I started with an exercise in creating "stuffies". I am currently the President of the North Shore Needle Arts Guild in North Vancouver and I love introducing stitching in my classes. I love it even more that I have not had a student yet who also doesn't enjoy learning the different stitches. It is usually a very relaxing day with the kids and they catch on quickly on how to do the sewing.
turtle, 7 year old
I first had the students draw out their design on paper, stressing throughout the process that they needed to keep their shapes big and that any small parts would have to be sewn in later. This reduces the frustration in cutting out the pattern, sewing it and ultimately stuffing it when there are no little parts.
The student who created the turtle actually had done a lot of line work similar to zentangles on her drawing and utilized the thread to simulate it. I thought that was pretty clever as I had told all the kids that we could add on some glued parts afterwards for details yet she wanted to create it with thread.
robot, 6 year old
I found the easiest stitch for them to use was a simple backstitch. It's forgiving in that it doesn't really matter where they come up into the material and it is easy to remember to push the needle back down into the last stitched hole.
The arms and legs on the turtle and robot are simply cut pieces of felt that they then placed between the felt body and backstitched into place.
snowman, 8 year old
I told each student where to stop so they had a large enough opening to stuff their creation and then they used some raw roving a friend donated to me. They were quite fascinated with it since it is in a natural state...including bits of seed hulls and such from the farm and we had quite a discussion on how animals are sheared for their wool and that it is like when their daddy shaves in the morning.
To which I got to hear just how each of their dad shaves and/or keeps a beard and at what point the mom tells them to shave/trim their beard. I even got an impersonation of what dad looks like when he shaves his beard.
yes it's true, there are no secrets when you have kids....
OK, so here is where things get especially cute and I get a huge, wonderful surprise that something like a pickle can be elevated to all kinds of wonderful.
Dill Pickle, 7 year old
Here is what inspired the Mr. Pickle bust in the prior post. The Dill Pickle. Why a pickle? I have no idea, but I love it. She used a blanket stitch to sew her felt together.
I had a Mason jar at home that I brought in the next day for her to complete the sculpture. And she went home that night and made furniture for the dill pickle's "home".
Are you ready for this?
She made a chair and a jar of pickles for it to eat. Yep, that's what you are seeing inside that jar, the pickles very own jar of pickles to munch on while hanging out in his jar.
Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to die it was so cute.
So cute I can't resist one more picture of the pickle "hanging" in his new home.
At this point, I lost two of my campers to the water park and so I embarked on the second textile activity with only two students. (another one was down with a stomach virus)
And I only have a picture of one of the creations because the other student left for vacation before I could take any pictures of her wet felting.
But the one project seriously just about did me in when she created a snake using wet felting.
It takes cute to a whole new level!
I love needle felting but I think it is too dangerous with a young age group. However they are all fascinated with wet felting and it is not only a great art project but also a great science project as they watch roving turn into felt with nothing more than warm water, a drop of dish soap, and a lot of agitation by rubbing the wool between their hands.
We created snakes.
The sculpture consisted of pipe cleaner with roving in a color of their choice wrapped tightly around it. They could add stripes of other roving if they wanted to create a pattern on their snake too. Then you submerge it in very warm, soapy water and start rubbing it between your hands as if you were rolling a snake out of clay.
snake, 6 year old
This student only wanted one marking on her snake and found it fascinating as her roving turned into wool.
And her fingers turned into prunes.
The pipe cleaner allows her to bend the finished snake into various positions of the artist choice. When she finished, I needle felted the eyes on for her.
Isn't it cute?
And how could I leave it out in the cold? Like the pickle, it needed a home. And she giggled when I suggested bringing in a jar for her to keep her new pet, just like if she had found it out in the wild and brought it home in a jar. And it was beyond precious to see her reaction this morning when she came in and found her pet snake resting in his new home.
I threw in a few pieces of different color green roving and grabbed a couple of rocks from outside, then placed her snake in his new home. Honestly this is just the sweetest thing ever as far as I'm concerned.
So sweet, I can't help but show you one more picture because I can't get enough of this work.
It kind of makes my insides melt a little.
So even though the kids were dropping like flies this day, the work is some of my favorite pieces. The students really enjoyed creating soft sculptures and I think their work reflects that love.
I'll definitely be repeating these projects again and am already anticipating the amazing work the creative minds of very talented children will create.
I can hardly wait.
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