Woven Owls #2

This is the second weaving project for this week.  Staying with the owl theme, this is a more traditional weaving technique.

It's a good project for Grade 3 and up.



Don't forget to enter the Weavy Loops giveaway.  Check out the previous post for details











MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- rectangle of recycled heavy duty cardboard
- yarn needle or toothpick
- yarn in assorted colors
- string, optional
- sturdy plastic fork
- buttons for eyes
- felt, fun fur for eyes and ear tufts
- embroidery floss for beak and feet
- twig
- feathers for wings, optional
- glue

PROCEDURE:

You can make a loom from an old picture frame or piece of plywood and some nails.  This has been on my to-do list for quite a while. I need at least 50.


Instead.....

I tend to use cardboard as it's free and if I lose one it's no big deal.

You need heavy weight cardboard.  Cut slits at both ends.  I tend to space them about 1 finger width apart.

For the owl you need about 15 strings.  To string your loom wind some string thru that first slit and the end of the cardboard, knot it onto itself.  With the long end of the string or yarn go down to the first slit at the bottom, go around the notch and then back up to the next slit at the top.  Continue until you have 15 strings.  Tie the loom off the same way you started.
Over time your strings may relax.  Don't worry your weaving will still work out but to stop them from slipping off the loom I tape the top and the bottom into place.

Time to start weaving.  Take a length of yarn and knot it onto the first string on the loom.  It doesn't matter which side you start on.

Thread a yarn needle or tape your yarn to a toothpick.  With the needle make sure you tie a knot to keep it from unthreading.

I teach the kids that same chant, "over, under, over, under" and we begin.

Thread the yarn thru the strings, over and then under until you get to the end of the row.  Pull all the excess thru.
Time to go back.  Look to see if your last pass was over or under at the end and then continue the pattern.  So if I was over the last string like in this photo, when I come back I go under that first string.  Kids often forget to look at this last string, jumping straight to the next one and that's where we can get into trouble.

As you weave you want it your rows to be tight together.  This is where the plastic fork comes in.  Use the prongs to push your rows close together.


When switching colours I like to do it at the end of a row. Knot the yarn off on that last string.  I leave a bit of a tail....don't cut it short, we will pull them thru our weaving at the back.  This will make our weaving neater.

Knot the new yarn on and keep weaving.

You want a rectangle of about 8-10 inches long for a good sized owl.

When the weaving is done it's time to take it off the cardboard loom.  I do one end at a time.
Remove the tape.  Ease the loops of strings off the notches.
It will look like this.
Take 2 of the loops and knot them together.  The string at the end will just be a single strand not a loop.  Just knot it to the loop next to it.

Make sure the knots are tight and then trim the excess.

Turn the weaving over to the back.  Slip the ends of your yarn bits thru a few of the weaving stitches and then trim the excess.

To make a hanger, fold over the top edge, add a hanging string and then glue that top edge down.

I cut 2 triangles out of fun fur for my ear tufts and glued them into place.  This is optional as not all owls have this feature.

I cut 2 circles out of felt for my eyes.  I found 2 buttons to use as the pupils.  Hand sew these into place.  Great button sewing practice for the kids.

With this owl it was woven close to the top so I used the loops to hold my hanging yarn.


Add a beak using embroidery floss. You want a triangle shape so try to bring the stitches in to a point.

You need a straight twig for the bottom, about 12 - 14 inches long.

Secure to the owl by stitching feet with embroidery floss that go around the twig.

Do both feet.

You can glue on 2 feathers for the wings if you wish.

That's it.

You could do them in Fall colours or make a Halloween owl.

I'll be back Saturday with the Weavy Loops draw.
See you then.

Gail

Woven Owls and Weavy Loops

I thought I would feature some textile work this week....first up these woven owls.

I've been trying to come up with projects that incorporate circular weaving.  You may have tried my woven eye projects:   Frogs or Bats

I like these owls as you only have to do 1 round and you can work larger.

If you haven't tried weaving in the round it is a good starter project with younger grades (Grade 1-3).

I'll give you the full owl tutorial in a minute.

This week's giveaway is brought to you by Weavy Loops.

I was recently asked to give this kit a try.

It comes in a large box and it's more of a macrame knotting type weaving.

Inside this is what you get as well as an instruction sheet.

The best parts are those 2 purple items.
The large pegboard (beginners) and the smaller anchor (advanced) which has a wonderful suction cup on the back.

You use this smaller purple anchor to hold your yarn or string lengths while you are weaving and knotting.  The suction cup helps hold it securely and lets you weave long strands. You could attach it to the wall or window.  Great to use when travelling.

The pegboard itself is ingenious in teaching kids macrame.  You can set the pegs to correspond to where the loops need to be to make the knots.

As I worked with it I was thinking of all the ways I could adapt this in the classroom.  When I teach macrame I use different coloured yarn strands to help the kids sequence the knots but I think a peg or pin board would make it even easier to follow.

Inside the pegboard you have storage for the pins and fasteners.  That pink tab allows you angle the pegboard up to make weaving easier.
There are a few videos on the Weavy Loops website to help get you going and this is a great kit to get you started.


I have 2 of these kits to giveaway.
If you want to enter please do one of the following:
- leave a comment on this post
- like or comment on this post on my Facebook page
- send me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

Canadian or U.S. residents only please.  I'll do the draw on Saturday Sept 12th/15

Now back to the owls:

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- corrugated cardboard or Chinet type paper plate
- yarn in assorted colors
- large yarn needle, you can also use a toothpick, just tape the yarn end to it
- acrylic or tempera paint
- felt, fabric, and/or fun fur for finishing
- feathers
- tacky glue

PROCEDURE:

The first thing you need to do is make the circular loom.

You want a nice big circle.  I used a dessert plate and traced around it to get my circle.


Now if you are not up to cutting out all these circles for a class set you can also use a Chinet type plate.  Something a bit heavy-duty.  I do not use foam plates to weave on because they are hard to paint when it comes time to finish them.

When you have your circle cut out you want to poke a hole in the middle.  I use an old knitting needle to do this.

You then need to make 15 slits around the perimeter. When weaving in the round we always want an odd number.

Try to make them as equal as possible but they do not have to be perfect.  I just eyeball it, I don't measure.

Time to string the loom.  Take a long piece of yarn, about 3 and a half arm lengths, and push one end thru the hole in the middle.


Pick any slit and put the yarn thru it and then tie the yarn to itself.  This will be the back of your loom.

Take the other end of the yarn and tread your yarn needle.  If you do not have a needle you can use a toothpick, just tape the end of the yarn to it.

I always knot the yarn onto the needle with kids, otherwise we spend way too much time re-threading needles.

Using your needle pass the yarn thru the next slit, around to the front and then thru the hole in the centre.  Keep doing this until you have threaded all 15.

On the last one knot off your yarn where you first tied it on at the back.

I can't believe when I was first taught weaving in the round we used to knot each one of those strings separately.....what were we thinking?



The front of your loom should look like this.

Now we are going to start weaving.  Select the colour you want to start with and cut a strand about an arm's length of so.....depends how many colours you want to use.

Knot it on to you needle....tie the other end on to the back of the loom and then push the needle thru the centre pulling all that coloured yarn thru.

I teach the kids the pattern....I get them to chant over,under,over,under a few times.

We start doing one at a time but I show them how they can do 4 or 5 at time.

They have to pull the yarn all the way thru but not tight....just enough so it's sitting where it should.

Keep weaving,  pulling as you go just enough to get it to lie flat.  Kids will have a tendency to pull tight....this will just cause the weaving to build up in the center and it will not fill the round.

When you run out of yarn or want to change colour tie the ends of the 2 yarns together.


Do not cut the ends of the yarn too short .

I find it looks neater to just stuff them under the weaving you have completed...it hides the knot.

Continue weaving until you reach the limit on the loom.

Tie the yarn to the loom at the back, just pull it thru the slit to the back and knot off.

With acrylic or tempera,  paint the exposed part of the loom.


When I was first designing this owl I figured the loom would be part of the body so I painted it as such.  After attaching the feet and wings I think it looks better as the background so paint it a contrasting colour.  You could also paint it blue for the sky or green for the tree.

I sponged on some paint just to give it some texture.

With felt, fabric, and/or fun fur cut out eyes, beaks, feet and ear tufts.

Glue into place on the weaving. I like ear tufts on my owls as the Great Horned Owl is my favourite...also the provincial bird of Alberta!

Glue on 2 feathers for the wings.  I tied a yarn loop to the loom at the top for hanging.

That's it.  What a great project for the Fall bulletin board.

Don't forget to enter the Weavy Loops giveaway.


I have another weaving project for you Thursday, see you then.


Gail

Autumn Owls

It was a whirlwind 5 days at my first artist residency this past week.

Lots of great art completed and some terrific students and staff!



This is the project that Kindergarten completed.  I was inspired by this post by Art with Mr. Giannetto. I feel in love with the presentation, night with a moon.

I changed it around a bit and this is my version.






MATERIALS NEEDED:

- 12" x 12" hardboard, you could use cardboard or poster board
- cardboard owl body and crescent moon
- drywall filler
- plastic spoon
- Crayola Model Magic, you could use salt dough clay or air dry clay as alternative
- acrylic paint (Black, Red, Orange, Yellow, Brown, White)
- splatter box, just a big cardboard box devoted to splattering
- old toothbrush, optional
- tacky glue
- glue gun, adults only
- a twig
- white felt
- black buttons, you could also use black paper
- textured craft foam, you could use paper

PROCEDURE:

This is a 2 - 3 session project depending on your students.

Session 1

Using my 12" x 12" hardboard as a guide I cut out an owl body and crescent moon for each student ahead of time out of corrugated cardboard.

I do this ahead of time.

We work on wax or newspaper.

I gave each student a piece of Model Magic, about the size of a plum.  We talked about wing shapes and each student made 2 wings for their owl.  By having the cardboard owl in front of them they can gauge how it will look.

I handed out some great tools for texturizing. I found these fondant tools at the dollar store, a whole set only cost a $1.00 (woohoo!)


After forming their wings they add some texture to them with the tools.  Set aside when done.

Give each 2 - 4 students a little plate with some drywall filler.  Using their hands they spread the drywall covering the owl on the front.

Everyone gives their hands a quick wipe with a paper towel, (some will need 2 ….or 3)

The kids then add some texture to the drywall.

I have a bin full of tools, things like combs, lego pieces, plastic canvas, etc.

One of the best tools for the owl is a plastic spoon.  You can make feather shapes on the belly of your owl.

Set aside when done.

Both the owl and wings will need to dry overnight.

Hand out the 12"X12" boards.

Using black acrylic, paint the front of the board.

That's it for this session.




Session 2

Using acrylic paint in Fall colours paint your owl body and wings.


Paint the cardboard crescent moon as well.



Set a side to dry.

Now it's time to splatter.  I have a big cardboard box that I use.  It has "Splatter Box Do Not Throw Out" in big letters written on it so I don't accidentally lose it.

Place the black painted board into box.  Using white acrylic paint with a little water mixed in to thin it a bit, splatter some stars onto your board.

I have found that old toothbrushes are the best splatter tools.  You dip the brush into the paint and then just run your finger over the bristles.


At school the splatter station is running at the same time as the kids are painting.

Make sure the kids reach down into the box.

Now it's time to glue.

Using the glue gun, set up a parent volunteer or just have the kids visit you at your glue gun.

Glue on the owl body and the twig to the board.

The kids can glue the wings and the moon on themselves.

While I was working the glue gun I had the kids glue on the eyes.  We used a white felt circle and a black button.

The beak was a triangle cut from some textured craft foam I had.  You could just use some paper.

I also brought in some extra painted paper I had left over from some other projects.  I always keep leftover painted paper for my stash. The students cut out some extra feathers from this paper and glued them to the body while they waited for their turn to get their owl glued.

Here are some of the Kinder owls.




They turned out terrific!

Great job Kindergarten.

See you soon with more residency projects.

Gail

How to Make a Clay Owl

Every year grade 4 does a book study on Farley Mowat's "Owls in the Family".  Last year they completed macrame owls.   This year we decided to do another clay project.
Now this owl design has been around for decades, I did a similar one when I was in school, so I'm not claiming ownership.  If you want to check out some other clay owl projects you can check out these:

- 4 Crazy Kings version
- Mr's Picasso's Art Room version
- Jeryl Hollingsworth La France Elementary at Incredible Art Dept. version



If you don't have access to a kiln you can check out my other great Owl Projects:
Owl Assemblage
Pastel Resist Owl
Mixed Media Owls
Pom Pom Owls
Mini Macramed Owl Necklaces


MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- low fire clay
- penny nail
- rolling pin
- piece of canvas to work on, can also use a paper towel
- circular items to create imprints
- electric kiln
- low fire glaze
- hemp or leather cording for hanger
- water

Roll out a slab about 1/2 an inch thick and cut out a circle using your penny nail.  We used a chinette dinner plate as a template.  Using a little water, (I get the kids to dip their finger into a little cup), smooth out and rough edges on the circle.  If you leave those little crumbs and they make thru the bisque fire they become very sharp.

Using your circular items create feather detail on the lower half of the circle.  We got some great results with one of those little wooden ice cream spoons, like from a dixie cup.

You can see the spoon and the results on this student's owl.

Fold over both sides of your circle to create the wings.  Squish it down into place a bit.

Fold over the top of the circle to form the head.

Using your circular items create imprints to form the eyes.

From the leftover clay  cut out a triangular beak.  Scratch both the back of the beak and where you are going to place it, add a little water and then  stick into place.

Add some detail on the wings.  Make sure to take that penny nail and make a hole thru the top all the way through for hanging.

Some student work in process:

Leave to dry out.  I waited 2 weeks as we were pretty damp here in Calgary the last while.

Bisque fire in the kiln.  For me this is cone 4 on our SKUTT.

Glaze with low fire glaze, we use Mayco Stroke and Coat. I buy my glazes at Ceramics Canada.  I ask the kids to put on at least 2 -3 coats.

Let dry and then glaze fire.  I use cone 6 on the SKUTT.  (it depends on the clay and kiln what you may use)

Add a loop of hemp or leather cording thru the hole for a hanger and that's it.


Here is our parliament of Owls.  Great job Grade 4!!

 Don't forget you have until 11:59 pm on Thursday to enter for the Book Giveaway.


Today is our first official day of Summer Vacation! 

Stayed tuned for lots of new projects over summer as I will have some time to get organized.

Also I am co teaching a workshop in Fernie, B.C  for 8-10 yr. olds "Writing and the Visual Arts".  If you are in the area and interested check out the website for registration.
As well I will be in Lloydminister at the end of August presenting an Art Education workshop for all you wonderful teachers in that neck of the woods.