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

Bear Collage

I was working on Bear projects today.  This painted paper collage came together fairly quickly.



















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- brown kraft paper, I also buy rolls of 'Builders Paper' at the hardware store, it's like a heavy duty kraft paper
- background paper, I used 1 sheet of 9"x12" heavy white drawing paper
- scrap of black paper
- acrylic or liquid tempera in browns and black, disk tempera in yellow, green, and black
- glue
- a few pencil crayons
- scissors

PROCEDURE:

First you have to paint some paper for your collage.

I used brown kraft paper and painted   one sheet with brown and black acrylic. You can also use liquid tempera.


I also painted 1/2 a sheet with just brown acrylic.

I took a scrap of paper and did a quick brown wash on it.  (Take your brush that has the brown acrylic on it, give it a swish in water but don't clean all the paint out of it and then use that for your wash) 
I speckled on some black and grey paint.

Set your papers aside to dry.


This is what I ended up with.

Time to paint the background.  Take your piece of heavy drawing paper and paint some spots yellow with disk tempera.

Add some green to your yellow, mixing a bright lime green and paint in the rest.  You'll notice the green is brushed on vertically at random heights. This adds to the illusion of the forest.

Don't cover up all the yellow.

While the paper is still damp we want to add a few trees.

I'm using green disk tempera.

It's easier for me to show this technique on white paper.  You take your brush (a big flat one) and using the edge make a line by dabbing your way up.

Vary the heights.

Now add some branches.  Use the edge of the brush again but push down a little bit.  Try to make the trees a bit asymmetrical, they look more natural that way.

Fan out as you get to the bottom.

Put a touch of black paint on your green disk to mix a darker green.

We want to put in some dark sections.  Here's a hint: put the dark on only one side of the tree for shadowy bits.


Set aside to dry.

I took the paper I painted black and brown (the darkest one), turned it over to the unpainted side and sketched out my bear body shape.

You want to keep a corner intact and then its a rounded arch shape, (like a slice of bread).

Save the scraps..you'll need them for the ears.

Don't glue until you have cut all your pieces.

I wanted to do a grizzly looking bear so I cut an oval out of my medium brown paper. You could leave this one out if you wish.


I don't want too be too small so I measure it a little before I cut.

Time for the head.  Again I measure it a bit.  You could trace the size of the last piece on the back of your paper.

The head is upside down pear shaped.

Make 2 ears out of the scraps of the dark brown paper. (body)

Out of the light speckled paper I cut the muzzle of the bear.

With a scrap of black cardstock I cut out the nose.

Once you have all the pieces they way you want them you can start gluing.

Using pencil crayons I added a few details.

I tried out those inner black ears but changed my mind.

I also blackened one side of the head for more of a shadow.


That's it.

Have a great Labor day weekend everyone.



Gail

Painting Supplies

I was going to do a post on my favourite art supplies this week.  As I started to photograph them all I realized this was going be a book by the time I was done. :)  So I decided to focus on my favourite, painting supplies.

PAINT:
At school I use a lot of disk tempera.    It's washable, inexpensive, and responds like watercolour.

It can sometimes be a bit chalky. (less intense colour).   Look for disks that are bright and intensely coloured.

I keep colours in isolation and variety trays of 6.  Recycled yogurt containers and tuna cans work well. Note: I use a safety can opener, no sharp edges.   I use the individual containers when I am limiting what colours I want the kids to work with.

The easiest way to clean your trays is using a sponge.  Run the entire tray under the the tap and give it a quick scrub with the sponge. Drain out some of the water from the wells.  You won't get it all, tip it too much and all your paint disks will wind up in the sink.  Leave out to dry.

To clean an individual colour, moisten the disk with water and wipe with a sponge or paper towel. We use liquid tempera as well but I prefer acrylic.

I use a ton of acrylic paint.
I use acrylic because it's the most intense colour we can get and when dry it is permanent. (paper). That means we can layer colours without reactivating the bottom layer. (no smearing)

To protect their clothes, every student gets an art shirt, basically a large men's dress shirt with the sleeves cut short.  We wear them backwards for extra protection and we only button the top button for easy removal.

I have a little talk with the kids about acrylic paint before we start, how "we don't fool around with it as if gets on your clothes it will stay on your clothes".

I use craft smart from Michael's.  It's marketed as affordable craft paint but it is a really good acrylic.
The biggest issue with acrylic paint is opacity.  You only want to do 1 coat if you can.  There are times you want a transparent look (wash) but you can achieve that by adding water to your paint.
I like the bottle on the left with the squeeze top. To keep costs down I will buy the larger size and refill the squeeze bottle. Often I need to add a touch of water to thin it just a bit.  There is some clumping but I just remove the clot and keep going.

I use foam or plastic plates to hold my paint.

They are not good for the environment so I use them over and over.

I don't wash the plates.  At the end of the day I set them all out to dry and then I reuse them the next day.  During the day I stack them by placing one plate on top like a cover and place them in a safe area.

If I know we are going to be using the same colour with another class or later I keep them covered.  You can't do this indefinitely though as the paint eventually dries out or you run out of room. :)

With the plastic plates after several layers of paint I can peel the whole shebang off.  With thousands of kids I can reuse these plates all year long.

BRUSHES:

First off, you can always do more with a flat brush than a round.

Don't even bother ordering the large round brushes.


You want lots of large flat brushes, size 12.

A few sets of size 7 and some size 2.

I prefer nylon bristle as they keep their shape longer but they are more expensive than a natural bristle.

Natural bristle are the most common school brush.  They work fine but over time the bristle will start to wear out and break.

The flat develops a rounded edge.

Old natural bristle brushes make great scrubby brushes.  There are some effects that can only be achieved with an old scrubby brush so don't throw them out.

Every year I buy new sets of fine round brushes.

Kids are very hard on fine brushes so they don't last very long.

I move from school to school so I store my brushes in long plastic containers.

If the brushes are wet make sure to open those containers and let them dry out.

If you have a brush with a loose ferrule don't throw it out reattach it with a glue gun.

I also buy these cheap sealer brushes in the hardware store.
They are meant for one use only when you apply polyurethane/sealer but are great for kids.

They have a short handle and are  big so we get more paint down in a faster time.  Many techniques require wet paint....if you have a small brush it takes forever and the paint is dry long before you finish.

I also keep a set for podge/sealer.  I label them so there is no mix-up. If you use a regular brush you can get traces of paint staining your podge/sealer.
These brushes will last for years.  As they get beat up we tend to use them for basecoating or background painting.

BRUSHWASHING:

I use a bucket system for washing. Any large brushes or brushes we used for acrylic painting will get a once over by me.

I have hundreds of brushes and I have to be pretty vigilant regarding their care.  I hold my dirty brushes, "hairstyle down" thru the day in a bucket with about 3 inches of water.  When I have a moment I wash them.

My secret weapon..... good old Ivory soap.  At school I can go thru 1 bar a day!  To keep brushes in good shape you should only brush them back and forth on the soap but I would be lying if I said I never used a circular motion....sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

When clean I put them "hairstyle up" in the bucket.

Never store brushes bristle down.
At home I sometimes use brush cleaner.  You can sometimes rescue a brush (dried up acrylic) by smearing brush cleaner on it and wrapping it in plastic wrap.  Let it sit for a couple days and then wash.  I have also used Murphy's oil soap to clean and rescue brushes.  Note: Do not use soap on your podge/sealer brushes. This causes the sealer to become foamy.

SPRAYERS:
I always have a few water sprayers on me.

I use them to add water to paint on the palette in creating washes or just to thin it down a bit.

I also spray water on paint that we have painted if it is getting too dry. For example we want to lift some clouds but our sky has dried or we want to mingle some acrylics and they are drying too fast.
We also spray to get blooms and spatter effects on disk tempera and watercolours.

TAPE:

I buy green painter's mask in the bulk pack.  I use it to tape off paper we are working on.

It creates a nice white border or mat effect for display and it holds the paper down while kids are painting.

Regular masking tape tends to be too sticky ripping the paper when you remove it.

I use a lot of regular masking tape for other things (papier mache) as well as white hockey tape. (paints well)

Hair dryers are used for drying projects.

These 3 items are always close by:

- kleenex
- paper towels
and diaper wipes.

You be surprised how effective diaper wipes are for cleaning acrylic paint.

I also have collections of toothbrushes, eyedroppers, sponges, stamps, scrapers, combs, and printmaking tools that we use for painting.

Substrates can vary but we use a lot of canvas, canvas board, watercolour paper, heavy paper, cardboard, wood, hardboard, and recycled paper.

Working on more projects to post.......see you next time.
Gail