at their tables change every other class, so that the transitions that are present in the install can happen. (this has taken a bit of organization on my part, but it's stuff I geek out over anyway, so it's no biggie:)

2. students may keep the large triangle intact, or fold it in half and cut on the fold

3. students fold each of the small squares corner to corner to make triangles and cut on the fold- 4 triangles total

4. students take at least one of their small triangles and fold in half and cut (some do this to 2 or 3 and I emphasize not to do it to ALL because they will lose some variety in size

5. students MAY cut one of those smaller triangles even smaller if they choose (only my 5ths really explored that option)

6. then they play with the arrangement of shapes. they can layer and overlap or not. The only requirement I give them is that their composition can not go outside the larger square base shape

7. when they are satisfied with their design, they glue it in place. I show them how to leave things where they are and do the gluing on the paper square. Glue the small onto the medium, medium onto big. This way my tables don't get quite as funky with glue.

8. they put glue on the back of their quilt square and bring it over to the 24x36" white sheet in the middle of the room. Students are responsible for looking at their design and what has been laid down before them and to decide which direction their piece will face and where it will be located in response to those factors.

9. clean up and scram! It's tight. I have 10 minutes in between each of the classes, which allows kids not done to have a few extra minutes and for me to get paper out for the next class.

my random generators;)

 

 

 the amount of detail varied depending on grade level.

installed in our auditorium. it's 6' x 26'

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:)

textiles, textiles, textiles.

Over the years, I have done projects with kids that investigate the visual qualities of blankets, rugs, quilts, and weavings. In the past two years alone, I've done at least 6 different lessons based on a variety of textiles. Most of the time my students make paper versions of these items with me. However, one of our school's other art teachers, Ms. Vance has done weavings with yarn and braided paper with the students in her after school program. These pieces are great because the students get to experience more of the real materials used by textile artists.

I always emphasize the functional qualities of these works as done by other artists. These artists have to think about how their work will be used, unlike a painter who just has to worry about the look of their piece. Makers of functional art have a tougher job in this respect.

The quilters of Gee's Bend have made some visually stunning abstract work while reusing clothes, sheets, and bags in these designs. The quilters of this area have passed down their techniques though 6 generations to the present day. My kinders and 1st graders have made paper versions of these quilts after discussing the types of shapes and colors we see in the quilts. The students use old wallpaper to simulate the use of different types of material that are present in the real quilts.

Annie Mae Young

This year kinders made paper quilts based on Amish designs. We focused on recognizing and cutting the types of shapes in Amish quilts and on using warm and cool colors in our pieces. Construction paper crayons were used to simulate the stitched thread that would be used to hold a real quilt together.

Last year I did a paper weaving project with the 2nd graders. We started out by cutting and gluing squares and rectangles to a 12x18" sheet of paper. We discussed patterns and complementary colors before getting started. We also discussed how some textiles are made by more than one person working together as a team. Students were to create this project with a partner.

Students fold the large piece of paper and made between 5 & 7 cuts that started on the fold and ended about 2 inches away from the edge. After doing so, students worked together to weave black strips in and out of their cut paper design to complete the weaving. Each class used a different set of colors. These partner made quilt pieces could then be assembled together back in their classroom to make a larger quilt.

As a result of how sharp these weavings looked, I decided to modify the project and do it with my 3rd grade classes, too. We talked about how weavings were made and how they can sometimes be done as 3 dimensional forms like baskets. We talked about colors that you find in nature, in trees, branches, and dried grasses. Again, this was a partner project just like the 2nd grade one.

Students created the pieces the same way, but after they were complete we glued and stapled them together to make large 3d forms with the flat pieces. Students stapled a couple cardboard strips to the backs of their pieces to reinforce them. The end results were pretty cool and added a nice sculptural element to our end of the year art show.

Well, this isn't all of the textile projects I have done with classes, but it's a good taste.

let's talk about symmetry, man.

I do projects that focus on balance with each grade level. The 2nd and 4th grade projects this year are similar in shape and style.
Through dearada I was informed about that work of Eva Zeisel a few years ago. It just so happened that the Mingei Museum in San Diego was having a retrospective of her work right after I was exposed to her functional clay forms. Sweet!

At the site EvaZeiselOriginals, you can watch a video of her in the studio. The fact that I love to share with kids is that at the time the video was made, Eva was 102! Still being creative after 100 years. She's 104 now, and still going.

Her forms have a simple elegance to them that attracts me. When I share her work with the students I emphasize her use of natural shapes, and the importance of the empty spaces as well as the spaces the forms take up themselves.
She did a few screenprints in her day, and these are really what the project is based on. When the students look at these, they recognize that one side is a mirror image of the other- aka- symmetry.

The students create a 3 layer collage that uses natural looking abstract shapes that show symmetry. They use 3 sheets of paper that are different values. I rotated the order of the valued paper with each class, so there would be variety in the display of them at our end of the year student art exhibit.

The 4th grade project was based on the work of an artist fresh out of college, Patrick Hruby. He did a print that used analogous colors, symmetry, and floral shapes that I dug. Instead of doing a screen print, the students created a collage that used 2 or 3 analogous colors with black included as well.

Each class did a different group of colors to keep it fresh for me, and to make the presentation of this project more interesting at our annual Celebration of Art.

1. intro to the artist, symmetry, and natural shapes

2. fold backkground layer paper, draw half the design- keeping it simple, cut, and glue in place

3. fold middleground paper, draw half the design- making it a bit more complex, cut and glue

4. fold foreground paper, draw half the design- making it the most complex, cut and glue