A Focus on Fibers Studio

Wear a Weaving!

Think of the variety of materials and tools we have in our Fibers Studio.  Yarn, string, fabric, buttons, looms, pom pom makers, felt, patterns, pins, crochet needles, sewing machines, tapestry needles and thread. 

Let's make a woven bracelet.

First, do you remember how to weave?  (hint:  over -under- over- under).

Second, do you remember how to thread a needle?  You will use yarn and a tapestry needle. 

You will also need cardboard and a few rubber bands.  

Use two arm lengths of yarn.  You will use your needle to go over and under the rubber bands.  Back and forth or side to side.  Continue all around your cardboard until all the rubber bands are covered.

Tie on a new piece of yarn when you run out.

Stretch your learning by adding beads, sequins and changing colors as you go.

Felted Fibers

Wool is a natural fiber material that comes from a Sheep.  When we say a material is natural it means it comes from nature.  Artists work with wool in many ways.  It can be twisted and spun into yarn or felted into artworks.  
Wool can be felted wet or dry.  When an artist felts wool, they are interlocking the fibers.  Using a needle that repeatedly jabs the wool or heat (hot water), soap and friction, loose little strands of wool bond or stick together to create a stable piece of thick fabric.

Dry felting uses a special barbed needle to push and bond the fibers together.

Wet felting uses hot soapy water and friction by rubbing and pressing wool to create a wool material. Wet-felting is one of the oldest ways humans have made fabric.

Let's try wet felting to make Felted Flowers.  

Choose a few small pieces of wool that will become the petals of your flower.  Create thin layers of wool  into a round shape. 

Place into a soapy cup of hot water and agitate.  Keep rubbing the wool under the water until the water cools.  Repeat this process two more times.

Find a button for the center of the flower and a pipe cleaner.

Push the pipe cleaner through the felt and the button.  Bend the pipe cleaner back down through the button and felt and twist.  Add leaves.

Extensions:  try wet felting beads or felting a tennis ball to create a small bowl.

"The beads are easy and fast to make. Just wrap some wool around 5 pencils, wet and roll in you hands. As it shrinks you remove pencils until you are down to the last one. When it’s tight around the last one, that’s it you have  bead."

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/03/20/a-mini-maker-fair/

Trust the Process

One of the most fun parts of art can be the process (the actions and steps used when working with art materials) and experimenting with materials.  Simply put, art can be fun to make.  

The artistic behavior or studio habit of experimenting, discovering new materials and ways of working with materials is to EXPLORE.

Let's look at a few ways you might EXPLORE in the art studio.

Grab a messy mat and see what happens when you add a few drops of paint to your paper and pull/scrape the paint across your paper with a square of cardboard.

A few dots of color can go a long way!  Just a dot not a lot!

Instead of a brush, scrape and pull paint across the paper.  Draw or collage on the colorful paper the next class.  


Sometimes a material we typically throw away can create some very cool art.  Try the process of bubble wrap printing.  Choose colorful tempera paint and brush it across the "bumpy" side of the bubble wrap.  Press onto your paper.  Repeat!

So you have some dotted paper, now what?  Next class, make a collage with your dotted paper or draw on top.

This one definitely requires a placemat!  Liquid watercolors have bright bold colors.    Start with 10 squirts of paint.  After 10, get permission for more.

Try a TAPE or Oil Pastel RESIST.*Let paint dry before removing tape.

Lay leaves or flowers on your paper and spray a fine mist.  Let your paint dry before removing the leaves.

Take that colorful misted paper over to drawing.  Create a Silhouette.  Draw an outline in pencil and then fill in your drawing with Sharpie.  A landscape is a great possibility for a silhouette.

Take your colorful sprayed paper to the collage studio and cut it into shapes and glue them into a picture you have envisioned.

Add Paint with Kwik Stix and glue down construction paper shapes.

Splatter paint is a permission only painting technique.  You will need a box that fits your paper and a messy mat for sure!

Try starting in the drawing studio and splatter painting onto a drawing.

Will you explore with art materials?

Will you stretch yourself and try to make art with your exploration?

*There is a difference between exploring and being wasteful!