"Flowers for Mother" a monoprint zine

I'm going backwards here a bit.

This zine was created by a student in the teen class the week leading up to Mother's Day.

It was a gift to her mother.

She created the zine itself using a folding method. Creating Nature has a great tutorial if you want to try one yourself.

For this project, I brought out some very early 1900's postcards I have collected for reference. Many of them have lovely illustrations of flowers on them which was the inspiration for her zine.

Hasn't she created a beautiful color palette too?

Using the gelatin plate, she created a series of floral monoprints for her mother.

zine cover, "Flowers for Mother", 13 year old

For this project I had her sue Golden Open Acrylics, just the primary colors along with white. The artist had to work fast but the Open Acrylics gave her a bit more time as they do not dry as quickly.

I love the title of her zine. Although I don't think she calls her mom, 'mother', it seemed appropriate given the old fashion nature of the zine. She chose to write the title in a soft graphite so it could be smudged a bit.

zine page one

It was a joy to watch her as she created this zine. As each print was pulled, she got more and more excited by the work.

zine page two

There were several, "Oh, I really like this one" as she made her prints. 

zine page three

I have to agree. It is hard to pick a favorite from the beautiful floral prints created. I truly love the soft color palette she created. LOVE!

back cover, "a book of monprints, Mother's Day 2016"

I sure hope her mother enjoyed the gift as much as her daughter did making it for her. She was just so pleased at the end when the zine was finished. 

What a lovely little gift she created to give to her mother.

silk scarves for Mother's Day

The elementary class painted silk scarves for their mothers to give them on Mother's Day.

9 year old

There is something so special getting to be apart of the holiday through a child's eye. The kids could not of been more excited about creating something special for their mothers and they took such care with their work. If love could be in an object, these scarves are full to the brim with love, more love, and love to the moon and back. 

6 year old

Each child could create a scarf design of anything they wanted, but they all gravitated to flowers. All of them worked out their sketch on paper prior to transferring it onto the silk, which I had mounted prior to their arrival for class.

10 year old

When they were happy with their flower, I placed a book under the silk for them to be able to trace the flower over and over on the scarf to create a design.

6 year old

Once child just decided to wing it and drew her flowers all freehand and different sizes.

Then they began to add the resist. I had a piece of silk on a hoop for them to practice on until they were confident enough to work on their scarves. Each child put every last bit of resist on those scarves and I could not be more proud of their resilience, as it takes a long time to cover everything in resist.

Then it came time to paint. Oh did they have fun. By the time the hour and a half class was over, all of them had just begun to start their backgrounds on the scarves.

The next week, they spent the entire hour and a half painting. They quickly learned they could force the dye by scrubbing on the silk with the paint brush. They also learned they could create light washes of color by adding more water. And they all loved the process of blending two colors together!

And no silk painting project is complete without adding a bit of the beloved salt.

At one point one of the girls sighed heavily and stated how tired she was from all the work of painting in the scarf. I laughed and reminded her how many nights her mother had gotten up with her, sooooo tired, but never complained because of how much she was loved. The girl smiled, we all laughed, and she went back to work.

They all came out beautifully. I know they will be very cherished by the mothers. In fact, one wrote me the sweetest note on Mother's Day after she opened her gift. She was thrilled and her daughter had been so excited to give it to her, she woke her up at 6am!

6am! Happy Mother's Day!

Once the girls had all finished painting the scarves, I set the dye, washed out the resist and gave them a good iron.

We had a bit of time left at the end of the class and so the girls took the leftover dye and created cards. Honestly it was an afterthought on my part, but they came out beautiful and were works of art in themselves.

Double present for the moms!

Which for at least one mother was a good thing since she was receiving all her goodies and the ungodly hour of 6am.

Happy belated Mother's Day everyone.  

6 year old